Editorial

What to do about Afghanistan

Canadian Liberal Party honcho Stephane Dion recently visited Afghanistan. The Afghan government people received him politely, but afterward President Hamid Karzai made no bones about his disapproval of the Liberal pledge to end Canada’s military commitment to the NATO mission there in 2009.
It’s a moot point if the Liberals don’t get elected, of course. But the question faces whatever government does.
Karzai has a point. Suppose the Liberals do win the next election and Dion makes good on his promise. Say other NATO countries don’t pull up the slack and the security situation worsens. The Taliban – whoever they are – could regain control of much of the territory vacated by the Canadians. Such an outcome would certainly bad for Afghanistan, excepting those who prefer a medieval religious tyranny in which women are all but imprisoned and anyone who moves out of step with the regime’s narrow concept of appropriate behaviour risks a beating or worse.
But would Canada be worse off? Why are we there anyway?
The reasoning once was that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. were dreamed up in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. We went in there to root out those rogues so they couldn’t get back into business – at least not there.
Six years on, it seem far less certain that there is any danger to Canada or its allies from Afghanistan in particular. Afghanistan was only incidentally involved in terror export anyway. But we stay there, propping up the Karzai regime regardless.
What we’re hoping for, apparently, is that the elected government of Afghanistan will be able to take over its own security. But how long will that take? Surely there must be some time limit, after which we can’t reasonably expected to send young men and women over there to die in roadside bombing attacks.
Whenever the end comes, it will be a hard decision, because Afghanistan will never be secure. Even if fundamentalist Muslim fanaticism did not play a role, tribes that have always distrusted each other and always vied for power will surely continue doing that. Why should Canadians have to keep dying to keep one group in power?
We have to consider, though, that in pulling out we very likely will be condemning ordinary people to much suffering they don’t deserve. In Afghanistan, the wolves are always at the door.
But wolves are at the door in countries and regions all over the world. Whether to do something about it or not will always be the dilemma countries like Canada face. Sometimes, any decision is a bad one – at least for someone.
Sooner or later, we’ll have to make it clear to whoever happens to be running Afghanistan that they have to take over whatever job we’re doing there. Period. It can’t go on indefinitely.