Students in the second round of photography classes funded by the Canadian Embassy in Kabul graduated on June 8. Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie welcomed the students who were among the first visitors to the new embassy building.

Watch CASC's Terry Glavin on CTV, discussing the latest Taliban brutality against women and children in Afghanistan:

The overwhelming majority of Afghans want and believe in the notion that girls should be able to go to school, that women should be able to go to work, to run for and hold political office. The Taliban is despised by the vast majority of the country and it seems to me Canadians should start talking very seriously about what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan post-2011.

Hello CASC Members

"We have an obligation to see this thing through," Rae said. "The door is open to serious discussion in Canada — and between Canada and NATO — about what the future looks like."

There is now an opportunity for a full parliamentary debate in both chambers — not a narrow partisan debate, but a broad, multi-partisan, national interest debate — where proposals for the mix of forces and civilians deployed to Afghanistan can be openly and frankly discussed.

While many Canadians will welcome the end of our primary fighting role, there’s solid support for providing expertise and aid to help Afghans rebuild after decades of misrule, invasion and civil war. If we can train troops and police without being directly embroiled in combat, that too is worth considering.

If Afghanistan is going to develop a civil society that can function over the long term, there must be rule of law. The country faces a challenge in ensuring that human rights and basic criminal law functions according to international norms, but this is not necessarily a unique or insurmountable problem. Terry Glavin writes in the Calgary Herald:

Afghanistan's 2004 Constitution demands that no law must offend the Qur'an. But the Constitution also requires that all laws must be consistent with international human rights standards and conventions. It's not going to be an easy fit, Faizi concedes. But it doesn't have to be as fractious as one might think.

Where the "West" gets it wrong is in a failure to appreciate that like the English common law tradition, sharia is a vast body of laws, most of which are inoffensive to universal human rights norms. But the semiliterate political appointees that often end up as Afghan judges also get it wrong. Sharia forbids a range of practices -- forced marriage, for one -- that are commonly presumed to be authorized by the Qur'an.

Further to the Koran's injunction that "there is no compulsion" in Islam, the Afghan Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the presumption of innocence, and equality between men and women.

There will be nasty conflicts in the construction of a progressive human rights regime in a terrain of backward interpretations of sharia: "The Islamic extremists, they will react against us," Faizi said. But for the moment, the Afghan people face a more formidable challenge.

"The problem is that mostly there is no fair trial," Faizi told me. "What is really important is the practice of law. We need very strong evidences in order to find a person guilty, but it does not work like this."

Canadian soldiers who have fallen in Afghanistan were honored in the Memorial Ride for the Fallen in Afghanistan this weekend. The soldiers certainly do deserve our support for their essential work as part of the international mission  helping the people of Afghanistan. I was glad to see this proposal from participant Sean Loucks about a BC-based Highway of Heroes, as quoted in the CBC:

"It would be nice to have [a highway] out here 'cause it's not just soldiers from Ontario, it's soldiers from across Canada … we lose soldiers from across this great nation of ours so to have one out here would be amazing."

A very positive statement from a Canadian Senator, the Hon. Hugh Segal, on Canada's role in Afghanistan:

    Hon. Hugh Segal: Honourable senators, I am rising to express my profound appreciation to the members of the House of Commons' Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, who visited Afghanistan recently and returned late last week. They did so to make their own assessment of the situation on the ground and to see first-hand the remarkable work being done by Canadian Forces and humanitarian, development and diplomatic personnel.

    Members of Parliament Kevin Sorenson, Byron Wilfert, Jim Abbott, Claude Bachand, Bob Dechert, Jack Harris, Laurie Hawn, Deepak Obhrai, Bob Rae and Pascal-Pierre Paillé, who made the trip, deserve our appreciation and gratitude, as do those who facilitated their movements on both the military and civilian sides.

    When I rose in this place on March 30 to express hope that there would be a full parliamentary debate on next steps in Afghanistan after 2011 and my strong view that, whatever the configuration of the post-2011 Canadian contingent, Canadian Armed Forces be part of that presence, I was hopeful that our colleagues in the other place would have a chance to see the context for themselves.

    There is now an opportunity for a full parliamentary debate in both chambers — not a narrow partisan debate, but a broad, multi-partisan, national interest debate — where proposals for the mix of forces and civilians deployed to Afghanistan can be openly and frankly discussed.

    Canadian Forces were involved in the earliest assaults on Taliban strongholds. Canadians helped to stabilize Kabul to allow the formation of the first Afghan government, the democratic process and subsequent elections. Canadian Forces were then deployed to Kandahar province, the most violent and difficult of areas, to hold the line almost alone and contain the insurgency so people in other parts of Afghanistan could get on with their lives.

    None of us can know what the final phase in Afghanistan will bring in terms of a constructive framework for stability and self-government, but it is clear that Canadian military experience, perspective, local sensitivity and highly-trained capacities need to be a vital part of that final phase.

H/T to the Canada-Afghanistan Blog and the MilNews blog.