Afstan: Continuing CF presence?

Well, well, well, one does wonder why Matthew Fisher (more here and here) of Canwest News buried this at the very end of story on another sad matter--good on Norman Spector's assiduous reading :

...

More bets here

--What Canwest is reporting

Road bomb fells 'gentle giant'

Harper has said that all Canadians troops will leave the country by the end of next year.

However, talks are ongoing with NATO about whether a smaller number of Canadians might participate in a new, much less risky mission that would begin next year...

Now surely anyone talking with NATO has some sort of government blessing? In any event more on our political manoeuvring here and here.