abandon Afghanistan

Some Afghanistan observers have noted that while the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban was carried out for clear realpolitik security objectives, the ensuing conflict has morphed into one where human rights -- and in particular, women's rights -- are at the forefront of our policy goals. In the Guardian this week, an editorial confirms this trend and the importance of standing in solidarity with those women who are on the front lines of the conflict with the Taliban:

We've been hearing some very encouraging things over the last while from honorable MPs like Bob Rae and other politicians in the Conservative minority government and even in the NDP about a continued role for Canada in Afghanistan post-2011. Yet those nice words have not yet evolved into a really comprehensive public discussion. In the absence of talk and planning, the action we're seeing is basically preparation for withdrawal.

From MarkOttawa:

A series of ceremonial handovers is bound to take place between Canadian and American commanders between now and next Canada Day. They will mark the close of an unlikely chapter in Canadian military history — an unexpected combat deployment that was initiated with almost no public discussion by the Chrétien and Martin governments that is now ending with the first withdrawal of Canadian combat forces before the war they were fighting has concluded.

Just as the war ramps up this year with a surge of U.S. troops, Canada’s military footprint has already begun shrinking.

Where until recently Canadian troops were stretched across a territory the size of New Brunswick, they are now mostly squeezed into an area the size of Ottawa.

Canada remains responsible to NATO for all of Kandahar, but most of Canada’s combat forces are now in Panjwaii District, to the west of Kandahar City. A couple of hundred Canadian soldiers still remain in the provincial capital, which is to come under U.S. command by early fall [emphasis added]. Another handful of Canadian troops are scattered across Spin Boldak near the Pakistan border and in Arghandab and Dand districts…

A logistics colonel, who is to be promoted to brigadier-general next year, has already been chosen to lead the closeout mission. His troops are to be protected by soldiers from the Alberta-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry [that will be Task Force 1-11, 3 PPCLI--not a battle group as with previous rotos].

Detailed inventories of what is where at Kandahar Airfield and at forward operating bases and strongpoints have begun to be compiled. More than 1,000 vehicles must be retrieved as well as thousands of weapons, pallets of ammunition, office and communications equipment and temporary accommodations.

Once this mountain of gear is at the airfield, several months will be spent cleaning and re-organizing it for the return to Canada.