Karzai wants Cdns to stay in Afghanistan

Canadian Press via Sun Media ^ | 2007-09-18 | (wire service)

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KABUL (CP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is appealing to Canadians to continue to fight terrorism in his country.

Karzai said he is aware of the controversy in Canada about the country's role in the war, but his central Asian nation won't be ready to stand on its own by the time Canada's current combat mandate ends in February 2009.

"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself and that day is not going to be in 2009," Karzai told Canadian journalists brought to Kabul from the Canadian base at Kandahar Airfield to meet with him Tuesday.

Karzai said that by helping Afghanistan, Canada is making the world a safer place - "Canada included."

Afghanistan cannot afford for Canada to withdraw its roughly 2,500 troops, he said. "Look around and see that the enemy is not yet finished; it is not yet defeated."

"Therefore, it is our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism and we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"If we do not, it will become a base for them again. There are elements, there are hands working to do that once again and we must not allow it."

Karzai said all of the evils that existed before the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001 would return and the country would descend into anarchy.

In Canada, the federal Conservatives support extending the current mandate but the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois are opposed. The NDP wants Canadian troops withdrawn immediately from the war-torn country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the current mission would continue only if his minority Conservative government could get a consensus in Parliament. He has no plans for a vote on the issue in the near future.

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[fanfan]

[Candor7]

We've been invited to stay, unlike the crass Americans who the Afghanis must "put up with."

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn't it. ( sarc.)

Good PR for Harper though, to wiggle in the face of the Liberal moonbats who want to run Canada again, into the ground.

I am glad Cnada will stay for the long haul.

We need Canadians who have combat experience to train our soldiers as the military ramps up its answer to Russian expansion into the Canadian Arctic.