In this bulletin:

• Poll: Afghans express confidence in country's direction, security
• Afghan mission can succeed: study
• NATO to focus on reconstruction in Afghanistan: Dutch general
• NATO making a difference in Afghanistan
• Big shifts in Afghan policies not likely
• Afghan Leader Praises Outgoing U.S. Defense Chief
• US helping Pakistan, Afghanistan defeat Taliban: Jury out on govt deal with tribal elders: US (Daily Times)
• ‘Qaeda, Taliban come together’ (Daily Times)
• Italian FM calls for new Afghan conference
• Poland to have 1,200 troops deployed in Afghanistan by February, defense minister says
• INTERVIEW-Hungary troops committed to 2-year Afghan mission
• Clinton wades into Canada's mission
• Forum panelists debate Canada's Afghan role
• Karzai condemns suicide attack in Pakistan
• 34 Taliban killed in Afghanistan
• Bomber hired for $17,000: Afghan police
• Afghanistan strikes back at Pakistan
• Pakistan's choices
• 272 former Soviet servicemen still missing after Afghan war

Poll: Afghans express confidence in country's direction, security

Posted 11/9/2006 12:00 AM ET - By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

Despite a raging pro-Taliban insurgency, the people of Afghanistan say they are optimistic about the future, satisfied with their young democracy and rank security low on their list of everyday concerns, according to a survey out today.

In what it is billing as the widest opinion poll conducted in Afghanistan, the non-profit, San Francisco-based Asia Foundation surveyed 6,226 Afghans 18 and older in person in 32 of the country's 34 provinces over the summer.

Polling couldn't be conducted safely or reliably in two areas: southern Afghanistan's strife-torn Zabul and Uruzgan provinces, which together account for 2.3% of the country's population. The survey's margin of error was +/—2.5%.

The poll, financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, suggests that Afghans are surprisingly confident about the direction of their country even as NATO forces battle a pro-Taliban insurgency in southern and eastern provinces and the violence begins to threaten other places that previously had been considered safe.

While violence has increased, Afghanistan has made some progress in the nearly five years since U.S.-led forces overthrew the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime.

Afghans finally got a chance to vote — in presidential elections in 2004 and parliamentary elections in 2005. Roads have been paved and schools reopened after three decades of anarchy.

Outside the south, major Afghan cities such as Mazar-e-Sharif in the north, Herat in the west and the capital, Kabul, have been largely free of political violence.

Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said he was not surprised by the survey. "These findings ... in no way contradict the larger conclusion that this is a country still desperately poor and desperately in need of help," Starr said. "What they affirm is that help produces results, which in turn generates appreciation."

The poll found that:

•Afghans were more than twice as likely (44% to 21%) to think their country was headed in the right direction, rather than the wrong direction; 29% had mixed feelings. Still, the optimists were down from 64% in a smaller Asia Foundation survey conducted in 2004.

By contrast, Iraqis have a bleaker outlook. A Sept. 1-4 World Public Opinion Poll of more than 1,000 Iraqis showed that 47% thought their country was going in the right direction, while 52% thought it was going the wrong way.

•77% said they were satisfied with the way democracy is working in Afghanistan.

•Only 6% ranked security as the biggest problem in their area, behind unemployment (18%), electricity shortages (12%), poverty (10%), a weak economy (10%) and scarce water supplies (9%). Sixty percent said they rarely or never worried about their own safety. However, 22% said security was the biggest problem facing the nation.

•54% said they were more prosperous now than they were under the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001; 26% felt less prosperous.

•42% said corruption was a major problem in their daily lives, and 77% called it a major national problem; 51% of those who dealt with public health care officials reported paying bribes for health service.

•Afghans had contradictory attitudes toward political tolerance: 85% said the government should allow peaceful opposition, but 64% said they would not allow political parties they personally opposed to meet in their areas.

•Nearly one-tenth of men and one-eighth of women felt that women should occupy most political positions in a country where women traditionally have been barred from schools and jobs.

•87% said they trusted the Afghan National Army, and 86% said they trusted the Afghan National Police. The police, in particular, have been widely criticized for being corrupt, brutal and beholden to local warlords. A report released this month by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based non-profit group devoted to conflict prevention, called the Afghan police "little more than private militias ... regarded in nearly every district more as a source of insecurity than protection."

"I have never met one person, including the minister of the Interior, who trusted the Afghan National Police," Barnett Rubin, who studies Afghanistan at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said in an e-mail. "I think this is not a very reliable survey."

Starr counters: "For a country that didn't have a national army and had only local militias, the fact that one exists — no matter its absolute level — is a breakthrough."

George Varughese, who directed the poll for the Asia Foundation, which supports programs in Asia that help improve governance and law, economic reform and development, agrees that some of the results "appear to challenge the current wisdom on issues in Afghanistan," but says, "We feel it is a solid, important piece of work, completed during a difficult time."

Afghan mission can succeed: study

A Crisis Group report says pulling back and talking peace with the Taliban won't work.

By CP OTTAWA 11/10/06 -- The raging violence in southern Afghanistan should be a wakeup call to Western nations, not an excuse to give up, says a new report by a respected international conflict studies group.

Belgium-based International Crisis Group says there is nothing "inevitable about failure in Afghanistan," but some major policies of both NATO and the Afghan government must be reconsidered. Those policies include aggressive house searches and detentions of residents.

"The desire for a quick, cheap war followed by a quick, cheap peace is what has brought Afghanistan to the present, increasingly dangerous situation," says the group, which has a self-appointed mission to prevent and resolve conflicts.

The study also says NATO has not committed enough troops to provide security to the fragile democracy and its efforts to bring stability are severely undermined by corrupt Afghan authorities.

The organization -- once described by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as "a genuine force for peace" -- says Afghans are disillusioned because they believe some, including local police, judges and coalition forces, operate above the law.

It also says Pakistan is at best a "grudging ally" and recommends more cross-border military co-operation to stem the insurgency.

The report, which offers 21 recommendations, surfaced in Canada on the same day as a new public opinion poll that suggests 59 per cent of Canadians want their troops withdrawn from the bloody conflict before their mandate expires in February 2009.

The Crisis Group report had sharp criticism for NDP Leader Jack Layton's call for Canada to pull back its 2,500 troops from combat roles in Afghanistan and for peace talks with the Taliban.

"Political strategy talk seems to focus increasingly on making a deal with the Taliban," the document states. "That is a bad idea. The key to restoring peace and stability to Afghanistan is not making concessions to the violent extremists, but meeting the legitimate grievances of the population."

GET TROOPS OUT: POLL

- More than half of Canadians want to see their troops pulled from Afghanistan before the scheduled end of their mandate in 2009 and almost as many did not think Canada's mission to the violence-plagued country will be successful, a new poll suggests. - The poll, conducted for the CBC by Environics Nov. 2-6, indicated 59 per cent of those surveyed said they want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan before 2009. - Ten per cent of respondents said they believe Canadian soldiers should stay in Afghanistan past 2009, while 23 per cent said the troops should remain in the central Asian country until 2009.

NATO to focus on reconstruction in Afghanistan: Dutch general

Last Updated: Friday, November 10, 2006 | 8:30 AM ET - CBC News

The new commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan said Friday the focus is shifting to reconstruction in the region but troops are battling the Taliban when necessary to provide security for the NATO mission there.

Dutch Brig.-Gen. Ton Van Loon took charge of the mission last week, which means he is overseeing about 9,500 troops in six southern provinces of Afghanistan, a coalition of forces mostly comprised of Canadian, British and Dutch soldiers. He took over from Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who commanded the troops for eight months.

Van Loon told CBC News that priorities have already begun to shift in southern Afghanistan. But he said there is no question that NATO will continue to fight Taliban insurgents in the volatile southern provinces.

"The most important thing we need to do right now is to really exploit the successes we had in the period that David Fraser commanded the southern region," he said.

"We now need, even more than we did before, to start building and reconstructing the Afghan structures to help the Afghan government to really work for its people. It is already shifting as much as we can."

But as far as fighting the Taliban, he said: "From that perspective, there is no change. When we are faced with the Taliban, we must fight them."

Asked how long NATO troops will be in southern Afghanistan, Van Loon referred to the NATO mission in Bosnia, saying he thinks it will take years of involvement to bring stability to the country. "It's not about us being here forever."

Fraser transferred control of the NATO troops in southern Afghanistan to Van Loon last week in a rotational change of command ceremony. During the ceremony, Fraser said the mission needs more help and Van Loon agreed.

"The more we get, the better it is, but the guys that we have here are incredible," he said. When Canadian troops under Fraser arrived, Van Loon said they encountered a difficult situation but they have done a great job.

Canada has more than 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the majority stationed in Kandahar. Forty-two Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops to the country in early 2002.

NATO making a difference in Afghanistan

Five years after the ousting of the Taliban, the country is making progress in democracy, education, health care and equality, writes NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

Nov. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM – The Toronto Star

On Nov. 13, 2001, coalition and Northern Alliance forces took Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The Taliban was ousted from power, and Al Qaeda lost its safe haven. It was an important day for the people of Afghanistan, who were liberated from a terrible oppressor. It was also important for the international community, which began a major effort to help build a new Afghanistan: democratic, at peace, and no longer a threat to the world.

Five years later, what has been the result? Are we making a difference? Have the lives of the Afghans gotten better — and are we, in the international community, safer than we were?

The answer is a clear "yes." It is sometimes difficult, as we read media accounts of suicide attacks and roadside bombs, to step back and look at the big picture.

But anniversaries are the opportunity to do just that. And the big picture — the story of Afghanistan five years after the fall of the Taliban — should encourage all of us who believe in what we are helping to build there.

· Democracy : Five years ago, there was no national government and no democracy. Today, Afghanistan has held a series of successful elections, and now has a constitution, an elected president and parliament.

· Equality : Women, banished from society under the Taliban, are now in government. Eighty-seven women, 25 per cent of the total number of MPs, sit in the National Assembly. Almost four in 10 Afghan children in school are girls — from around zero five years ago.

· Health care : 80 per cent of the population now has access to health care, up 10 times from 2001. For a country at Afghanistan's stage of development, this is extremely high.

· Education : Almost 6 million Afghan children are in school, six times more than 2001. Enrolment in higher education is up 10 times, to more than 40,000. And despite a big increase this year in attacks by the Taliban, killing teachers and burning down schools, more than 1,000 schools have been built or opened so far this year.

· Economy : The Afghan economy has tripled in value in the past five years and per capita income has doubled. People simply have more money in their pocket.

There are two final indicators of progress. First, people are coming home. Four million refugees have returned to their homeland, one of the biggest return movements in history. They know they are safer now, and that they have a chance to build a better life for their children.

Second, the Afghan people see the benefits of our help. A survey of Afghans across the country earlier this year found that 84 per cent consider themselves to be better off today than they were under the Taliban. Some 76 per cent thought security is better.

These numbers should act as a strong counter to the idea that the international community is not welcome; we are. Is the big picture all good news? Of course not. After all, it has been only five years and there is an enormous amount still to accomplish.

The Afghan government needs to make greater efforts to tackle corruption and improve governance. The Afghan people must have confidence in their elected leaders; cleaning up the government, at all levels, and putting in place truly working institutions, is the only way for that to happen.

The United Nations, the G-8 countries, the bilateral donors and the NGO community also need to step up their support for the Afghan government.

NATO is not in the development business; we can only create the conditions for it to happen. North Atlantic Treaty Organization soldiers, under UN mandate, put their lives at risk every day in Afghanistan to create those conditions.

It is vital that we honour their efforts, and our own commitments, by an equal effort on the civilian side. For example, the EU can do much more to train the Afghan police.

NATO, too, can do more. We need to help the Afghan army improve its ability to defend against the Taliban. That is why NATO nations have begun to provide weapons and deepen training for Afghan forces.

We also need to do better to provide resources for our own mission in Afghanistan, and to eliminate the restrictions contributing nations have put on the use of their forces.

Taking these steps would be an important and necessary demonstration of solidarity among allies. In three weeks, the 26 NATO heads of state and government will hold a summit in Riga. Afghanistan will be the first item of business.

I believe we will leave that meeting strongly encouraged by the progress we have made, as an international community, to help build the Afghanistan we are starting to see emerge. I hope, and will make every effort to ensure, that they are also encouraged to do more to make it happen.

Big shifts in Afghan policies not likely

FEW CHANGES SEEN WITH NEW CONGRESS - By Associated Press 11/10/06

KABUL, Afghanistan - Top American and Afghan officials said yesterday they don't expect the United States' commitment to Afghanistan to change despite the shake-up in Congress and the Pentagon. A new poll found that Afghans are losing confidence in the direction in which their country is headed.

Jawed Ludin, chief of staff to President Hamid Karzai, said that the Afghan government watched the U.S. midterm elections with "tremendous interest" but was not worried relations would change significantly after the Democratic takeover of the House and Senate.

"Afghanistan has been grateful to receive bipartisan support from U.S. politicians," Ludin said. "I think the people of the United States have been with Afghanistan, and that's all that matters for our people."

Col. Tom Collins, the chief U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan, said military leaders in Afghanistan have been given no indication of a change in strategy. "We anticipate the troop levels in Afghanistan will remain roughly at 20,000 for the foreseeable future," he said, adding that the current count is 23,000.

A new survey, however, found that Afghans are losing confidence in the direction their country has taken, even though most feel more prosperous now than under the ousted Taliban regime.

Of more than 6,000 adults surveyed nationwide, 44 percent felt the country was headed in the right direction compared with 64 percent in 2004. Corruption and bad governance, rather than lack of security, were the biggest concerns, the survey found.

Afghan Leader Praises Outgoing U.S. Defense Chief

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - KABUL, November 9, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has hailed outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a "good friend" and ally of Afghanistan.

In comments to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan today, Karzai also noted that the recent midterm election that handed control of at least one chamber of Congress to the Democrats is "an internal affair for the United States" and said it "shows the freedom and democracy of America."

"The resignation of Mr. Rumsfeld is their decision and we respect their decision," Karzai told Radio Free Afghanistan. "However, Mr. Rumsfeld is a friend of Afghanistan, a good ally and supporter in the war against terrorism. I have great respect for him. He is a very knowledgeable man, a very smart person, and a very resolute person. And I am proud to have his friendship."

Rumsfeld's resignation was announced on November 8, one day after U.S. midterm elections that President George W. Bush described as a cumulative "thumping" for his Republican Party.

Rumsfeld has served nearly six years as defense secretary. He came into office with a presidential mandate to transform the U.S. military to meet emerging challenges in a role that took on added significance following the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

Rumsfeld was a key cabinet member in the response to those attacks, including the U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and disrupt Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

But U.S. polls suggested widespread voter dissatisfaction with Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war. Bush has nominated former CIA Director Robert Gates to succeed Rumsfeld.

US helping Pakistan, Afghanistan defeat Taliban: Jury out on govt deal with tribal elders: US (Daily Times)

* Boucher says Dargai attack shows need to crush extremism

KABUL: The “jury was out” on a government deal with tribal elders in Pakistan’s North Waziristan that was intended to curb militant activity, a top US official said on Thursday.

US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said the real test was “whether they (tribal authorities) exert that control and whether they stop the activity...I think the jury is still out”.

However, Boucher said the United States was backing efforts on both sides of the volatile Afghan and Pakistan border to assert government authority and defeat Taliban militants operating there.

Boucher was in Afghanistan for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other top officials about efforts to end the Taliban insurgency and to push development of the war-battered country to discourage support for militants. While the US has no military presence on the other side of the border, it is supporting efforts to bring economic development to the area and assert government authority, Boucher said. “Both Pakistan and Afghanistan recognise the threat and danger of the Taliban but this process of extending government to both sides of the border is well under way and that remains the central task,” he said. “We do have a policy that works on both sides of the border...,” he said. Boucher condemned a suicide bombing that killed 42 army recruits in Pakistan, saying it showed the need to fight extremism. The bombing, in a northwestern tribal area near the Afghan border on Wednesday, was “a horrible act and we condemn it”, Boucher told reporters in Kabul. “It demonstrates the importance of dealing with extremism and supporting Pakistan as it moves towards (being) a moderate nation, a moderate society,” he said.

Taliban insurgents have fought back against the Afghan government and Western forces with surprising intensity this year, strengthened by drug money and the ability to shelter in Pakistan, Boucher said. Boucher said Pakistan was using military, economic and other measures to prevent the Taliban using its territory as “a place of refuge or of support”. Boucher also said US policies towards Afghanistan would likely be unchanged after the Democrats’ win in US midterm elections and replacement of Rumsfeld as defence secretary. Agencies

‘Qaeda, Taliban come together’ (Daily Times)

WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda is back in business and has a nexus with the Taliban, who have enlarged their agenda to include what they perceive as Islamic causes beyond the borders of Afghanistan, according to leading terrorism expert Peter Bergen.

He told a discussion on Afghanistan at the US Institute of Peace on Wednesday that Al Qaeda had acquired the ability to plan and mount attacks thousands of miles away from its base, as evidenced by the 7/7 attacks in London. Another of its chosen weapons, which it was using effectively, was the Internet.

Al-Sahab, its video-producing arm was putting out a steady supply of videos, some of them for training, others for highlighting the group’s successful operations, including suicide bombings.

The terrorist group, Bergen noted, is active in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has himself said that he is a part of Al Qaeda. Well-camouflaged terrorist training camps exist on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, including those in special compounds where recruits are taught bomb-making and other skills.

He said that because of Pakistan’s national elections next year, there is going to be less and less cooperation from Islamabad in the fight against terrorism. He said there are Taliban on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border. The question was: can the Taliban become a drug cartel?

Bergen, who is the CNN’s expert on terrorism, suggested that there should be a “mini-Marshall Plan” for Afghanistan and pressure on Pakistan by the US and coalition countries to curb the Taliban. He noted that the amnesty announced by Kabul for former Taliban elements had been a success.

Since the drug trade could not be eliminated, because it would bring about an economic collapse, it should be regularised by the government. A “map” of suicide bombers should be made so as to trace their origins and identify the clerics who induce them to go on suicide missions, he said. staff report

Italian FM calls for new Afghan conference

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D' Alema Thursday called for a new international conference on Afghanistan, saying that a new approach to the country's problems was needed.

Speaking ahead of a visit to the Afghan capital of Kabul, D' Alema said "international action needs to be relaunched."

"It is difficult to find a solution relying on only military means... Perhaps a policy rethink is required, one which boosts political, economic and humanitarian aspects," he said at a joint press conference here with European Parliament President Josep Borrell.

"That is why a new international conference on Afghanistan could be useful, particularly if it involved other countries in the region," the minister added.

D'Alema, who will be in Kabul on Saturday, stressed that Italy was very concerned over the growing security problems in Afghanistan.

Italy currently has some 1,700 troops serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led ISAF peacekeeping mission there. Source: Xinhua

Poland to have 1,200 troops deployed in Afghanistan by February, defense minister says - The Associated Press 11/10/06

Poland will deploy some 1,200 troops in Afghanistan by February and will allow them to operate in the volatile southern provinces where allied troops are battling Taliban insurgents, Defense Minister Radek Sikorski said Friday.

The troops will be based mainly in eastern Afghanistan, but could be used anywhere in the country to help allied forces, Sikorski said.

"They will have their area of responsibility and their area of operations, but if there is an operational need to reinforce our allies, including our British allies, (we) have told our soldiers they have no political restrictions on where they move," he said.

"In Afghanistan as NATO we'd have enough troops if they could be used according to military logic rather than according to political constraints." About 20,000 NATO troops are operating in Afghanistan, along with 21,000 mostly U.S. troops on a separate mission to hunt down terrorists.

NATO had focused on peacekeeping and supporting reconstruction in the north and west. However in August it moved 8,000 troops into the Taliban's southern heartland and was caught by surprise by the ferocity of the insurgents' resistance which drew the alliance into the first major land combat in its six-decade history.

Casualties have been higher than expected, with more than 30 NATO soldiers killed. However, NATO commanders say the Taliban's decision to stand and fight gives the alliance an opportunity to deal them a significant blow before they seek refuge in the hills.

INTERVIEW-Hungary troops committed to 2-year Afghan mission

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Hungary has committed 200 troops to a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan for the next two years, but it cannot increase its contribution to the NATO-led force, Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz said in Pakistan on Wednesday.

"I think some other countries are considering to raise the number of soldiers being there in Afghanistan. We are just not able to do it," Goncz told Reuters in Islamabad, just over a week after NATO's commander in Afghanistan complained that he had too few troops to beat Taliban insurgents.

Goncz, who had earlier visited India, said her talks with the Pakistan government had focused on the situation in Afghanistan.

Hungarian troops had already come under enemy fire since deploying in the northern province of Baghlan last month, having earlier been stationed in the Afghan capital of Kabul with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"There were some attacks close to the troops, but there were no casualties," Goncz said.

The Hungarians have taken on a two-year mission as a provincial reconstruction team (PRT), supporting civil programmes to train Afghan police and help education projects in Baghlan.

Like the rest of the north, Baghlan is considered relatively safe, compared with the south and east, where the Taliban has intensified attacks since NATO forces took over responsibility for patrolling the regions bordering Pakistan.

But Goncz said foreign forces in Baghlan were still targets for suicide bombers and other kinds of attacks.

ISAF has troops from 34 nations, though like Hungary, most of them have only small contingents in a force of more than 31,000.

General David Richards, the British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said on Oct. 31 that he lacked troops to defeat the Taliban.

The United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have sizable numbers deployed in the frontline southern and eastern provinces, while Romania has 750 troops in the south. Poland is sending 1,000 troops to Afghanistan in the new year.

Some 3,100 people have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, the worst period of violence since U.S.-backed forces ousted a Taliban government in late 2001 for harbouring al Qaeda.

For its part, Pakistan has deployed troops on the border and has begun making peace deals with Pashtun tribal areas to cut off support for militants, but it is frequently criticised for not doing enough to catch Taliban leaders based on its territory. During talks, Goncz heard Pakistani officials suggest the possibility of fencing the border to stop insurgents moving back and forth, but the Afghan government opposes such a move because of the border's disputed status.

They also told her that the Afghan government would benefit from more ethnic Pashtun representation in positions of power. "If there is stronger government control, In think it is the time that international forces might consider leaving the country. We know it is not this moment," said Goncz.

Clinton wades into Canada's mission

National Post - Friday, November 10, 2006

OTTAWA - Stomachs were grumbling toward the end of his hour-long, pre-dinner speech, delivered flawlessly without notes, but Bill Clinton had one more point to stress before the Ottawa crowd could eat.

Iraq is a questionable conflict, the former U.S. president acknowledged on Wednesday, but Canada must stay in Afghanistan where the real war on terror is being fought. If we abandon Kandahar and the southern military flank collapses, it's terrorism unleashed anew on the world.

"If we lose in Afghanistan and the Taliban come back, it will not only be a nightmare for the Afghan people, but it will create greater options of movement for the al-Qaeda leadership and increase the likelihood that they will be able to mount and conduct more global terrorist operations," he warned.

Granted, it's a bit rich for Clinton, who failed to pick off Osama bin Laden when the terrorist leader was in U.S. crosshairs during his presidential watch, to insist Canada now donate its blood to mop up his missed opportunity.

But his global perspective is indeed welcome because it's not heard enough as Canadians start to question the mission's cost: 42 soldiers' lives and $2-billion, both which are certain to rise.

Lest we forget, on the eve of a particularly poignant Remembrance Day, Iraq is not Afghanistan. One aims to liberate a country that seems headed for civil war and may qualify as a cut-and-run conflict. The Afghanistan mission is attempting a pre-emptive strike against a terrorist training ground and demands we stay the course.

Even so, a sense of futility or defeatism is creeping into Canada's mindset when talk turns to Afghanistan. Polling clearly shows Canadians support their troops, but the numbers increasingly suggest they oppose a mission they view as spinning its wheels in the dusty white powder that coats Kandahar.

The coffee shop regulars in the small village south of Ottawa where I live gathered around the table recently and every single one of them declared they wanted the troops out of Afghanistan immediately.

I was gobsmacked. These old-timers are diehard Conservative, military-saluting, anti-gun-registry types. If the government's starting to lose their support, they're getting perilously close to handing Harper his Walter Cronkite moment, that being the former news anchor's 1968 opinion-shifting declaration that the Vietnam War was unwinnable.

There's not much more that can be done by this government to stem the erosion of public support for the mission to Kandahar where, ironically, a big problem is that poppies continue to grow, row by row.

Perhaps Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier, the most credible voice for the defence, should be out on public parade more, giving Canadians the straight goods without the sugar-coating you get from politicians.

Yet the sight of rusty tanks and other Cold War equipment being loaded onto heavy lift aircraft to restock and protect our troops is hardly confidence-enhancing. And the refusal of NATO allies to boost troops deployments to the dangerous front lines contributes to a growing sense of Canadian isolation in the danger zone.

It's worth quantifying the extent of Canada's commitment as it steps forward as a player on the world stage of conflict. If my math is correct, we have the second-largest per capita deployment of troops in Afghanistan, with one soldier for every 15,000 Canadians. Only Britain is higher, with one soldier per 11,000 of its citizens. The United States has one per 26,000, Italy one for every 33,000 and France one per 60,000.

What's even more impressive (or worrying) is that our Kandahar base is the bull's eye of the Taliban target, while other nations lounge around the relative safety of northern regions.

Yet, to many observers, this heavy commitment is a tough swallow if the cause is hopeless. It's true the Taliban are increasingly emboldened and entrenched in the southern region where Canadian military are stretched too thinly to have the desired security and reconstruction impact. Villagers feel they're victims of a government they see as corrupt and unprotected by foreign troops they see all too infrequently.

Yet, 42 Canadian soldiers believed in it enough to die for this cause. When we pause in silence this weekend before the cenotaphs of Canada, the soldiers in Afghanistan must be at the forefront of our minds. While there's still a shot at winning this war, we must remember them.

Forum panelists debate Canada's Afghan role

By ETHAN RIBALKIN, 24 HOURS Vancouver

The question of whether or not Canadian troops should be in Afghanistan came under fire Wednesday night at CBC Radio Vancouver.

The forum, which was co-sponsored by 24 hours, included four panelists - Afghani ambassador Omar Samad, injured Canadian soldier Capt. John Croucher, Michael Byers, academic director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues, and Lauryn Oates, spokesperson for the national organization Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan.

With 36 Canadian soldiers killed since last Remembrance Day, the forum quickly brought forth an array of viewpoints.

According to Samad, Afghanistan is a much better place today, five years after the Taliban.

"I wonder where our friends who are anti-war today were ... when millions of Afghani women were being harassed and oppressed and suppressed by the Taliban," he said. "Where were you when the children of Afghanistan could not go to school?"

Oates said she believes our role in Afghanistan needs to be focused on development, not only military support. "If we address poverty, we will win this war," she said.

According to Byers, the principal justification for Canada's presence in southern Afghanistan is the need to combat global terrorism.

"One of the things I try to do is to analyze whether or not we're succeeding with that mission in Afghanistan. I don't think we are," he said. According to Croucher, the media is not portraying Afghanistan accurately, which has in turned swayed the public's opinion.

Hosted by Ian Hanomansing and Rick Cluff, the forum can be seen on CBC Newsworld Nov. 11 at 5 p.m. and CBC TV Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.

Karzai condemns suicide attack in Pakistan

KABUL, Nov 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on an army training camp in Malakand Agency of Pakistan.

In a statement released here on Thursday, the president said terrorism was the root cause of instability in the region, which hampers the progress and development of the peoples of Pakistan and Afghanistan and disrupts their peaceful life.

"Afghans have also suffered at the hands of terrorists in the past years and understand the pains and sufferings of the people of Pakistan," said Hamid Karzai.

He said terrorists wanted to disrupt peace and stability in Pakistan and the two countries should join hands against terrorism and extremism and destroy its root causes.

The president, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan, expressed his sympathy with the families of the victims and the people of Pakistan, and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Forty-two recruits of the Pakistan Army were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself amidst a group of soldiers at a military base in Dargai district, Malakand Agency on Wednesday morning.

34 Taliban killed in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR: Clashes between insurgents and NATO-led and Afghan troops left 34 Taliban and three policemen dead in the latest violence in Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.

Eight policemen, eight Taliban and three civilians were also wounded during the fighting in volatile southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul and southeastern Khost which erupted overnight and continued early Thursday, police said. Twenty-two Taliban were killed during a joint operation by Afghan army, police and NATO forces late Wednesday in the Pashmole area of Zahri district in Kandahar province, district police chief Ghulam Rasoul Aka said.

Fighting erupted again early Thursday in Pashmole when insurgents attacked a police vehicle, prompting a gunbattle which left six Taliban dead, Aka said. In Zabul, Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol killing two policemen and wounding another five. In Khost, rebels attacked a highway police patrol late Wednesday, killing a policeman and wounding three others. AFP

Bomber hired for $17,000: Afghan police

Chamdo Gul, center, an arrested Afghan suicide bomber, who was instructed to blow himself up in front of a mosque in Kabul, is surrounded by media and police officers during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006. Gul was arrested on Nov. 7 while en route from eastern Nangarhar province headed to Kabul where he was planning his attack in front of a mosque, located in a heavily crowded area in the Afghan capital. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

AFP 11/10/2006 - KABUL - Afghan police presented to reporters yesterday a man they said had confessed to agreeing to carry out a suicide attack outside Kabul's busiest mosque in return for nearly $17,000 for his family.

The man, an Afghan who grew up in Pakistan, was arrested with a suicide vest strapped to his body at a police checkpost in the eastern province of Nangarhar near the Pakistani border early this week, a police spokesman said.

The 24-year-old, identified as Chando Gul, was caught while he was on his way to Kabul, said Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the interior ministry that handles police matters.

"He has confessed his family was to receive 1,000,000 rupees ($16,600) after he carried out suicide attack at Puli-Khishti mosque in Kabul," Bashary said.

The mosque, one of the oldest in the war-scarred capital, is popular among worshippers and adjacent to the crowded main Kabul market in the city centre.

Gul said that when he was recruited he had been working as a driver for a Pakistani national who was a Taleban and was named Mullah Gul Wali.

"We were four people. We got an invitation from Mullah Gul Wali to carry out suicide attacks and he said doing that will take us to paradise in the next life and success in this life," said Gul in broken language.

"We were told our family will receive 1,000,000 rupees after we carried out the attack. I was told to detonate in Pul-e-Khisti mosque," he said. Gul said a suicide bomber who killed around a dozen people outside the interior ministry on September 30 was a friend of his and from the same group.

The blast was among about six in the capital that month that badly rattled the heavily secured city, which has seen relatively little of the Taleban violence that has raged in the south this year. Gul said two of his other friends were tasked to carry out attacks at the Kabul police command and in Nangarhar.

Suicide attacks have soared in Afghanistan this year, with the tactic generally agreed to have been picked up from international militant groups.

Afghan police allege many of the attacks are being plotted by Taleban and other militants in Pakistan, who fled across the border after the extremist regime was toppled from power in Afghanistan in a US-led offensive.

Afghanistan strikes back at Pakistan

By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times Online / November 9, 2006

KARACHI - After a number of recent incidents, it is emerging that for the first time since the fall of the communist regime in Afghanistan 13 years ago, Afghan intelligence, likely with foreign assistance, is active in Pakistan.

At the same time, several attacks on Pakistani military bases - the most recent a suicide attack on Wednesday morning that killed at least 35 soldiers - add to the overall volatility of the country. And this comes at a time that the top brass are gathering at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to make a vital decision on Pakistan's role in the "war on terror".

Last week, a car bomb ripped through the office of the inspector general of police in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Pakistan's Balochistan province. One policeman and two other men were killed.

This followed a bomb attack in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), in which nine people were killed and more than 30 injured.

And on Tuesday, NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai escaped unhurt in a rocket attack while he was addressing a council in Wana, headquarters of the South Waziristan tribal agency.

Initial investigations into the Quetta attack pointed to suspects of Afghan-Uzbek origin. A subsequent massive raid netted more than 70 Afghans, a few of whom admitted connections with Afghan intelligence.

A joint investigation team comprising Military Intelligence, Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau then grilled these suspects and concluded that the sophisticated and organizational nature of the operation was beyond the known capabilities of Afghan intelligence on its own.

"KHAD [Khadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati, Afghanistan's secret police] was the most active agency in the region throughout the 1980s, but most of its counter-intelligence missions were assisted by the [Soviet] KGB. KHAD's external wing carried out bomb attacks in cities such as Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi, as well as assassinations of mujahideen leaders," a senior security official told Asia Times Online on condition his identity not be revealed.

"Now, no KGB services are available to Afghan intelligence, and none of the old Soviet-trained Afghan officials remain. Thus it is a matter of surprise for Pakistan to see Afghan intelligence using methods which only a few intelligence agencies, considered the best in the world, are capable of applying," the security official said without giving names but clearly hinting at British, US and Indian intelligence.

Information acquired from the suspects rounded up in Quetta and other parts of the country revealed a network working through the Afghan consulates in Karachi and Quetta, where the Afghan Foreign Ministry had attached a number of staff who were not career diplomats but activists of the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance, a mostly non-Pashtun grouping, bitterly opposed the Taliban during their rule from 1996-2001.

According to Asia Times Online contacts, during interrogation some of the suspects talked of plans for death squads to launch attacks in Karachi and Islamabad. The facilitation was to be through the Afghan consulates in Quetta and Karachi.

The death squads were to target top religious leaders considered pro-Taliban. One of the names learned by this correspondent is Maulana Noor Mohammed (a member of parliament from Quetta), in addition to some non-political clerics in the tribal and border areas.

Certainly, such killings would anger the large pro-Taliban following in Pakistan; at the same time, they would likely fuel sectarian strife in the country as the blame would fall on Shi'ites. More instability would be the obvious result.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at an army parade ground in the town of Dargai in NWFP, killing at least 35 soldiers and wounding 20. Dargai is mostly pro-Taliban.

The first reaction would be to assume that this attack had nothing to do with Afghan intelligence operatives - why should they attack the Pakistani army, which is ostensibly on their side?

But if it was Afghan intelligence, as a section of Pakistani intelligence is convinced, the argument is the same as it was for the Quetta attack. In that incident the attackers selected the office of the inspector general of police because insurgents in Afghanistan target Afghan police and the Afghan National Army (ANA), in what the Afghan government calls Pakistan-sponsored attacks. So these would be tit-for-tat responses.

Wednesday's attack could also have been undertaken by al-Qaeda-linked militants. Indeed, they would be the immediate suspects. This would be because they are seeking revenge for the air attacks on a madrassa (seminary) in Bajour agency last week in which 80 people died. US drones are believed to have been involved in the attack, which officials said targeted militants.

Further, the militants would want to sabotage peace deals between Islamabad and the tribal areas. North and South Waziristan recently concluded deals under which the army would withdraw in exchange for the tribals stemming the flow of militants across the border into Afghanistan. Bajour agency was on the brink of signing such a deal when the air attacks came.

According to Asia Times Online contacts, the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, once the favorite of Pakistan's groups, has come out into the open in southwestern Afghanistan in a form of alliance with local Afghan governments. Gulbuddin has been considered an important player in the Taliban-led insurgency.

HIA commanders have taken control of many villages and towns. Here they have hoisted HIA flags alongside those of the local Afghan administrations, which are already filled with former HIA members. Hekmatyar has already signaled for a deal with the Afghan administration in Kabul.

Certainly Hekmatyar would not have changed his attitude toward foreign forces in Afghanistan and still demands that they announce a schedule for leaving. But Hekmatyar has always been against killing ANA or members of the police. The present arrangements in parts of the southwest between the HIA and Afghan administrations are purely local and not between North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces and the HIA.

Nevertheless, this is an important development and a positive one from Kabul's point of view.

At the same time, a number of Baloch insurgents, including top commanders of the Baloch Liberation Army, are in Kabul - again, for the first time since the fall of the communist regime in Afghanistan in 1992. The Pakistani government has been battling an insurgency in Balochistan province for many years. The last thing it would want is the insurgency to receive support - moral or any other form - from Afghanistan.

Pakistan's choices

Pakistan has been walking between the devil and the deep blue sea ever since it signed on to the "war on terror" in 2001 after ditching the Taliban.

It has constantly been criticized by Washington and Kabul for not doing enough to root out al-Qaeda militants and Taliban elements in its territory, while at the same time President General Pervez Musharraf has drawn open hostility (including assassination attempts) from militants, clerics and even sections of the armed forces.

As stated above, Pakistan recently tried to bring some security to the semi-autonomous tribal areas by signing agreements with the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, and was about to strike one with Bajour.

Pakistan tried to convince Washington that such deals would be beneficial to the "war on terror", but Washington thought just the opposite, with visions of a vast uncontrollable zone emerging in Pakistan as the strategic backyard of the anti-US movement in Afghanistan. Thus the widespread conviction that the US took matters into its own hands by launching the Bajour attack.

Apparently, Musharraf wanted to follow up this action with further attacks on suspected militants, but was dissuaded from doing so by his top brass, who argued for reconciliation with the Taliban at all costs.

As a result, Musharraf is back to square one with regard to Washington and the Taliban: he just doesn't know which way to turn. The reports of Afghan counter-intelligence activity in Pakistan make the decision all that much more difficult.

Boiled down, Pakistan has three choices, all of them tough:

 - Go head-to-head with Pakistan's militants and face intense instability in which Afghan intelligence would be ready to play its part;

-  Strike a Waziristan-like deal with militants and face Washington's wrath in the shape of more air strikes and other conspiracies, including even a coup;

-  Reassess its whole policy in the region and come up with something that would allow Islamabad once again to gain friends in Kabul as well as keep its Western allies happy.

According to reports from Waziristan, a new video by al-Qaeda leader Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri will be released soon in which he will call for a global jihad against the US and its ally, Pakistan.

Against this background, Pakistan's top brass will debate the options above. Whichever path they choose, it will have a defining influence on the "war on terror".

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. 

272 former Soviet servicemen still missing after Afghan war

MOSCOW: The CIS Afghan war veterans committee said 272 servicemen of the former Soviet army are still listed as missing during the Afghan war.

"One of the priorities of our committee is the work to find the missing Soviet servicemen," deputy committee chairman Pytor Kerzhimakin told reporters the other day.

"Since the setting up of the committee in 1993, we have found 22 men and helped them return to the Motherland. At present, 272 people are on the list of the missing," Kerzhimakin said at a news conference on the occasion of the return to Russia of former prisoner-of-war Yuri Stepanov.

Stepanov said he had been captured in Salanga during a fight in 1987 by the unit led by field commander Sufi Puyand. "After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan, I had to stay as a prisoner-of-war in a group of mujaheddins for ten years," he added.

When asked by reporters if he would return to Afghanistan, Yuri said: "I've come to Russia with my wife and a five-year-old son. Hopefully, for good."

"At present, contacts have been established with seven former Soviet servicemen living in Afghanistan; efforts are underway toward returning them," journalist Yevgeny Kirichenko said.

He took part in a search mission which returned from Afghanistan on Tuesday. The locations of 17 places of burial of Soviet servicemen have been found. The remains of six soldiers have been exhumed and brought to the Motherland, Kirichenko said.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]