MacKay tells NATO that Canada cannot carry on without help in Kandahar

[Spazito]

OTTAWA (CP) - The Conservative government has bluntly told the secretary general of NATO that the country cannot shoulder the entire burden of fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, Canada's foreign affairs minister said Thursday.

Peter MacKay said he has asked that other members of the alliance send troops to the volatile region, which has claimed the lives of 42 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat.

"My point to him was, we cannot continue to do this without further support," MacKay said in a speech, referring to NATO's Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

"No one country, or even a handful of countries can do all that is necessary to provide the kind of security environment needed."

more

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c7163181-45ea-4d9f-b2ff-140a2255edf6&k=98442

[daleo]

1. Getting ready to cut and run

Which may be the smartest thing to do, but Harper said he wouldn't do so under any circumstances. He must realize his re-election chances are nil if Canadian soldiers are dying at the rate of 10 a month.

[CHIMO]

2. He Backed

The wrong team.

US 'arrogant' in Iraq, says diplomat

A senior American diplomat has told Aljazeera that the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq, but warned that failure would be a disaster for the entire region

"We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism, because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs at the US state department, said in the interview, aired on the Arabic channel late Saturday.

Fernandez also declared that the US was ready to talk with any Iraqi group - except al-Qaeda in Iraq - to end the growing sectarian violence and the continuing insurgency.

"We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day, the hell and the killings in Iraq are linked to an effective Iraqi national reconciliation," he said, speaking in Arabic from Washington.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D335B0DB-EB62-41BC-9433-E531BF800A6C.htm

[oblivious]

3. Former head of British forces: Britain 'risking defeat in Afghanistan'

Field Marshal Sir Peter Inge, the former head of Britain's armed forces, has broken ranks to launch an attack on the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning that British forces risk defeat in Afghanistan.

In one of the strongest interventions in the conduct of the War on Terror, Inge also charged a lack of any 'clear strategy' guiding British operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2574286