National Post
BY MIKE BLANCHFIELD
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PM REJECTS U.K. GENERAL’S ASSESSMENT
Manley echoes warning: NATO needs bigger effort
O T TAWA • The top British commander in Afghanistan said yesterday that Western forces could not defeat the Taliban, an assessment echoed by John Manley, who headed Canada’s independent panel into the mission.
“We’re not going win this war,” Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith told a British newspaper in a report published yesterday. “It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.”
Brig. Carleton-Smith also advocated negotiation with the Taliban insurgents, saying “that shouldn’t make people uncomfortable.”
Brig. Carleton-Smith’s remarks to The Sunday Times of London resounded through the Canadian federal election. NDP leader Jack Layton said the remarks “heartened” him, while the Conservative government brushed them aside.
But in a separate interview with Canwest News Service yesterday, Mr. Manley did not dispute the scenario presented by the general in charge of Britain’s 7,000 troops in Helmand province, which borders Kandahar.
“I don’t think it’s inconsistent with what we said in our report, or at the time of our report: that unless things changed, NATO was in danger of losing,” Mr. Manley said.
Mr. Manley, a former Liberal Foreign Affairs minister and former deputy prime minister, headed the panel struck by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that recommended more NATO troops and equipment.
Mr. Manley’s and Brig. Carleton-Smith’s comments come days after Britain’s ambassador to Kabul was quoted as telling a French diplomat that international efforts were “doomed to fail” as well as the assessment of NATO’s top commander, U.S. General David McKiernan, that “we don’t see progress” and “it might get worse before it gets better.”
Mr. Manley said he is not surprised to hear such warnings.
“The commitment and willingness of NATO to really put their weight behind this mission is still not particularly evident as far as I can see,” Mr. Manley said.
He said NATO committed as many troops to both Bosnia and Kosovo as it has to Afghanistan, a country with more than 10 times the population of each of those Balkan states, and one with much poorer infrastructure and far rougher terrain.
NATO countries also placed caveats on their troops in Kosovo, he said, “but they were generally a tool to ensure governments were consulted before their forces were used in particular ways” and were generally waived.
“That’s not the case in Afghanistan. Quite a few countries are prepared to be there as long as they’re not engaged in anything too difficult,” said Mr. Manley.
Brig. Carleton-Smith said only a political settlement could end the continuing carnage in Afghanistan.
“We want to change the nature of the debate from one where disputes are settled through the barrel of a gun to one where it is done through negotiations,” the general said.
“If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that’s precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this. That shouldn’t make people uncomfortable.”
While campaigning in St. John’s yesterday Mr. Layton called the general’s remarks a validation for the NDP’s position that negotiating with the Taliban was not an unreasonable proposition.
“I’m heartened, actually, by the words of this senior military commander, who is adding his voice to those many, many Canadians and others around the world, who believe that the prosecution … of the war effort has got to be changed,” Mr. Layton said.
The NDP leader said he favoured the creation of special regional groups that would target peace talks and push for greater aid and development, one in which Canada would play a greater role but only when its combat troops were brought home.
“There’s got to be a new path,” he said, citing “increased drug production, the increased civilian deaths, the increased soldiers’ deaths, including Canadian soldiers, and other problems.”
Mr. Layton accused Mr. Harper of dismissing critics of the war in a “disrespectful or inappropriate manner.”
“It also shows that Stephen Harper’s approach to foreign policy is simplistic.”
Asked to comment on Brig. Carleton-Smith’s remarks, a senior Conservative spokesman said, “We don’t agree with that assessment.”
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said negotiation with less-hardened elements of the Taliban remained the prerogative of the Afghanistan government.
A Conservative backbencher, James Moore, told CTV’s Question Period: “The Afghan mission, I think, has been a success. It’s not an easy mission, and we’ve been straightforward with the Canadian people about that.”
Mr. Harper’s spokesman, Kory Teneycke, declined an interview request yesterday.
“You measure progress in very small increments in a place like Afghanistan,” Mr. Manley said.
He agreed that negotiating with the Taliban would have to take place.
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British experts? On Afghanistan?
Maybe I should remind the British of what happened to Sir Alexander Burnes.
or maybe I should mention the very British approach taken by William Hay Macnaighten.
What a disgrace. Bargaining with people who want to kill you gets you nothing, but dead.
Maybe I should remind the British of the events of January 1, 1842.
Enough said.
They know nothing but loss. You would expect little more from them.
This 'sky is falling' general also fails to appreciate the Taliban seeking out US/British and Afghan support to dump al-qaida and work with the Afghan government. THAT is winning, not losing and that is happening because of US policies in place now.
Taliban
al qaida
Afghanistan
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