A Misguided Mission That Is Destined To Fail

Some of the limited allocated time will go, as it must, to paying tribute to our soldiers. But part of the opposition rhetoric will be devoted to deflecting the Harper strategy, copied from George W. Bush, of equating criticism of politicians with disloyalty to the troops. It is now clear that Gen. Hillier and the Paul Martin Liberals have been less than honest about what they've got us into in Afghanistan. Our 2,300 troops are part of a "multinational operation" in which we are the only nation, the Dutch and the British having delayed their deployments. We are part of a NATO operation that doesn't quite exist. We are working for, and under, the U.S. command. That's no sin until you realize what Ottawa has committed our troops to. The twin tasks assigned them — beating back the Taliban's guerrilla warfare, and eradicating opium — are misguided and, for the most part, destined to fail. Our soldiers will inherit the ill-will generated by Americans in the last four years of failed attempts at finding Osama bin Laden, using such obtuse tactics as terrorizing entire villages with scary nighttime raids, mass arrests and with little care for civilian deaths. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1144446612409&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist969907621513

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