Afghanistan Mission: 2001-?

You may have read that Harper is now saying that the Afghan mission won't be extended past 2009 without some kind of "consensus." Red Tory think it's funny that Harper is all of a sudden Mr. Consensus - I reckon though he's just buying more time to brow-beat the opposition by calling them the Canadian Taliban or something tasteful like that.

My enduring impression though is that we can build schools for girls on every block, write a constitution, make Afghanistan a signatory to every international agreement, beat back the opium trade, reconstruct every road and every bridge, buy every Afghan family a goat, drill their new national army like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman would, and buy every child a kite but the whole place would swallow all these reforms and come out every bit as traditional and tribal as it was before. I don't think it would matter if we left tomorrow, 2009, 2019, or 2090.

The Afghans are, I'm sure, capable of change, but they must want it themselves. I do not know if they do. If they want to change, I do not know that they want our help. Until we can answer both those questions affirmatively I fear we are wasting our time, treasure, and most importantly, our soldiers lives.

Okay, I'm done with gloom, go enjoy your weekend!