Canada’s leader wants Marshal Plan for Afghanistan
By Latafat Ali Siddiqui
OTTAWA, Dec. 7: Canada’s main opposition leader Stéphane Dion said here on Wednesday he'll have little patience for the rising death toll of Canadian troops in Afghanistan unless there is progress in making that country more secure.
Dion, who won Liberal party’s leadership race only last week, said Canada must push its allies to build a ‘Marshall Plan’ to rebuild the economy of the strife-torn country, because the current strategy of focusing on combat against the Taliban was not achieving results.
“I cannot give a deadline, but I will not have a lot of patience if I see that we are risking the lives of our soldiers and civilians without any result for the security of the people of Afghanistan,” Dion said in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper. “It's an assessment I will do day after day, but I want a result.”
Dion said the Canadian presence in Afghanistan means Canada's military cannot contribute in other parts of the world, so it must be effective. A professional review needs to be done, he said, and Canada must push all nations involved in Afghanistan to assemble a major rebuilding and economic development plan.
“Can we have a kind of Marshall Plan as we have done in Europe, in Japan, in Singapore, in Taiwan, in so many countries before that?” he asked. “We need to stop being neo-conservative. You need to believe in the role of the government to help an economy to be built. For that we need a Liberal government.”
A key problem in the nation, he said, was the proliferation of the opium poppy crop which now makes up half of the Afghan economy, and provides money for the Taliban's operations. Canadian troops can't just focus on fighting Taliban militants who slip over a porous border with Pakistan, he said.
“There's no use for us to try to kill the Taliban in every corner of every mountain and to risk the lives of our soldiers in this way,” he said.
The Liberal government committed troops to Kandahar because they were told Canada was needed for a transition from a US mission to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation, he said, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended the Canadian presence to 2009 without explaining what the mission would be.
Dion had harsh words for that move, saying Harper should have obtained the prior agreement of other nations to contribute more.
“Why he didn't make the first step [and say], ‘If I stay two years more, I want to know what you guys will do'?” Dion asked. “He did it for partisan reasons. To embarrass us, to divide us in the House (of Commons), when it was such a dangerous and important reason for the country.”
Still, Dion said he would not abruptly pull the Canadian troops because that would further unsettle Afghanistan. “How would they feel if, in doing that, without any preparation, you are increasing the danger of the population,” he said. “It's not easy to get out.”
