Pentagon Official's Statement Supports "Still Looking at Options" Message for Post-2011 Mission

Bruce at Flit spotted this in a Spencer Ackerman post:

“(Michèle Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy) said that the administration is in ongoing dialogue with Canada and the Netherlands, two allied countries scheduled to remove their troops from Afghanistan in 2010, about possible continued contributions to the war effort. “All options are still on the table in discussion,” Flournoy said.”

Zat right? Thanks to Google, I found a bit more on this, courtesy of Reuters:

The new deployments will be partly offset by planned withdrawals by allies, with the Netherlands and Canada planning to pull out their combat forces of 2,100 and 2,800 troops in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Flournoy said discussions were underway about the future roles of Canada and the Netherlands in the country. She did not rule out a future military role but appeared to suggest other options were also under discussion.

“We are still in dialogue with them about the nature of their contributions going forward. And we very much hope that they will continue to stay with us and find a way to continue to contribute to the mission,” she said.

Asked whether this could involve some military role, she said: “I think all options are still on the table and discussion.”

Suggested MSM headline: “Pentagon Policy Boss Says “All Options are Still on the Table” for Future Canadian Mission in Afghanistan”

Even if this DOES reinforce the PM's “we’re still looking at our options” message stream, it WOULD be nice to hear more from our folks.

Hat tip to Bruce for the first spot.

(also cross posted at MILNEWS.ca)