The Will to Fight

I just don't understand Stephen Harper anymore. He's already sacrificed ideological consistency on the economy in order to prolong the survival of his government by a few extra months. He's decimated Canada's fiscal prosperity via cheap parlour tricks and ramped up spending while cutting revenues. And now, he's taken a page from Jack Layton's playbook on the war on terror & tyranny.

"We are not going to ever defeat the insurgency." - Stephen Harper

"It's an endless mission. There's no end in sight. We say it's a dead end. No one has laid out, anywhere, that it's possible to ultimately win a war in this region.
No one. And historical experience shows that it's been impossible – whether it be Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, or the Russians in the 20th century." - Jack Layton

It's interesting to note that last year Layton was worried Stephane Dion would drift towards Stephen Harper when it come to a position on Afghanistan. Now, instead we see Stephen Harper drifting towards Jack Layton. One more nail in this government's coffin.

Victory in Afghanistan is not an impossible objective. It is not an unwinnable war. However, it has been a poorly managed conflict in which the other two D's--diplomacy and development--have taken a back seat to the defence aspect. The Taliban can certainly be relegated to defeat; because they have not, it is a fallacy to assume that they will not. A strong, forward military movement against them, in tandem with soft power objectives that give Afghans a clear vision of what the future can offer without them and that align Afghanistan's neighbours against the Taliban, will be victorious. Our leaders have for too long been treating Afghanistan as a back-burner agenda item and allowed the Taliban to fester. With the United States now renewing its focus towards Kabul, the time is nigh for NATO allies, particularly Canada, to do the same and take all necessary steps to defeat the insurgency and compel them to give up their arms in defeat.