What Afstan is all about

Smack yourself upside the head, Mr President:

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So now it's effectively just about al Qaeda, and basically forget about Afstan itself, its people, and what the Taliban resurgent might do there. Forget about any moral obligation to the country that might result from having been instrumental in forcing out the Taliban regime in 2001. And forget about "common security"; note that there is no mention of NATO or Allies in the answers to David Gregory.

What a scaling down of goals and reasons. And what an excuse to limit any force increases.

And smack your head (sideways?), Mr Kenny (though there is basis for his view of things current):

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The Senator also fails seriously to consider the Afghans (which now seems to be President Obama's position...); even now many Afghans feel betrayed by our intention to withdraw in 2011...

What kind of people are Canadians and the, er, West? Terry Glavin keeps his head steady with some unkind words, some excerpts:

Guns, butter, words, deeds and Afghanistan: Talk sense or shut up, go deep or go home.

It is most heartening to see that the 20-month-old consensus of silence that has united Canada's political leaders on the question of Afghanistan is at long last receiving some public notice. It is a very good thing, even if that attention has to come in such forms as Senator Colin Kenny's ahistorical gibberish about Vietnam, which he now justifies with an exercise in retroactive self-exculpation with the argument that he was just trying to get attention.

The sounds of crickets is all we've heard since the January, 2008 release of the sobering and no-nonsense report of the John Manley panel, which should have provided the basis for a proper public debate about what Canada's role might be at the 2011 term-end of the Afghanistan Compact. Instead, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democrats used the opportunity as a convenient excuse to keep shtum about the whole thing. Even during the last federal election, the politicians were loathe to even mention the name of the country where so many of our soldiers are dying [not by historical standards- MC]...

Among Afghans, the big fear isn't the spectre of Taliban militias rolling across the landscape and recapturing Kabul. It's the stink of a looming betrayal that emanates from the defeatism abroad in rich countries like Canada. It forces a fatal feedback loop into play. It entraps the bravest Afghans - if it's all coming to an end, there's no point in sticking one's neck out. It also fuels the "corruption" that plagues the country - if this isn't going to last, then you might as well get it while the getting's good.

We have no cause to doubt the resolve of the Afghan people. It's our own resolve that's the problem, and while peace in Afghanistan may require more soldiers and firepower, not less, all the troops in the world will do no greater service to the Afghan people and their cause than plain words, spoken in plain language: We will not betray you. We will not abandon you. We will not surrender. We will not retreat.

Any Canadian politician who is not capable of speaking these words clearly and plainly should do the country and the world a favour and just shut the hell up.

Our prime minister and Mr Ignatieff (how he has fallen) in particular. Mr Glavin deals with the Canadian political aspect of Afstan quite knifingly in his post.

Are we all now Italians?