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OTTAWA — Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor laid out a speedy timetable Sunday for Canada's departure from the Afghanistan front lines, saying up to 3,000 Afghan troops are being trained over the next five months to take over the heavier fighting.
Mr. O'Connor made the prediction Sunday as concern over the mission threatens to reach new heights in Quebec with the recent deployment of the famed Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment, also known as the Vandoos.
Speaking on CTV's Question Period, he said the training of Afghan soldiers over the next four or five months will allow Canadians to take on a reserve role some time near the end of the Vandoos' tour, which concludes next February.“We're hoping that by the end of this rotation ... the so-called Vandoos rotation, we'll have about 3,000 Afghan Army operating in the Kandahar province,” he said.
“And as we train more and more of the Afghan army to carry out their own operations, we will continue to withdraw. With more emphasis on training … at some stage [we'll] basically be in reserve.”
A Canadian soldier from the NATO-led coalition walks through the village of Hajano Kali in Arghandab district, southern Afghanistan July 9, 2007. Canada is financing the rebuilding of a war-damaged mosque in the village as part of its Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) mandate, aimed at winning the 'hearts and minds' of Afghan civilians. REUTERS/ (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)
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Mr. O'Connor said that if all goes according to plan, it will mean a reduction in Canadian combat duties. So far, 66 Canadian soldiers have died in the conflict.
The mission is slated to end in February, 2009, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said it will only be extended if a consensus of parliamentary parties can be reached. He said that one Canadian-trained Afghan battalion is already seeing action and that Canadians will train four or five more.
Asked whether he was concerned that potential casualties from the Vandoos might undermine the mission and harm the Conservatives' standing in Quebec, Mr. O'Connor couldn't say.
“I hope not. I always hope against hope that we won't have casualties,” he said. “But our soldiers, no matter where they are [from] in Canada, whether they're from Edmonton or the Atlantic or Gagetown [N.B.] or Quebec City, our soldiers, they're all professionals.
“They're all volunteers and they know what they've got to do and they'll carry it out regardless of where they're from or what language they speak.”
The minister's suggestion that the Afghan army would be adequately trained by the new year was scoffed at, both by opposition members and academics.
Wesley Wark, an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, said the minister is being exceedingly optimistic.
“The reality is it takes years to train a fully functioning army,” Prof. Wark said.
He suggested that the Conservative government may be trying to soften the focus of the mission to persuade Parliament to extend Canadian involvement beyond 2009. The government may also be trying to persuade the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of the need to begin bringing in troops from other nations to take part in the dangerous Kandahar theatre.
Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said Mr. O'Connor's suggestion reminds him of a similar one made by U.S. President George W. Bush, who pledged to train the Iraqi army to take over once its soldiers left.
“We know what happened,” he said.
Mr. Coderre said the Canadian position looks increasingly confused and added that any suggestion of the Vandoos not being involved in combat is patently false. “You and me both know that there will be combat.”
Last week, a report from a British House of Commons defence committee concluded that it will be difficult for the Afghans to shoulder the burden, at least initially.
James Arbuthnot, the chair of the committee, said in Question Period that the number of the Afghan soldiers is small and, for now, individuals can make more money in the narcotics trade than through the armed forces.
“… It's going to be a long-term project and we cannot be impatient and expect to succeed. Impatience doesn't work in Afghanistan.”
