The foreign governments stepped softly because they knew Harper had made strong public pronouncements that no Canadian soldiers would remain in Afghanistan after July 2011. One diplomat said, "I wouldn't want to describe it as being pressured or being leaned on. We all know Prime Minister Harper has very clear views about what he wants to do, and a very clear picture of what's going on in Afghanistan, so there's no point in us trying to put pressure. " He added, "We identified fairly early on, if Canada felt it could, taking on some kind of substantive training role to the 2014 mark would be great."
Sources have discovered that Canada, indeed is seriously considering sending 1,000 special personnel to Kabul to bolster NATO training efforts. On Monday, the commander of NATO's training mission in Afghanistan said the alliance faces a shortfall of 900 trainers and, if they don't find enough from member countries, the eventual withdrawal of international troops could be stalled. Those numbers mean Canada has the potential to play a good-guy role in saving NATO's foundering training program. The allies are aware that Canada has sacrificed enough on the front lines of Kandahar but they are still needed in other capacities.
They also courted the support of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his foreign affairs critic, Bob Rae, because they understood that Harper was not prepared to risk his minority government without some political support from across floor of the House of Commons.
"We recognize politically this is not the world's greatest vote winner," said the diplomat, adding the hope that "behind the scenes, the opposition and the government could work something out on this."
Ignatieff said Monday he can't support the Harper government's sudden proposal to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan until he gets all the details. "The devil is in the details. How many troops, for how long, in what role, with what allies, with what mission?" Ignatieff said.
He also said it's clear the Harper government is "scrambling" to respond to international pressure at the 11th hour before a Nov. 18-20 NATO leaders' summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
It is clear Canada's allies would like the training problem, and Canada's future in Afghanistan, to be settled by the time Harper and his fellow NATO leaders meet in Lisbon. Come on Canada, let's help for a while longer. Teach the Afghans to defend themselves, after we are gone, and ferret out terrorists in their own country.
