Obama, the Taliban and Thomas Walkom--and the prime minister

A letter of mine in the Toronto Star:

Apr 06, 2009 04:30 AM

Re: Obama's Afghan quagmire, April 4
...
Thomas Walkom writes, "Like Harper these days, Obama carefully does not talk of defeating the Taliban." Not quite. This is what he said in a March 27 speech: "There is an uncompromising core of the Taliban. They must be met with force, and they must be defeated." If only the prime minister would make that point to the Canadian people.

Mark Collins, Ottawa

Mr Harper unfortunately does seem to lean towards the Walkom misrepresentation of the president's policy. This is what the prime minister said on March 29:

...You may notice the (Obama) administration is much more clear on eliminating al-Qaida than eliminating the Taliban...

Oh dear, dear, dear.