Afghanistan

[jdobbin]

On the second last day of the year, a Canadian soldier is killed in an IED attack.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...l_gam_mostemail

One Canadian Forces soldier was killed and four others were injured outside of Kandahar Sunday shortly after leaving a military outpost.

The highway-bomb attack occurred as a light armoured vehicle was bringing the soldiers away from the front lines for a long-awaited New Year's break, and even as a large group of soldiers were sweeping on foot through Taliban territory and emerged completely unscathed.

After the death of Bhutto, the dangers seem to be even greater.

Democrats are proposing that troops be sent to Pakistan.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5galh4wM...N3guQQD8TR8BB01

The United States should redeploy troops from Iraq, allowing the military to focus on terrorist threats in Pakistan and Afghanistan, New York Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand said Saturday.

"Congress is challenging the administration's strategy in Iraq in favor of a better one that will effectively combat terrorism and create stability in the Middle East," she said during the weekly Democratic radio address. "Time and time again, we voted for a strategy to redeploy troops out of Iraq to leave policing the streets to Iraqis and to focus our mission on anti-terrorism, and we won't give up."

Gillibrand's comments were taped a week earlier, before the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was killed Thursday when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a campaign rally.

Hillier is saying Afghanistan is beachhead in the fight for fighting terrorism.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...jRvA9safYKJxHWQ

he conflict in Afghanistan is about more than simply rehabilitating a small, war-battered country in southwest Asia, says Canada's top general.

Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, says Afghanistan is a beachhead in a larger fight against the kind of international terrorism personified by al-Qaida.

The Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan fighting NATO soldiers, including Canadians, are supported by outside groups who provide money, manpower and expertise, he said.

Hillier said the Taliban, when it ruled Afghanistan, supported international terror by offering a haven for militants far from international scrutiny.

"The Taliban provided that sort of fertile garden in which al-Qaida could do a whole bunch of things that it would not have otherwise been able to do or would have had more difficulty doing," he said in a recent interview.

Without that help, the group might not have been able to pull off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

I think the haven is now Pakistan. I wonder if the Canadian government is going to be drawn into sending troops to Pakistan as well.

Edited December 30, 2007 by jdobbin

[bush_cheney2004]

...I think the haven is now Pakistan. I wonder if the Canadian government is going to be drawn is sending troops to Pakistan as well.

"Drawn in" is an interesting choice of words.....says a lot. Perhaps Canada should ask Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand?