Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Afghanistan earlier this week in much the same way as American politicians arrive in Baghdad: unannounced, and under heavy protection. Nothing could be a clearer sign of the hazardous situation on the ground in the impoverished, war-torn country. But yesterday Harper sought to refocus the debate on Afghanistan from the continuing armed conflict to Canada’s humanitarian effort in the country, among other things touring a Canadian-funded school for the underprivileged, where he handed out pencil cases to students. (According to Don Martin in the Post, the amount of money given to the school—$39,500—is the same as the amount of money Canadian International Development Agency Minister Josee Verner spent visiting the school in a photo-op last fall.) At a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Harper denied that his Afghan vacation was an attempt to bolster the Tories’ sagging support in Canada, but Martin tears that denial to shreds. “A strange new pattern of Canadian political behaviour is gaining momentum,” he writes. “When under heavy fire, flee to Kandahar.”

Even as Harper rallies support for Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, his position on the need to fight Taliban forces looks increasingly out of touch with opinion in that part of the world. The Globe leads today with an interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, long considered a key ally of the West in the war on terrorism, who says that talks with the Taliban and other opposition forces in Afghanistan will be necessary to bring peace to the country. Although that goes against the generally held principle among Western governments not to negotiate with terrorists, it apparently echoes the will of Afghanistan’s own parliament. Writing in the Star, Thomas Walkom points out that the upper house of Afghanistan’s parliament voted two weeks ago to end offensive military operations and open talks with the Taliban and other Islamist groups. “If NATO’s days are limited in Afghanistan, then a political deal with the Taliban makes sense for the current Kabul regime,” Walkom writes. “But a power-sharing deal with the Taliban is not something Washington would countenance. [It] would undermine the entire rationale for invading that country.” In other words, it may be that the one thing that can bring peace to Afghanistan is also the one thing that coalition forces there are not willing to do. With a majority of Canadians now opposed to the Afghanistan mission, growing suspicions that the current strategy is achieving few military results, and even Central Asian allies calling for a different approach, one has to wonder what Stephen Harper sees when he takes in the view from Kandahar.

Maisonneuve MediaScout
May 23, 2007