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Canada PM: Troops home from Afghanistan in 2011
By ROB GILLIES – 1 day ago
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's prime minister vowed Wednesday to pull troops from Afghanistan in 2011, saying for the first time that Canadian forces will leave that country.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has been a steadfast ally of President Bush in the post-Sept. 11 fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, said Canadians do not want to keep soldiers in Afghanistan beyond then and that 10 years of war was enough.
"You have to put an end date on these things," Harper said during a rare breakfast meeting with journalists while making a campaign stop in Toronto. "We intend to end it."
Harper's remarks come as his minority government looks to win support in the upcoming national election.
Canada has lost 97 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan, and the mission — largely unpopular domestically — is likely to be an issue in the campaign.
The Taliban has warned that they plan to step up attacks in the run-up to the Canadian vote.
Harper's pledge goes beyond an agreement Parliament passed in March that stipulated Canada would remove troops from Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar in 2011.
The body of the latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan was brought home Wednesday. Hundreds lined overpasses and waved maple leaf flags as a police motorcade passed along what is known as the "Highway of Heroes."
The stretch of Highway 401 connects a military base in Trenton, Ontario, and a morgue in Toronto. The tribute is repeated every time a fallen soldier returns to Canada.
Harper triggered an early election Sunday by dissolving Parliament in a bid to bolster the Conservative Party's grip on power in an Oct. 14 vote.
Harper says he expects the vote to produce another minority government but recent polls say the Conservatives could win the majority they need to rule without help from opposition parties.
Harper said Wednesday it is not a realistic goal to eradicate the insurgency in Afghanistan by 2011. But he said Canada would continue development assistance for Afghanistan and a small number of troops would likely stay behind to offer technical support to coalition countries that remain.
He said the Afghan mission has been the hardest part of his job as prime minister. He said he has personally called the family of every Canadian soldier who has died during his term.
Canada has 2,500 soldiers in Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold that has emerged as an epicenter of violence. Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. and increased the deployment after declining a U.S. request to dispatch troops to Iraq.
Canada assumed responsibility for Kandahar's security in 2005. Harper said Canada has done its part after serving in Afghanistan's most dangerous province.
"A sovereign government, at some point, has to be primarily responsible for the day-to-day security of the country," he said.
Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, a retired commander formerly in charge of a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Balkans, criticized Harper for announcing a deadline during an election campaign.
MacKenzie said that should only be told to allies in the highest of confidence.
"I don't like deadlines," MacKenzie said. "I don't like announcing deadlines to an enemy force that now says to themselves, 'Well, we're getting rid of the Canadians' so let's turn our strategic attack on some other country.'"
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