Afstan: Informal Conservative/Liberal talks on post-2011 CF mission

Well, here's hoping (via milnews.ca at Milnet.ca):

Tories, Grits talking post-2011 role in Afghanistan; combat off the table

The future of the Afghan mission is quietly being shaped in the corridors and backrooms of Parliament Hill.

Here, some Conservatives and Liberals are having hushed talks about Canada's role in Afghanistan beyond next year, The Canadian Press has learned.

As MPs from all sides try to resolve a long-simmering dispute over access to uncensored Afghanistan detainee documents, parallel albeit passing discussions about the mission are underway in Ottawa.

The overtures aren't formal. People interviewed for this story stressed the talks are more like feelers going out than anything else.

But what arises from these casual chats could have profound implications on Canada's military and civilian functions in Afghanistan.

Parliament passed a motion two years ago to end combat operations in Kandahar by July 2011. But the motion says nothing about staying in other parts of the country [about time the major media started mentioning that key fact]. Prime Minister Stephen Harper added the rider that every Canadian soldier would leave Afghanistan.

Harper is believed to be privately skeptical and worried that Canada has been mired in an endless conflict [more here: 'Not news: PM Harper "an Afghan skeptic"/"Hurl time"'].

Others see it differently.

A senior member of the Conservative caucus said "two or three" top Liberals approached him recently about the Afghanistan quandary.

Tory Senator Hugh Segal, a one-time adviser to Harper who also served as chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, said the overtures started a few months ago.

"I've had at least two or three senior people (from) the Liberal party say that they are more than open-minded to a discussion about a military training presence," he said.

Segal said he has not spoken about this to the prime minister, and he has no formal authority to broker a deal on the Afghan mission. But that hasn't stopped him from having private chats with Grits.

"I've actually had them, off and on, for the last two-and-a-half to three months," Segal said.

"The Liberal caucus people with whom I have spoken are all kind of front-bench people who noticed and asked many questions of the kind you're asking, and who have indicated that they would be open if something were to come in the process," he added.

"But they're people who struck me as reasonably senior in the process."

Both parties seem to be sussing each other out. Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said some Tories have casually approached him to get a read on his party's position on Afghanistan.

"(The) odd Conservative has asked me: 'Where are you guys?' And my answer always has been" 'Look, come up with a proposal, give it to us,'" he said in an interview.

Another senior Liberal told The Canadian Press the party has "tried to be constructive, trying to make it clear to the government we're open to discussions on training."

But so far the Grits have been "surprised by the rigidity of the Harper government."

"It sounds like they want out, period [could that be foreign affairs critic Bob Rae speaking--see end of this post by Terry Glavin]."..

Neither the Conservatives nor Liberals want to keep troops in Kandahar to wage war on the insurgency. Polls indicate about half of Canadians support the mission and half oppose it.

But other, more politically palatable, options are on the table.

Chief among them seems to be moving Canadians up to Kabul to train Afghan security forces from behind the walls of military compounds [more here].

Such a shift would take Canadian soldiers off the front lines of a nine-year mission that has claimed the lives of 141 troops and two civilians.

Beefed up police training is an option.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliot recently said the force has started looking at how to continue the police training mission in Afghanistan after the military pulls out [more here: "Afstan and the government: Politically craven and immorally audacious"].

Another idea is to focus more on development and reconstruction work, in Kandahar or elsewhere. Canadian officials also could be dispatched to clean up the corruption that runs deep in the Afghan government.

Both Liberals and Conservatives seem to agree an ongoing, non-combat role will give Canada some leverage with its NATO allies and some say in the future development of the region...

What an irony it would be if in the end the Liberals effectively shamed the government into agreeing to a post-2011 CF Afghan mission of some sort. I would think that Prof. Amir Attaran, amongst others, would be most disappointed at such an eventuality--and that the pesky detainee docs business would have to be put out of the way first.

It would also be nice, for planning purposes at a minimum, for the CF to get firm political guidance on any future Afghan commitment pretty soon.