Afganhistan - The Real Facts

Not the "facts" that the left wing peaceniks, bush bashers and political opportunists would have you believe.......

EDITORIAL: A reality check on Afghanistan

No doubt many Canadians were surprised yesterday to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper appearing before the United Nations General Assembly to talk about Canada's military role in Afghanistan.

What, they might well ask, was our PM doing addressing the UN about that country?

After all, isn't Afghanistan, just like Iraq, "George Bush's war" as we've been told ad nauseam by various NDP, Bloc and Liberal politicians? And isn't Harper just following in lock-step with Bush in Afghanistan? Uh ... no and no.

Unlike Iraq, the UN has sanctioned the ongoing military mission in Afghanistan, undertaken by the 37-member NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has about 20,000 soldiers, 2,300 from Canada.

And yes, the U.S. is also a member of ISAF.

So are -- ready? -- Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Note the presence of France and Germany.

Not in Iraq, in Afghanistan -- just like Canada.

Note the presence of Sweden and Switzerland.

Not exactly war-loving, imperialist nations -- just like Canada.

That said, it is time for more ISAF members to put more troops on the front lines in Kandahar, where our soldiers are fulfilling the ISAF mission of "assisting the Afghan government (which has requested this help) in extending and exercising its authority and influence across the country, creating the conditions for stabilization and reconstruction."

As Harper noted yesterday, it's hard to reconstruct a country, if, say, every time you build a school, the Taliban blow it up.

Finally for those opposition MPs complaining that Harper cares only about our military role in Afghanistan and not humanitarian efforts, Canada is contributing almost $1 billion over 10 years in development assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Just thought you'd like to know.