The priorities moving past 2011 for Canada ought to include building up Afghanistan's civil society, investing in education and upgrading the country's shockingly low literacy rate, and training Afghan security forces to protect gains, CASC's Vision document states (Look for it on our website shortly!). Olivia Ward writes a summary of CASC's findings in the Toronto Star:

Canada should not be shy about using its influence to pressure the Afghan government toward democracy, according to Terry Glavin, lead author of the report, being released Tuesday in Ottawa.

"What people told us was not to be (afraid) of treading on Afghan sovereignty," Glavin said. "We must tell the president that rule of law is important."...

"When we debate the army leaving Afghanistan, we forget that the root cause of the conflict is lack of development, aid and education," said Banerjee, who led the CIDA mission in Kabul 2003 to 2006.

"In the (UN) human development index, Afghanistan is going down. But security and development go together, which is why Afghans feel so helpless."

After 2011, he said, Canada should loosen its ties with Kandahar, where the troops are based.

MacKenzie said resettling development away from turbulent southern Afghanistan would be possible but moving Canadian Forces would be difficult and costly.

After 2011, he said, Canada should focus on training, mentoring Afghan troops and maintaining reconstruction teams.

The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee is about to unveil its vision for Canada's role in Afghanistan post-2011. It's time to put aside this irrelevant debate about detainees and get to the real conversation about how to meet Canada's strategic objectives. An excerpt from the Montreal Gazette:

The document takes no issue with the plan to withdraw Canada's battle group from Afghanistan at the end of 2011.

But what many have missed, Glavin said, is that Canada's development and aid package in Afghanistan is also due to expire at the end of 2011.

Yet Parliament is "paralyzed. Nobody knows what to do," Glavin said. Instead, MPs are engaging in an "elaborate work-avoidance activity" focused on the treatment of Afghan detainees more than three years ago.

"We need to have a new conversation in this country about a new mission," Glavin said. "We have to think about 2011 as the beginning of something, not the end of it."

Canada's mission in Afghanistan is the biggest thing the country has done militarily since the Korean War, he said.

"Are we going to turn that legacy into the greatest shame and embarrassment?

"We need to sharply refocus our objectives in Afghanistan. What are we there for? Why did all those soldiers die? How are we going to finish the job?"

To find out, the committee — made up of human-rights activists, Afghan-Canadians, academics, writers and journalists — consulted more than 100 organizations and individuals in Canada and Afghanistan.

"Everyone we talk to says, 'democracy,' " said Glavin. "Anything that gets in the way of that, we have to go through it like a wolf in a flock of sheep."

Canadian Forces have gained invaluable experience and up-close understanding of how to conduct operations in the utterly challenging security environment in Afghanistan. Our PRTs provide real benefits to the civilian population, along with the boots on the ground that have provided protection for these efforts. But will all that hard-earned experience be lost with a Canadian pullout post-2011? It doesn't need to happen.

In the Ottawa Citizen, Roland Paris lays out a basis for Canada's continued involvement alongside our ISAF and Afghan allies:

In yesterday's throne speech the federal government reiterated its plan to end Canada's military mission in Afghanistan next year. No one can fault Canadians for wanting to conclude this long, costly deployment. But by leaving behind a small contingent of troops to help train the Afghan Army, Canada could make a modest but vital contribution to the ongoing NATO operation.

Building Afghan security forces is central to NATO's disengagement strategy. The alliance hopes that the current "surge" of U.S. troops will reverse the insurgency's momentum and buy time to increase the size and capability of Afghan forces, thus making it possible to hand off the lead responsibility for security to Afghan army and police units, province by province, district by district.

Whether this plan will succeed or fail remains to be seen, but in a universe of bad options, it offers the best prospects for gradually ending NATO's massive Afghan mission in a responsible manner. (An irresponsible strategy, by contrast, would be to withdraw all NATO forces precipitously. Doing so would be a recipe for renewed civil war whose destructiveness would likely dwarf the guerrilla conflict now underway.)...

  Conditions have changed since March 2008. NATO urgently needs trainers now. The Canadian forces that are scheduled to leave Kandahar next year cannot simply be "replaced" by Afghan forces, as the March 2008 motion anticipated. The time has come for our party leaders to consider a new motion -- one that recognizes that Canada can still make important military contributions to the international mission, even after we withdraw the bulk of our forces from Afghanistan.

The OMLT's mission is a risky job: mentors must travel with their Afghan units, even into combat. But it is also an important task -- one that can be performed by a relatively small Canadian contingent.

The Canadian chairman of the Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission who blocked the fraud-plagued first round in last year's Afghan presidential elections will join the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee on a growing panel of hard-hitting speakers in Ottawa on March 9.

Grant Kippen was a UN appointee to the ECC when it forced a second round in last year's elections, heading off a possibly fatal political crisis in the country. Now, Afghan president Hamid Karzai has decreed that all ECC appointees will be made by the presidential palace.

Mr. Kippen brings vast experience and expertise to the “Canada and Afghanistan: Keeping Our Promises” event, hosted by the Free Thinking Film Society at the National Archives Hall in Ottawa. At the event, CASC will unveil its "Keeping Our Promises" vision for a renewed Canadian mission in Afghanistan post-2011.

His Excellency Jawed Ludin, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, also agreed to join the panel earlier this week. Ludin has outlined the systemic challenges facing the Karzai government in tackling corruption, the security challenge and economic obstacles, noting the solutions will come in partnership with the international community.

Other panelists and speakers at the event are Major-General (Ret’d) Lewis Mackenzie; Ehsanullah Ehsan, Director of the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre in Kandahar City; Nasrine Gross, Afghan-American writer and human rights activist; Dr. Nipa Banerjee, currently a professor of international development at the University of Ottawa and former head of CIDA in Afghanistan (2003-2006); Dr. Douglas Bland, Chair of the Defence Management Studies Program at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University; CASC co-founders Lauryn Oates, a human rights and gender equity activist, and Terry Glavin, author and journalist.

The event will also raise funds for the Canadian International Learning Foundation and its collaboration with the Afghan School Project in Kandahar.

Event Details

March 9, 2010, 7:00 pm
National Archives/Library of Canada, 395 Wellington St., Ottawa
Tickets: $30 regular admission, $15 students

* Purchase tickets online:
http://www.canilf.org/news/

* Purchase tickets in person:
Ottawa Folklore Centre (1111 Bank Street, Ottawa)
Compact Music (190 Bank; 7851 ½ Bank Street, Ottawa) 

Media Contacts

Jonathon Narvey, CASC Board Secretary
Phone (604) 230.2638 Email jnarvey@afghanistan-canada-solidarity.org

Brian Platt, CASC Outreach Coordinator
Phone (604) 754.2413 Email b.t.a.platt@afghanistan-canada-solidarity.org

Fred Litwin, CASC Ottawa Contact / Free Thinking Film Society of Ottawa Executive Director
Phone (613) 261.9060 Email fred.litwin@afghanistan-canada-solidarity.org 

An e-Conference Dialogue
March 11, 2010
8am-11pm EST

The CIC has embarked on a major foreign policy mapping initiative for 2010. The Global Positioning Strategy (GPS) Project will generate and disseminate fresh perspectives and ideas about Canada’s priorities in international affairs both in the short term, as we prepare to host the G8 and the G20 meetings next summer, and beyond.

The GPS e-Conference Series presents a unique opportunity for everyone concerned about Canada’s international roles, responsibilities and activities to get involved with the GPS Project by sharing their views and opinions with experts and each other online, providing a public feed-in mechanism for the GPS report. The CIC urges all CIC members and friends to participate.

Key discussion questions include:

• How should a successful mission in Afghanistan be defined?
• Should NATO continue to be the vehicle through which Canada makes contributions to international security missions?
• What have we learned from Canada's experience in dealing with deeply fractured societies?
• What has Afghanistan taught us about the role of development in conflict?

The GPS project is looking for the input of students, academics, professionals, and interested Canadians.

> Click here to register to engage with our network of experts and interested Canadians (www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/gps <http://www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/gps> ).

If you have any questions, please contact econference@canadianinternationalcouncil.org.

The Taliban are not merely a movement -- they are a mindset. They can be found not only along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier, but in our own communities, universities and public spaces. An Afghan women explains in the Globe and Mail. An excerpt:

As an Afghan woman, I've known the Taliban since before I was born. My mother knew them, and my grandmother knew them. I've had Taliban encounters in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Canada, as well as other countries. I have known the Taliban a long time. Only now they have a name. And only now, the rest of the world also knows their name.

The Taliban are a state of mind. Taliban can be and are found anywhere in the world, anywhere where the ideology of misogyny spreads its seeds uninhibited. Being a Talib demands adherence to no particular faith, no ethnicity, no nationality.

When I was studying in a university outside of Afghanistan, I had a law professor who issued a statement decreeing that female students would not be allowed to join the Afghan Student's Council because they cause immorality among the male students. For me, this professor was a Taliban.

Talibanization can even cross gender lines. I know an Afghan émigré in Coquitlam, B.C. She has dyed hair and wears short skirts, interacting seemingly seamlessly in Canadian society, while she devotes her spare time to arranging her adult son's marriage to a teenage girl so that there might be a permanent servant in her home. Don't be fooled by those who are modernized, beautiful, and educated. Inside, you might still find a Talib.

Afghan women have lived amidst the Taliban mindset for generations. This mindset was responsible for telling my mother, growing up in Kabul in the late 1960s, that she shouldn't study because she was a woman. She was unable to continue her education because her aunt found it of less value than a woman who could clean a house and cook well, and believed schooling was a distraction – ultimately a waste of time, and worse, something that risked corrupting women's minds...

When I came to Canada, I found freedom, and perhaps more importantly, hope. I was free to pursue an education, free to plan and dream. I adjusted to my new home. But I still have not adjusted to the support I have found among Canadians for the Taliban state of mind. It made me sad to see that in a free and modern society, there remain those who excuse an ideology based on the hatred of women, by citing multiculturalism. And they are not Afghans, or even immigrants, but those born in Canada who somehow think that the abuse of women and a fundamentalist view of the world, are acceptable among Afghans, and so no intervention is required. But remember that among Afghans, women can also be found. Have you remembered to ask whether the Taliban represent their culture?

I have found that no matter how far away I go, I still live under the shadow of the Taliban. Not only has the ideology immigrated to Canada in parts of the Afghan communities here, it has also immigrated into the minds of Canadians in their tacit acceptance of a future for Afghanistan that includes the Taliban in power.

I have found little acknowledgment among Canadians of the damage that the Taliban did to the women of my country. There is little understanding of the legacy of the Taliban's five year regime in Afghanistan: a government premised on the systematic oppression of women.

It hurts further when I hear the Taliban as being equated with Afghans. That is a terrible mistake, and offensive to me as a Muslim and as a woman. The Taliban have never represented Afghans and to believe this is to succumb to the propaganda and the fear the Taliban seek to impose. The Taliban represent backwardness and ignorance.

Coming back to the question, how to Taliban-proof Afghanistan, my answer is that first we must acknowledge what they represent, then find the antidote. The antidote to backwardness and ignorance is education. But first Canadians will need to educate themselves, to truly learn about the enemy that Afghans, and now Canadians, face and to recognize it as the danger that it really is. Ask an Afghan woman, she can tell you.

Fereshta is an Afghan-Canadian who lives in Vancouver. She is writing under a pen name for the protection of her family.