The Afghan mission is not a failure - Omar Samad

In Part 2 of The Afghan mission is not a failure, Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad offers his perspective on the importance and role of Canadian and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Ambassador Samad:

Pulling out of Afghanistan, or abandoning the peace-building policies that ensure my country won't return to its pre-9/11 failing-state status, is tantamount to capitulating to terrorist groups. That is not acceptable to Afghans. The world turned its back on Afghanistan in the 1990s once it lost its strategic Cold War significance, and this helped to turn it into a haven for extremists and terrorists. It would be a strategic blunder if the debate about the country's future became a proxy ideological battleground.

We are not losing in Afghanistan. We are successfully preventing a resurgence of extremist forces in order to provide better opportunities for millions of poor people. The Afghan case is not a mediation case between two contending factions. Simplifying the context by calling for peace talks between an elected government and heavily-armed gangs of militant school-burners, drug-runners and suicide-attackers will not resolve the immediate challenges in southern Afghanistan. It might make it worse for everyone in the longer term if we allow serious human rights violators, terrorist agents and fanatics with a very poor governance record to return to power.
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Contrary to ill-founded views that this is the U.S. President's war, and in spite of the fact that Afghans were resisting the terrorist regime alone before 9/11, the international community is constructively involved in Afghanistan at the request of the Afghan people, and under a United Nations mandate. There was no argument establishing the links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001. Since then, more than 70 nations have committed billions of dollars of aid and security assistance to help us restore stability, and help rebuild the country.
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While the rest of Afghanistan is experiencing relative normalcy after three decades of turmoil, the provinces adjacent to the tribal regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are targets of terrorist and insurgent attacks by a force of new and former Taliban and foreign militants.

Using terror-like tactics, these infiltrating insurgents, hold villagers hostage, threaten or bribe farmers, kill teachers, doctors, clerics, tribal leaders, aid workers, road-builders, and oppress women and schoolgirls. In the process, they also attack NATO and Afghan army forces to influence Western evening news reports and prevent us from creating an environment conducive to better economic and security conditions.
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Taliban Jack needs to leave Canadian international policy to our professionals, allies and affected representatives. Demonstrating his ignorance of the fundamentals of international intervention in peacemaking/peacekeeping only reinforces his unsuitability to lead a government charged with such important responsibilities. While Jack and the NDP may have a role to play ensuring Grandma gets looked after in her old age, he and they are woefully inadequate for any serious consideration in the political arena and the world stage.