[R-G] CANADA:Pro-U.S. Panel Was Key in Extending Afghan Mission

[Anthony Fenton]

CANADA:  Pro-U.S. Panel Was Key in Extending Afghan Mission
By Jon Elmer
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41657

VANCOUVER, Mar 19 (IPS) - Buoyed by the recommendations of a  
government-appointed blue-ribbon panel, Canada's parliament last week  
approved a motion to extend its combat mission in Afghanistan until  
the end of 2011.

The outcome of the motion was effectively predetermined, as the two  
largest parties in the House of Commons -- the Liberals and the  
governing Conservatives -- agreed on the wording of the resolution in  
the weeks leading up to the vote.

Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay called the vote "historic"  
and applauded the "bipartisan consensus" it achieved. Liberal leader  
Stephane Dion characterised the resolution as "basically the Liberal  
motion on Afghanistan".

The political debate about the motion to extend the mission was shaped  
by the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan, a  
study group appointed by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper  
and led by former Liberal Foreign Affairs minister John Manley.

The Manley Panel, as it came to be known, was created by the prime  
minister in October 2007 and foreshadowed the importance of the  
parliamentary vote on Afghanistan, which took place within the context  
of a Conservative minority government. Without approval from the  
Liberal members of parliament, the Conservative confidence motion  
would not have passed, thus bringing down the government and forcing a  
federal election.

For their part, the Liberals were hard-pressed to vote against the  
Afghanistan intervention given that it was Liberal governments that  
brought Canada into the mission in 2001 and into the heart of the  
counterinsurgency war in Kandahar in 2005.

The motion passed 198-77, with the New Democratic Party and Bloc  
Quebecois in opposition. NDP leader Jack Layton criticised a "carte  
blanche" the motion afforded and urged Canadians to "remember this  
during elections".

During the vote, protestors in the House of Commons public gallery  
chanted "end it, don't extend it", while demonstrations against the  
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took place in more than 20 cities across  
Canada on Saturday.

While the Manley Panel was bipartisan in affiliation, its members  
shared an essential vision of the importance of Canada's integration  
with the United States. Stephen Clarkson, a professor of political  
economy at the University of Toronto, told IPS that the panel "was  
clearly selected on the basis of reliably delivering a pro-U.S  
interpretation of the Canadian interest".

The panel included three senior officials from the era of conservative  
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, including Derek Burney, a key architect  
of the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement; Jake Epp, a  
former cabinet minister and oil executive; and Paul Tellier, former  
head of the Canadian National Railway and Bombardier Inc.

The fifth panel member, former journalist Pamela Wallin, recently  
served as the Canadian Consul General in New York. For his part,  
Manley's significant efforts to integrate Canada-U.S. security  
apparatuses with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge after the  
attacks on New York and Washington on Sep. 11, 2001 earned him TIME  
Magazine Canada's "Newsmaker of the Year" in December 2001.

"They are all either conservative Liberals, or Conservatives who have  
an involvement in the United States-Canada relationship," said  
Clarkson, who has written extensively on U.S.-Canadian political and  
economic relations and is the author of "Uncle Sam and Us".

"Since Canada's role in Afghanistan is so obviously connected to  
Ottawa's desire to please Washington, it was very unlikely they would  
recommend anything other than staying in Afghanistan," he said.

Shortly after the publication of the panel's report, the Manley  
committee's executive director, Elissa Goldberg, was appointed  
Canada's top civilian representative in Kandahar, where she said she  
will be facilitating the "overall leadership and strategic direction"  
of Canada's mission.

The significance of the report on the outcome of the vote was clear.  
Defence Minister Peter MacKay immediately pointed to the "important  
work of the Manley Panel [which] formed the basis for members of  
parliament to draw upon." Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier called the  
report "key" to the vote and said it was "appreciated internationally".

Bernier told reporters on parliament hill that the motion allowed the  
prime minister to go to the upcoming NATO summit in Bucharest "with a  
strong mandate in his pocket". The Bucharest meeting is considered an  
important strategy session for NATO, as the security conditions  
continue to deteriorate in Afghanistan.

The motion which passed in parliament stated that the "extension of  
Canada's military presence in Afghanistan is approved by this House  
expressly on the condition that NATO secure a battle group of  
approximately 1,000 to rotate into Kandahar, no later than February  
2009."

The parliamentary extension also calls for Canada to secure transport  
helicopters and improved unmanned aerial surveillance drones,  
something the Manley Panel also recommended to reduce the number of  
casualties of Canadian soldiers. Since 2002, 82 Canadians have been  
killed in Afghanistan; 31 of the last 33 combat fatalities resulting  
from roadside bombs.

Speaking at a conference of senior government officials and  
policymakers in Brussels on Sunday, MacKay pushed his request for  
additional NATO troops in Canada's area of responsibility: "Come up  
with a thousand troops and you get to keep 2,500," he said, referring  
to the number of Canadian troops stationed in Kandahar.

U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that he intends to use  
the Bucharest summit to persuade allies to ramp-up the fight in the  
south. "We're mindful of their request, and we want to help them meet  
that request," President Bush said of the Canadian contingency.

Retired Canadian Major-General Terry Liston told IPS that the troop  
request is simply a political gesture, far short of what NATO generals  
on the ground say is required. "Just in Kandahar province, according  
to American [counterinsurgency] doctrine you'd need about 16,000  
soldiers," he said. "It's a drop in the bucket, the 1,000."

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the so-called fighting season in  
Afghanistan, the United States has sent and additional 3,600 Marines  
on a seven-month deployment to southern Afghanistan. The Marines,  
about half of whom have already arrived in the country, will operate  
under Canadian Major-General Marc Lessard and NATO's Regional Command  
South, which includes Helmand and Kandahar provinces -- the heart of  
the Afghan insurgency.

A report of the United Nations secretary-general earlier this month  
detailed a sharp increase in insurgent activity in 2007, an average of  
566 incidents a month compared with 425 a month in 2006. Data from the  
United States Central Command indicates a concurrent rise in NATO and  
U.S. airstrikes during that same period – 2,926 bombs dropped in 2007  
up from 1,770 in 2006. More than 8,000 people were killed last year,  
including at least 1,500 civilians, the U.N. said.

(END/2008)