Now that Parliament's adjournment has put a temporary pause to the debate on Afghan detainees, Canadians can turn their attention to another Afghan topic that deserves equally serious attention but has been largely ignored: how this country can respond to U.S. President Barack Obama's new “counter-insurgency” policy in Afghanistan.
The policy's basic premise is that an additional 30,000 troops can create conditions within the next 18 months that will halt the Taliban's growing influence. Central to the strategy is the focus on protecting civilians, mainly in the south where Canadians have been engaged, and the subtext is the assumption that the government of Afghanistan will reform itself sufficiently within this period to provide Afghans with enough trust and confidence that they will reject the Taliban.
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