Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, prays during the opening ceremony for a Coca-Cola plant in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006. Karzai presided over the official opening of th eplant, more than 10 years after the previous Coke facility in the capital was destroyed in the country's deadly civil war. Habibullah Gulzar, owner of the plant, is on left and Selcuk Erden, regional president Coca Cola is on right. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

In this bulletin:

• A Message to the People of the United States by H.E. Hamid Karzai
• President Karzai Strongly Condemns the Killing of the Governor of Paktiya
• Afghanistan remembers military 'hero'
• Afghanistan remembers anti-Taliban hero
• President Karzai Condemns the Bomb Blast in a Mosque in India
• Press Release, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• Afghan army recaptures district in S. Afghanistan
• Doubts intensify over Afghanistan's future
• Afghan Experiment Marked by Progress And Disillusionment
• U.S. defends Pakistan's hunt for bin Laden; Afghan official says terror leader in Pakistan
• Karzai: "They Hate Our Way of Life"
• Get out of Afghanistan now: NDP - Caucus to discuss how this week
• Kerry Urges Buildup in Afghanistan
• Extending Canada’s mission in Afghanistan ‘right thing to do’ -
  By PETER MACKAY
• Canadian troops making things worse: Afghan legislator
• Afghan appeal
• Canada doing more than ‘fair share' in Afghanistan, says MacKay
• Afghan victim courageous, says friend

A Message to the People of the United States by H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan On the Occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of September 11

The Afghan people join me in expressing my strong solidarity with the People of the United States as you mark the 5 th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  We understand the tremendous loss you endured that day for we also have suffered for long at the hands of terrorism

For many years, the Afghan people were held hostage in their own country, and subjected to unspeakable atrocities, by foreign terrorists and their Taliban friends.  The suffering of the Afghan people was neglected and our pleas to the world to confront the growing threat of terrorism remained unheard.  Regrettably, it took the tragedy of 9-11 for the world to appreciate the gravity of the threat that international terrorism posed to the security of the world. 

After 9-11, the United States led an international coalition against terrorism and helped the people of Afghanistan liberate their country from Al Qaeda and the Taliban. 

The progress of the last five years in Afghanistan would not have been possible without American sacrifice and support.   The battle against international terrorism didn’t end with the defeat of al Qaeda and the Taliban; it continues today in Afghanistan and in many other parts of the world. The world must continue the fight against the menace of terrorism with greater resolve and dedication.  

I take this opportunity to express the deep appreciation of the Afghan people to the people of the United States for the sacrifices of your sons and daughters in Afghanistan , and for your generous support to the rebuilding of our country. 

Thank you. 

Office of the Spokesman to the President of Afghanistan

President Karzai Strongly Condemns the Killing of the Governor of Paktiya - Date of Release: 10 September 2006

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemns the suicide attack in Gardez, Paktiya which killed Mohammad Hakeem Taniwal, the governor of the province of Paktiya . 

  According to reports, a suicide bomber had been waiting outside Mr. Taniwal's office and blew himself up as the Governor left, killing him, his nephew and bodyguard instantly and injuring many others.

In his reaction to the news, the President said: “The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan .  The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like Mr. Taniwal who will continue to serve this great nation.”

“Mr. Taniwal was a patriot, a man of both action and academic achievements.  He was also a personal friend of mine, who returned from abroad to serve his nation.  I am deeply saddened by this crime and I strongly condemn the killing of Mr. Taniwal.”  

The President expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of Mr. Taniwal and other victims and prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.

  Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghanistan remembers military 'hero'

Afghans have been commemorating the death five years ago of anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban militia leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. He was killed by suspected Al Qaeda suicide bombers two days before the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

President Hamid Karzai and other government officials are among hundreds of people who have gathered in the main stadium of the capital, Kabul, to hear speeches and songs in honour of Mr Massoud.

Mr Karzai paid this tribute to him. "As he had promised to our people, he'd defend this country whether alive or dead," he said. "He defended his country while he was alive and he liberated it when he died."

Afghanistan remembers anti-Taliban hero - 2006/9/10 KABUL, AFP

Afghanistan on Saturday commemorated the 2001 assassination of anti-Taliban hero Ahmed Shah Massoud as NATO military chiefs urged member states to send more men and equipment to combat insurgents.

President Hamid Karzai and other top government officials, including some of Massoud's closest associates, were among hundreds of people gathered in the city's stadium for a day of speeches and songs to glorify the national hero.

Massoud was slain on Sept. 9, 2001 -- just two days before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States -- when suicide bombers believed to be from al-Qaida detonated a television camera while pretending to interview him.

The commemoration came one day after a massive suicide attack in the Afghan capital killed 16 people, including two U.S. soldiers.

Referring to Friday's suicide blast at a roundabout called "Massoud Circle" -- named after the commander -- Karzai acknowledged that Afghanistan was still plagued by violence five years after the resistance fighter's killing.

But he warned "the enemy should know that every Afghan son is ready to die for the independence and freedom of this country."

"For the future of Afghanistan, we need to follow the path of Massoud and other martyrs of Afghanistan, to reconstruct our country, to save and keep it with our own power," he said.

In the volatile south, NATO-led forces said Saturday they had killed 60 insurgents in the past 24 hours, and lost one soldier. The insurgents were killed late Friday and early Saturday in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district, where an anti-Taliban operation was launched Sept. 2.

President Karzai Condemns the Bomb Blast in a Mosque in India -

Date of Release: - 9 August 2006

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is disturbed and condemns the terrorist attack In a mosque in the city of Malegaon, India, killing at least 37 people and injuring more then 125 people.

In his reaction to the news the President said, “This terrorist act in A holy site is shocking and despicable and is against humanity. It is Aimed at killing innocent civilians, and I condemn it in the strongest terms.” “Afghans have suffered at the hand of terrorists for many years and understand the pain and suffering that terrorism causes. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and those injured.”

The President on behalf of the people of Afghanistan extends his deepest sympathies to the victims of this attack, and to the Government and people of the brotherly nation of India.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Press Release, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Kabul, September 11, 2006

Afghan foreign minister to attend the Non-aligned Movement summit in Havana , Cuba on behalf of the president of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Mainly in these summits the Heads of the states or the foreign ministers participate on behalf of their countries. These meetings are due on 15 and 16 September 2006 in Havana.

The Non-aligned Movement was initially formed by five countries in the 1955 in Bandung/Indonesia. Right now 116 countries around the world have the membership of this Movement. The objective of this Movement was to have an independent stand during the years of cold war for their countries, but this Movement has now turned to be a summit of cooperation for the developing countries.

This is the 14 th summit of the NAM. Afghanistan is one of the founders of this Movement. Prior to the commencement of this summit there will be a conference of the senior officials of the member countries on 10 and 11 September 2006 and followed by that on 13 and 14 September 2006 the foreign ministers of the member countries will meet in Havana.

At the margin of this summit, the representatives of the least developed and land locked countries (LDCs/LLDCs) will meet. Based on the Brussels Action Program the assistance for these countries has been increased. In the recent conference of these countries, held from 7-8 June 2006, Afghanistan brought up the concept of post conflict countries and included that into the final declaration of this conference. It was agreed there that the least developed countries should be assisted. There are 50 countries on the list of Least Developed and Land Locked countries (LDCs).

The foreign minister of the Islamic republic of Afghanistan after participation in the summit will join the high ranking officials headed by HE president Hamid Karzai. They will participate in the 61 st session of the General Assembly of the United Nation in New York. The Afghan foreign minister will return to Afghanistan at the end of September.

Spokesman’s office, MOFA.

Afghan army recaptures district in S. Afghanistan

Afghan government forces backed by NATO troops on Monday regained the control of Garmsir district in the troubled southern Helmand province after heavy fighting, provincial police Chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil said.

"Afghan and NATO forces launched a big operation against Taliban militias in Garmsir to recapture the district and finally they regained it Monday morning after dislodging militants," Mullahkhil told Xinhua.

He also said that 20 militants were killed in the operation but declined to say if there were any casualties on the government troops. However, he confirmed that air power was also used against the rebels during the operation.

"Operation is still continuing to clean up completely the district from the enemies of Afghanistan," Mullahkhil added. The Taliban-linked militias overrun the districts of Garmsir and Arghandab in Helmand and Zabul provinces respectively last Thursday.

However, Mullahkhil did not say if the government has taken any step to re-establish control over Arghandab district. Some two months ago, Taliban militants also captured Garmsir and Nawa districts briefly, but the government forces regained their control after heavy fighting. Source: Xinhua

Doubts intensify over Afghanistan's future

Critics say President Karzai and the West must redouble efforts to boost security and reconstruction. -

By Rachel Morarjee | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - When the Taliban suicide car bomb struck the center of Kabul on Friday, it found grandmother Amena Wahidi in the wrong place at the wrong time - and signaled that five years after Sept. 11, the first chapter in the US war on terror is far from over.

Mrs. Wahidi died, along with 13 other Afghan civilians and two US soldiers, when the explosion in central Kabul - the first such Taliban attack in the Afghan capital - targeted a US military convoy. The attack coincides with heavy resistance from Taliban fighters to the new NATO presence in southern Afghanistan. NATO forces say they have killed some 420 fighters over the past week alone.

"The Taliban are showing that they can operate anywhere at will, even in very high security areas," says Joanna Nathan, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group in Kabul. "It is a not a popular uprising at the moment, but people are sitting on the fence waiting to see who will be the winning side."

Popular doubt here about the long-term direction of Afghanistan reflects a perception that the government of Hamid Karzai is weak and the West has not delivered on security and reconstruction, analysts say. Military commanders, international observers, and officials are sounding urgent calls for a redoubling of efforts by the government and its Western backers.

"We can count ourselves lucky that almost five years after Sept. 11, we have approximately 35,000 to 40,000 troops here. Of course things are salvageable, but it's going to be a hard road," says Francis Vendrell, the European Union's Special Representative to Afghanistan.

Mr. Vendrell argues for a three-pronged approach: Kick out corrupt officials, fast-track reconstruction efforts, and - echoing calls by NATO's own commanders - send more troops.

"The government is facing a crisis of legitimacy," says Michael Shaikh with Human Rights Watch. "The only way to deal with this is to tackle the people within its own ranks."

In the past few months, President Karzai has made efforts to crack down on corruption and bad governance. He's appointed an attorney general who has made corruption his top target. Religious conservatives have been swept off the Supreme Court, yielding to more judges trained in modern jurisprudence. And the government has dispatched a raft of new police chiefs and governors to the south, admitting that the central government has not paid enough attention to the volatile south.

"It's not that the Taliban were strong, it's that the government was weak. They have moved into a vacuum [in the south]. There was protracted negligence on our part of those provinces," says Karzai's chief of staff, Jawed Ludin.

But turning around the security situation is now a much more difficult task as the violence has spread beyond the south. Troubling signs are coming in from points north, east, and west as well, with no-go zones and pockets of violence creeping steadily toward the capital:

• Weapons prices in northern Afghanistan - a region where warlords still hold sway - have more than doubled in the past few months, signaling a setback for disarmament efforts. "It's not that there are no weapons available on the market, it's that people are stockpiling and waiting for something to happen," said a Western military official.

• Many parts of Wardak Province, on the western border of Kabul Province, are no longer safe for aid agencies to operate. "People are starting to pull out, and this will give the Taliban a stronger case to win the population over," says an aid worker, who asked not to be identified.

• A week ago, another blast on the Jalalabad road east of Kabul killed a British soldier and four civilians.

• In the western province of Farah, 100 Taliban fighters in pickup trucks armed with rocket-propelled grenades stormed the district headquarters in Kailargar, killing two policemen and torching a health clinic Sunday.

• And a suicide car bomb killed the governor of the southeastern Paktia Province and two others Sunday.

The notion that Kabul remains an oasis of relative stability was punctured by Friday's bombing.

"Through our intelligence sources, we know there's a cell here in Kabul, at least one, whose primary mission is to seek coalition or international troops and hit them with suicide bombs," Col. Tom Collins, a US military spokesman, told reporters in Kabul.

Suicide bombs first became a phenomenon last summer in Afghanistan but the bombers were inept, often killing no one but themselves. That has changed, with more than 70 suicide attacks since the beginning of this year that have become increasingly lethal.

The number of Taliban fighters met on the battlefields of the south has also risen. Partly, this may be due to the Taliban's willingness to pay better. Police are paid around $2 a day, Afghan National Army fighters are paid roughly $4 a day, but Taliban fighters get $8 a day, says Lt. Col. David Hammond, who is training the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province.

While the lure of a little more money no doubt draws some Afghans to the insurgency, the overall economic picture of the country since 2001 is brighter.

According to the IMF, official GDP growth averaged 22.5 percent between 2002 and 2004 and the organization has projected a 14 percent increase for 2005-06. Over a fifth of GDP comes from investment activity with $1.5 billion new since 2003. Most of it is donor aided public investment, but one-third comes as foreign direct investment.

The downside is that nearly a third of the total licit - illicit GDP (almost $6 billion the IMF estimates) - stems from the production and export of opium.

For some Western observers, the past four years feel like a missed opportunity. "US and international attention veered from Afghanistan in mid-2002, and focused on Iraq," says a senior Western diplomat in Kabul. "There was a feeling they had got rid of the Taliban, and left a good man [Karzai], and that things would settle down."

• Staff writer Scott Peterson contributed from Kabul.

Afghan Experiment Marked by Progress And Disillusionment

By Pamela Constable - Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, September 11, 2006

KARABAGH, Afghanistan -- When Mahmad Naib ventured back to his village, north of Kabul, after U.S. warplanes and Afghan fighters drove out the Taliban militia in November 2001, he found little but scorched earth. The grapevines were dead, the houses looted, the mosque in ruins and the magnificent sycamores burned black.

Today, the resettled mud-and-timber village is surrounded by ripening grapes and obscured by a thicket of new restaurants, workshops and gas stations lining the nearby Shomali highway. The roar of fast traffic drowns out the ping of hammers as workers erect a shiny tin dome on the half-restored village mosque.

"Life is hard, but it is peaceful, and that is what matters most," said Naib, 55, a mason who was shoveling debris Thursday out of the newly plastered mosque. "We do have our complaints. Wages are low, water is scarce, and the government never dug the wells it promised. But . . . by God's grace, we will finish this mosque in time for Ramadan."

One day after he spoke, a massive car bombing killed 16 people in Kabul, the capital, 30 miles to the south. The brazen midday attack underscored the fragility of peace in Afghanistan today, nearly five years after the overthrow of the Taliban rulers who imposed an extreme form of Islam and harbored Osama bin Laden.

Since late 2001, the country of 25 million people has undergone an ambitious experiment, backed by international troops, expertise and aid, to bring modern democracy to an impoverished, deeply conservative Muslim society.

On some levels, there has been remarkable progress: presidential and parliamentary elections, a new constitution, a new national army and greater freedoms for women. In poor but stable communities such as Karabagh, halting social and economic gains have been made: a part-time nurse in a clinic, carpets in a school where students once crouched on concrete, a grape harvest that is approaching half the pre-Taliban crop.

But in the southern provinces that spawned the Taliban movement, open warfare has resumed after four years of relative quiet. Insurgents are battling NATO troops and employing suicide bombs. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes, to escape both insurgent violence and NATO airstrikes. Schools have shut down, and development projects have stopped.

At the same time, opium poppy cultivation, virtually wiped out by the Taliban, has soared to record levels, largely in the south. Nationwide it increased by 59 percent in the past year alone, according to new U.N. figures. Drug traffickers have formed protective alliances with the Islamic insurgents.

"The situation in the south is difficult and fragile," said Mark Laity, a spokesman here for NATO forces. "We are conducting a number of offensives, but the Taliban have also been pushing hard. They are taking heavy casualties but standing their ground more. Our strategy is still to create secure spaces for development and governance, but the effort is taking longer and involving a lot more combat than expected."

NATO's commanding general, citing the surprising toughness of the insurgents, called last week on member nations to provide as many as 2,500 additional troops for the south. But the proposal faces questions in European capitals about the risks involved. Since taking responsibility for the south from U.S.-led forces at the beginning of August, NATO has lost 35 troops.

Senior Taliban leaders and al-Qaeda figures, including bin Laden, who is widely believed to be hiding in the wilds along the Afghan-Pakistani border, meanwhile continue to elude capture. Afghan officials have repeatedly accused neighboring Pakistan of allowing Taliban insurgents to find refuge in the border region.

In recent months, the violence has spread to the Kabul area and the east, creating a sense of insecurity that now overshadows all other national concerns. Even in the north and west, where the insurgency has hardly reached, many people today express dismay with the government of President Hamid Karzai. They say it remains weak and distant, that public services and protection are grossly inadequate, and that commanders from the war against Soviet troops in the 1980s often hold extortionate sway over daily life.

Foreign analysts and domestic critics point to a daunting list of social, economic and institutional problems that Karzai's government has largely failed to correct despite massive aid and training from abroad: impassable roads, ineffective courts, too few doctors, too few police officers. Complaints of corruption are constant, taking a huge toll on public confidence in the system.

"We have had some big successes -- the development of media, the parliamentary and presidential elections. But real successes that people can feel in their daily lives? Honestly, there is nothing," said Shukria Barakzai, 34, a member of parliament from Kabul. "Poppy is booming, but farmers are still poor. Good jobs are available, but only for the few with computer and English skills. Clinics are open, but anyone with a serious illness has to go to Pakistan for treatment."

For the first four years after Karzai came to office in late 2001, such harsh criticism was rare. The influx of foreign support -- more than $3.5 billion in U.S. economic aid alone -- brought a sense of progress. More than 6 million children were enrolled in schools; crews built a new highway between the two major cities, Kabul and Kandahar; and the economy grew at a brisk 15 percent a year.

But the high expectations that democracy would deliver jobs and development has gradually turned to bitter disappointment as reports of corruption spread and the massive doses of foreign aid seemed to produce few tangible benefits for the poor.

Kabul, the capital of 3.5 million, did acquire a veneer of commercial and social progress. Dozens of glittering office buildings and wedding salons opened; ATMs whirred and cellphones buzzed. But many neighborhoods remained without electricity and water, and urban poverty exploded with the massive return of war refugees. A major riot in late May revealed both the depth of public frustration and the failure of police protection.

Ethnic tensions deepened despite foreign efforts to craft a government in which major ethnic groups shared power.

Many Afghan Muslims also began to equate modernization with immorality. They mistrusted the emancipation of women enshrined in the new charter and disapproved of Kabul restaurants selling alcohol to foreigners. Earlier this year, an Afghan man was nearly sentenced to death for converting to Christianity.

The strong initial welcome for U.S. and other foreign troops in the country also began to chill. There were complaints about airstrikes on village compounds that killed civilians. As the insurgency erupted this year, with more firefights and bombings in civilian areas, Afghans began blaming the foreign soldiers for exposing them to danger.

"We don't want these troops patrolling here, because it only brings trouble and kills innocent people," said Akbar, a 54-year-old teacher standing beside the Kabul boulevard where a suicide bomber attacked a NATO patrol last week, killing at least three bystanders. "We were happy when the Taliban fell and the new government came, because we thought it would bring peace and development," he said. "Now the people are not starving, but with all these deaths and bombs, it seems like the Taliban time was better."

Afghan officials acknowledge that legal and democratic institutions are still weak, but they point to recent improvements such as the appointments of better-qualified Supreme Court justices and an anti-corruption commission. Human rights activists said they were encouraged by these changes but concerned that they would not trickle down to rural regions.

"We have built institutions and elected legitimate leaders . . . but in much of the country, there is no government at all, just empty locked offices," said Ahmad Nader Nadery of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. As a result, he said, some communities are beginning to accept the Taliban, and others are turning to local militias.

With the insurgents exploiting government weaknesses and public frustrations, a variety of experts have warned that the achievements of the past five years -- and even the stability of the Afghan government -- could be in serious jeopardy.

Barnett R. Rubin, an American expert on Afghanistan, conducted a broad survey here last month. In a resulting report, "Still Ours to Lose: Afghanistan on the Brink," sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, he wrote that many Afghans had lost faith in the Karzai government and that some felt conditions in the country were "ripe for fundamentalism."

Salvaging the situation, Rubin wrote, will require a major increase and redirection in foreign aid, serious reforms in the justice and police systems, and the shutting down of Taliban support networks in neighboring Pakistan -- none of which seems likely to happen in the near future.

In Karabagh, the Taliban threat still seems far away. Schools are full, tourist shops are stocked with local pottery, smoking kilns bake mountains of construction bricks, and cargo trucks haul away crate after crate of grapes.

But even here, people here are beginning to voice the disillusionment and anxiety expressed by Afghans in more troubled regions. They complain that local officials, linked to former militia commanders, demand shares of their crop profits, bridal dowries and rationed irrigation water.

"Everyone knows the money goes into certain pockets, but at least we can walk down the road without fear," said Naimullah, 40, who was picking grapes on a rented plot Thursday with his wife, brother and four children. "I heard about the Taliban trying to come back, but no one in Afghanistan wants more fighting and killing," he said. "We have come home, so we must plant our crops and see what they produce."

U.S. defends Pakistan's hunt for bin Laden; Afghan official says terror leader in Pakistan - The Associated Press - Published: September 10, 2006

WASHINGTON Top U.S. officials on Sunday strongly defended Pakistan's hunt for terrorists along its border with Afghanistan, with Vice President Dick Cheney bristling at claims Pakistan had failed to cooperate in the search for Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, meanwhile, said Sunday that Afghan officials were certain the al-Qaida leader was hiding in Pakistan; he suggested Islamabad had constraints on its ability to fight terrorism.

Cheney, appearing on NBC television's "Meet the Press" before Monday's fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, said, "The fact is we've captured and killed more al-Qaida in Pakistan than any place else in the world in the last five years."

Cheney praised Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as "a man who has demonstrated great courage under very difficult political circumstances and has been a great ally for the United States."

Some observers have expressed concern that a recent peace deal between Islamabad and pro-Taliban militants could provide a haven for al-Qaida leaders like bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the rugged region along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan has repeatedly said bin Laden is more likely in Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. and allied troops are trying to track down Taliban fighters and fugitives from his al-Qaida network, blamed for the 2001 attacks.

The Afghan ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad, said that "by having more than 30,000 international forces in Afghanistan and increasingly building the capability of Afghan intelligence forces, we are certain that he is spending most of his time in Pakistan."

He said "there is enough military power, intelligence gathering in the region, but from the very beginning, from the days of Tora Bora, Pakistan (has) not allowed hot pursuit of terrorists into their territory."

Western, Afghan and Pakistani officials agree that the nearest they got to bin Laden was in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border in November 2001 when he was fleeing the U.S.-backed war that toppled the Taliban regime.

Afghanistan, Jawad told CNN's "Late Edition," has "no constraint whatsoever, political, military or intelligence-wise, to go after him, to find him and to bring him to justice."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also defended Pakistan's search for bin Laden.

"The Pakistanis operate now in areas of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan that they did not before. And so his world has gotten smaller," Rice said on CNN. "I don't know precisely where he is, but I do know that we'll continue on the hunt for him."

In response to calls for the United States to withdraw from Iraq, Cheney invoked Musharraf, who "puts his neck on the line every day he goes to work."

Leaving Iraq too soon, Cheney said, would lead Musharraf and others "to say, 'My gosh, the United States hasn't got the stomach for the fight. Bin Laden's right; al-Qaida's right. The United States has lost its will and will not complete the mission.'"

That, Cheney said, "will damage our capabilities in all those other war fronts, if you will, in the global war on terror."

Karzai: "They Hate Our Way of Life"
In a TIME interview, the Afghan President talks about extremists, the opium-poppy problem and whether he is too "nice" to run his troubled country
By ROMESH RATNESAR AND ARYN BAKER/KABUL

Karzai: As you may have heard, we just got news of a suicide bombing in Kabul. I'll be getting the details shortly.

Time: What does this attack mean?

Karzai: We are used to it. It's so unfortunate when you hear so much of it. Afghanistan has been going through this sort of suffering for a long time. You get very angry, and each time you get angrier. But then also you think and try to rationalize and seek better ways of prevention. That's what one does. That's how it is.

Time: There has obviously been some worrying news out of Afghanistan over the last few weeks, fighting in the south, reports about (opium) poppy cultivation. For a lot of people outside of Afghanistan there is a sense that the world is failing and that the effort to build a new Afghanistan is faltering.

Karzai: It is definitely not. What the world should see is the desire of the Afghan people, not the problems we have along the way.

(Karzai leaves to consult with security advisor.)

Karzai: This is what I am hearing about the blast. So far, reports indicate three people killed in the coalition, three Afghans and the suicide bombers. (Numbers rose to 16 afghans dead, 2 soldiers, three dozen wounded.)

Time: As we were saying, these sorts of things add to a perception that the effort here is going backward.

Karzai: Look, we have enemies. The same enemies that blew up themselves in London, the same enemies that blew up the train in Madrid or the train in Bombay or the twin towers in America are still around. Before September 11, they were the government in Afghanistan. They were in charge here. Today they are not the government. Today they are on the run and hiding and they come out from their hiding and try to hurt us when they can manage it. They hate us all—they hate our way of life and they like when they can afford it to inflict as much damage as they possibly can. So we will have this for a long time. But what are we comparing the situation to? Are we forgetting that they were the government of Afghanistan? Are we forgetting that they were in charge of this country, that they had the entire infrastructure of Afghanistan at their disposal from where they could launch major attacks across the world? Today we are hunting them openly and publicly and they are hiding and occasionally they come out of their hiding and try to hurt us. So the enemy is defeated, but the enemy is not eliminated. The elimination part is what we should continue to work on. And that needs patience. That needs perseverance and that needs hard work.

Time: Isn't this enemy growing stronger, isn't that what we are seeing in the South?

Karzai: No, the South is a different situation. Bomb blasts is one thing that you cannot stop. A terrorist activity of that nature, a suicide bomber, of explosions, is one aspect of it. The other aspect, the Taliban activity in the South of the country is an entirely different issue. That's something that is preventable. That is much easier to prevent and neutralize. The reason why there are now Taliban in Panjwai, in Pashmul, in Kandahar, is because we were weak there. People in Kandahar told me two years ago to strengthen the districts with a police force. We couldn't do that because we had no resources to implement what we wanted. And I began to negotiate with our allies exactly two years ago. It kept going on, we kept talking, and no one came forward to help us with that. The population kept calling for stronger district administration, police resources and reconstruction. We tried in that in some of the districts of Kandahar on our own. Two and a half years ago you will remember the Taliban were there. (In one place) they destroyed the mosque, they destroyed the bazaar, and they destroyed the district offices. And then the local population came to us and said, Look, we defended the districts for so long, we cannot do it without government help. I said 'What do you want?' They said, Send us 100 men or give us resources for 100 men in the district. And we did that. Till today it is the strongest of districts. We wanted to do the same in every district in the southern parts of the country. Or where we had borders with Pakistan. Where we have done that we are secure. Where we didn't do that we are not secure. That's a much easier problem.

Time: do you think the fact that it has taken so long has eroded confidence in your government, or in you personally, among the people?

Karzai: Not at all. With ordinary people our expectations were too high. My own expectations were too high. We came, we thought the neighbors were going to be good with us, that terrorism was gone, that everybody was cooperating, that the little politics around the region was no longer there to sabotage the process. That we would strengthen our administration. We concentrated on the political aspect and we succeeded very well in that. We had the emergency loya jirga, the constitutional loya jirga, and the presidential elections, the parliamentary elections—all that. We concentrated on health, a lot of success, from 10% of the population getting medical services to 70% today. Road building was a success. We began to pay attention early on to the army, which is now much better than what it used to be. We did not focus attention in time in strengthening the police, the institution that actually is in daily contact with districts for security. That's where we should have focused strongly. That's where I began to focus very strongly two years ago, and unfortunately I did not get support from our partners. In spite of repeated pleas. In spite of a very clear plan I presented. I proposed that we must have more police in the districts. Now whether that support, that police is in the form of recruitment from the cities or from the villages, we need it to strengthen the community with more police. Unfortunately it was misinterpreted very wrongly by the international community as us asking for militias. No, that is not what it is coming from. We are simply trying to have more police from the communities.

Time: For the Afghan and international community it has been hard to understand some of the decisions you have made in terms of putting former warlords and suspected drug smugglers in positions of power. Aren't you creating a bigger problem this way?

Karzai: No drug smugglers, clearly, that I know of—that I have been told that so and so is a drug smuggler, I would definitely take action, never. Never. Those that we refer to as warlords have done a service to this country. They fought the Soviets. They fought the Taliban. They were partners with the coalition. They have a desire to help us. Now whether some of them are capable of delivering the services that we require today or not is a different matter. But we cannot shun away those who have served this country and throw them into nothing. That will bring us into another form of instability. My job here is to try to move forward, keeping this very delicate jar of the Afghan peace process and reconstruction and institution building in my hands through troubled waters. Through minefields, through stormy conditions, through areas that don't have proper light and keep this jar intact and safe, and take it to the distant place. Along the way I may have to do things that some in the international community may not like. But I have my Afghan judgment and that is what I use. And that Afghan judgment does not need to be understood by the international community. Including in the war on terror. I began to warn the international community four and a half years ago, just as we had begun. Of some of the cultural sensitivities of the country, of the environment in the neighborhood of Afghanistan. Of where we should go and look for terrorism. Of the sources of terrorism, of the places where they get trained, of the places where they get money.

That is something with which I have been engaged with the international community very seriously almost on a daily basis. Now when an engineer from America is killed on an Afghan road, reconstructing one of our roads or building a new road. Or when a soldier from Canada is killed in our country, or when an engineer from Germany or Turkey or India is killed, we should immediately think, who did that? Are these Afghans that are killing engineers that are building schools for us, that built clinics for us, that build hospitals for us? If Afghans are doing this, then how come Afghans are also asking at the same time for more schools, for more hospitals, for more reconstruction? Then how come they are not satisfied with what we have done so far? Why do they keep asking for more? You cannot be asking for something, yet destroying that thing. So there must be somebody else. If it is not Afghans then who is it? It must be a force from outside. Who is that force from outside? What is the cause of those from outside to come in and kill us and try to prevent our reconstruction? That sort of focus I want. There are two things. Or perhaps both elements. We must sort out what part of this problem is Afghan. And then that is our responsibility to handle. Be it corruption, be it lack of capacity, or be it some Afghan elements that would not like us to make progress or have foreign friends. But the bigger part, the more serious part, is the foreign element of instability in Afghanistan. Of blasts of explosions, of killings of engineers, of our clergy and our students. That is the part that I want the international community to focus upon more heavily. So that we will reach a solution eventually. We may make mistakes along the way, in certain decisions, that every government makes. But our effort is to try to put the country together in this journey. To have the whole country together in this journey. My first job is the unity of Afghanistan. My first job is to carry this country along every part of it, every segment of it.

Time: The way you describe those who are attacking the engineers, it indicates that it could be either external elements or it could indicate a division within Afghan society itself, about what the future of the country should be. Karzai: No it isn't. Within Afghanistan it is very clear as to what the Afghan people want this country to be. Eight and a half million Afghans participated in the elections. That's very clear. That's almost half of Afghanistan's population. We have a parliament. The whole country got together to have a constitution. The whole country cried for more international forces four days ago to go to the whole country in order to have more security. People from the districts come to us and say, "Well, Mr. President, police police police, strong institutions, better roads, better education, better health services, better economy." Our vision is clear. Our vision is for a democratic, prosperous Afghanistan, keeping and moving along with the values and history and traditions that we have. Now this vision has enemies, the enemies are those who are extremists, religious extremists, trained outside, equipped outside, motivated outside. Call it al Qaeda, call it terrorism, call it Taliban or a combination of all of them. Those are the forces that are hurting America, or who are hurting us in Afghanistan. Those are the forces that will hurt you in any other part of the world. And that is what we should be fighting together. And that is where all the allies should join hands and fight. So the allies should not be playing politics among themselves. That's where things go wrong. If we are all allies, then we must follow the vision thoroughly without trying to have little things in-between for ourselves.

Time: What about a threat that is very much home grown, and is happening throughout the country, which is the drug problem?

Karzai: That is a threat. Yes, that is our problem. Poppy cultivation is our problem. But it is like a disease. It has a point of beginning, it has a point of spreading and it must also have a point of treatment. We should see how this disease came about in Afghanistan. The sheer desperation of the afghan people when the Soviets invaded, when the country was destroyed, when families no longer had any hope if their children would be alive the next minute, or if they would be staying in their homes the next day or if they would be in their country the next day. So the easiest crop, with the quickest cash, was poppy. I know of people in the south west of the country who destroyed their pomegranate fields to replace them with poppy. And that should be tremendously dispiriting condition for a person, for a family, to destroy that beautiful orchard and replace it with poppies. Then, mixed with this is the influence of the mafia and the international drug dealer circles, for whom the more unstable Afghanistan is, the better it is for their greed and their moneymaking. While this has happened, it has also become an economic reality. Droughts, war, desperation, lack of hope for a future in the past 30 years, add to that the past nine years of droughts. We have a serious problem. Two years ago, after my inauguration, I spoke to the Afghan people and asked them to stop growing and they responded. I told the international community, look, this time it was an emotional decision, for a moral call by me to stop growing and they will do it. Next year the harsh realities of life will settle in again. People will want to marry their sons and daughters. People will want to be able to cure their sick ones, people will want to have a better life, and people will want to have something to eat. And unless we provide them with a stronger reconstruction and alternative livelihood they will go back to poppies. In other words, the honeymoon will be over. And that is exactly what we have this year. Add to that, the encouragement that comes from outside, from the international mafia. Now if the poppy income for Afghanistan is between $2 billion to $2.5 billion, when it reaches international markets it reaches $50 billion. So where is the rest of the money? Who benefits more? There is a lot of difference between 2.5 and 50. Where is that $48 billion going? And do you think that $48 billion will allow us to destroy poppy in Afghanistan? Therefore we need to have a very comprehensive program. The mistake was that there was a concentration at the same time on three important things in Afghanistan. We became relaxed in the fight against the regional elements of terrorism. We concentrated only on the international elements of al Qaeda and terrorism. We ignored what was going on in the region. We ignored that the Taliban were given safe havens. We ignored that they were being trained again. We ignored to strengthen the police. And at the same time we concentrated strongly on the eradication, coupled unfortunately with corruption. We called some of the police forces corrupt, and yet we used those same police forces to go and eradicate. So: resentment in the farmers.

So: the failure of eradication. Now I want my partners in the international community to concentrate strongly on bringing security for Afghanistan by all the means available. If we continue to do this on the cheap we will never succeed. That means provide great support to the Afghan institution building, the army and the police. Give us what we want and listen to us. Listen to us the way we are asking for it. Do it the way we are asking for it. In other words, Afghanize the process. Let Afghanistan take charge day by day. Better than the previous days, more than the previous days. Second, have a clear alternative livelihoods program. That means economic development. Strong, effective economic development. Third, continue with patience, no quick fixes in here. We have to do that for us to succeed. Other than that we will keep going in this vicious circle of eradicating and coming up again with crops. Eradicating again and coming up with crops. More eradication, more crops.

Time: President Karzai, let me ask you about your own style of governance. A number of people have said that one of the best things about you is that you consult with a wide range of Afghans, people within your government, your cabinet...

Karzai: I am criticized for that.

Time: At the same time there are a number of people who have said that is the wrong approach. You are too nice to be leading the country in this way in this time. Do you think you are too nice?

Karzai: Well it's not bad to be nice. It's a very good thing to be nice. But look. What was the problem in Afghanistan? Why did Afghanistan fall to terrorism and the trouble that caused you trouble as well in the rest of the world? The trouble was twofold. Bickering within Afghanistan between various groups fighting amongst each other. And interference from outside. The two brought the circumstances that brought the destruction of the twin towers and bombs around the world, and Afghanistan falling victim to terrorism the way it did. So my first job was to bring the country back together. To bring a sense here in Afghanistan that this country belongs to all. All the groups that came with the Soviet invasion, with the communists, relied on exclusivity. They were exclusive, they were only for themselves, and they did not allow other Afghans. They either killed other Afghans, or chased them away or imprisoned them. Unfortunately the mujheddin organizations, when they came they began to fight each other. Again, some form of exclusivity. The Taliban did even worse. They chased every other Afghan away. That's why there were more refugees during the time of the Taliban than any other time in the past. Bring in all of this mess the massive foreign presence that brought terrorism and extremism and al Qaeda and all forms of religious extremism that caused eventually terrorism in Afghanistan. When I came my first job was to make this country home for all Afghans. And I did that. I am very proud of that. Very proud. Under my rule this country belongs to all Afghans. And I was proven right by the Afghan people as well. Because in the parliamentary elections the Afghan people voted for all assortment of politics and personalities. We have the Taliban here in the parliament--some of them won their votes, some of them didn't-- we have the former mujheddin, the former communists, we have the seculars, the religious, the capitalists, the communists, we have all of them sitting in the Afghan parliament, the Afghan people voted for them. And everybody came back home, from his majesty, the father of the nation, to the jihadi leaders, to the former communists, to the refugees in Europe and America. All of them came back. And that's great. Now if I adopt a style of not consulting, and of doing it alone, the country will not have the kind of harmony it has today. I will not abandon this style of government. I will continue to do it. But where I need to take action against certain issues, certain individuals who are doing wrong for the country, I will again consult and act upon it. My problem is that I am perhaps too much of a democrat for this time of the country's life. If you need a dictator, then go to the Afghan people. Let them elect a dictator. I am not one of those.

Time: One of the other things that we have noticed about your role is that you don't have room for a personal life. You haven't taken a day off since you came to power. Are you burning out? Are you exhausted?

Karzai: I am burning out. When I feel burned out I am immediately reminded of Frost's great poem: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep/ But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep/ and miles to go before I sleep." We have a lot of miles to go. A lot of miles to go. I think no Afghan president, even after my term is complete, will have an option on this account. I have to work very hard. You can't imagine how destroyed this country was. You can't imagine how dispirited this country had become. How miserable it had become. Unbelievable. When you go to the country, to the mountains where I was fighting the Taliban, I came across families and people who had nothing on earth. Nothing. And if they survived it worked. We have to provide them a better life. It will take time, it will take effort, and it will take very hard work. And no vacations.

Time: So how do you relax? How do you calm down? Karzai: I think the best form of relaxation comes when I inaugurate a road, or see a good report, or I see that people have begun to have a better life or things like that have come a long way and that relaxes me a lot. I am very happy. I am looking forward to inaugurating the Torkham-Jalalabad road with the prime minister of Pakistan. That is a great sense of relaxation. Achievement is relaxation. What took away from my relaxation this morning with the bomb blast is replaced by looking forward to the inauguration of the road from Torkham to Jalalabad.

Time: So something like the bomb blast doesn't give you more concern for your own security? You are not able to travel around the country I'm sure as much as you like.

Karzai: I think I have done a lot compared to what our means are. I've been to about 20 provinces of the country. I travel almost every month to a province. We are an understaffed government. We don't have the means, but even then we try to go and visit as many provinces as possible. One could do it more often, but then the schedule in Kabul is too heavy. And I believe that is what (chief of staff) Ludin should do. The lighter the schedule here the more chance I have to visit the provinces. The scheduling is the problem. Not only for visits to the provinces, but also for picking up a telephone and trying to contact people. I like to call provincial governors and ask them well, how are things? I rarely get a chance for that. Between meetings I run and make calls.

Ludin: Sir, your scheduling reflects the demands here on your time so I cannot...

Karzai: I was not criticizing. (Laughs) I was demanding.

Time: There were reports that you used to sneak out from time to time on your own. Can you still do that?

Karzai: Yes, I have done that sometimes.

Time: Recently?

Karzai: About 15 days ago. Around Kabul. Loved it, it was very good. Just took an unmarked vehicle and went around the city. Stopped by shops, shook hands with people and security was not informed. It was great. I would like to do that more often.

Time: What was the reaction of your security staff?

Karzai: They were not happy. They have a job to do as well.

Time: A number of people have said to us that they sort of wished that you hadn't said that you wouldn't run again for President. Is there any chance that you would amend that now?

Karzai: This is a very important question. Look. I want to leave a legacy for this country. A legacy of democratic transitions. Of power from one person to another. Nelson Mandela set a very good example of completing his four years term and not doing it again. Had he wanted to stand again he would have definitely won. South Africans would have voted for him. But he wanted to set an example of democratic transitions and of new generations emerging. My worry for Afghanistan is whether we will have leaderships emerging in this country to carry on the task. And that is what I am concentrating on. New leadership. Patriotic, aware of this country. Now if there is an alternative three years from now that I can be comfortable with, that I feel is patriotic, good and deserves to be elected, I would definitely quit in his favor. Because I want to have the flow of things. I hate to have a country where personality cults run things. No, that is disastrous to society. And that is what I am trying to prevent by bringing new leadership. Some people don't understand this, and I don't know if I can explain it properly. But that is my desire.

Get out of Afghanistan now: NDP - Caucus to discuss how this week Sep. 10, 2006. BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH OTTAWA BUREAU

QUEBEC—NDP Leader Jack Layton wants Parliament to debate the withdrawal of Canadian soldiers from Afghanistan after party delegates overwhelmingly backed his call to "bring the troops home."

And Layton urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to distance Canada from America's war on terrorism.

"We have a very strong show of support from our members here today, a real sense of resolve," Layton said after the NDP became the first federal party to officially endorse a troop withdrawal.

"Now we're calling on Canadians to join with us in calling on the Harper government to change the track he is currently on with George Bush. It's time for Canada to have an independent approach," he said after the vote at a party convention here.

"Show some leadership instead of simply following the George Bush strategy, which is clearly failing in Iraq and Afghanistan," Layton said.

Today, delegates are expected to debate the party's policy on the Middle East, including whether Canadian troops should be deployed to Lebanon to police a ceasefire.

As well, delegates will also vote whether to trigger a review of Layton's leadership, although he's not expected to face much opposition.

Just how 29 New Democratic MPs intend to push for the troop withdrawal will be discussed at a caucus retreat in Thunder Bay, Ont., later this week.

The resolution adopted yesterday by some 1,500 delegates is meant to tap into public unease about Canada's Afghan mission — an operation in which five soldiers died in the last week alone.

"I think a very significant proportion of our population have real questions about why we're there," said MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North).

But Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore) warned that pulling the troops out — with no clear idea of the consequences — only feeds a public perception that New Democrats are weak on defence and foreign policy issues.

"We want the troops out of Afghanistan. Okay, fine. They're gone. Then what?" Stoffer asked. ``What happens in Afghanistan after that? What's our role with NATO? What about our commitment to the Afghan government?

"It's just a little premature to say `Let's pull them out right now,' without having those conclusive answers about what happens when they leave," said Stoffer, the only one of the party's MPs to speak out against the withdrawal.

But in the end, the vast majority of the delegates backed Layton's call — first made earlier this month — to withdraw Canada's military from Afghanistan, where it was been embroiled in deadly fights with insurgents.

Indeed, the delegates set an even more ambitious timetable, urging the "safe and immediate" withdrawal of the 2,300 troops.

Layton had called for the 2,300 troops to be returned home by next February, two years ahead of schedule.

Kerry Urges Buildup in Afghanistan

The Pentagon should send 5,000 more troops to put down the Taliban, the senator says in a speech that also faults Bush's Iraq strategy. By Dan Balz, Washington Post September 10, 2006

WASHINGTON — Sen. John F. Kerry on Saturday urged the deployment of more U.S. troops to combat the growing Taliban threat in Afghanistan while accusing the Bush administration of trying to salvage its congressional majorities by playing on public fears of terrorist attacks rather than fixing its Iraq policy.

As the nation prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Kerry (D-Mass.) offered a pointed rejoinder to President Bush's recent rhetorical offensive on terrorism. He said Bush's policies have turned Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground, unleashed dangerous forces elsewhere in the Middle East, and diverted resources from the battle against terrorism at home and in Afghanistan.

“We have a Katrina foreign policy, a succession of blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," Kerry said in a speech at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.

The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee also accused Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who recently spoke of "moral confusion" in the debate about how best to fight the radical Islamic terrorist threat, of smearing those who dissent from the administration's policies by suggesting they were similar to Nazi appeasers in the 1930s.

"It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work," Kerry said. "It is immoral to lie about progress in that war to get through a news cycle or an election. It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn."

Speaking a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including two U.S. soldiers, in Afghanistan, Kerry accused the administration of "a policy of cut and run" in that country and said the Pentagon should deploy at least 5,000 more troops to help suppress the Taliban insurgency. He said allied forces there need more helicopters, drones, heavy equipment and reconstruction funds to help prop up the government in Kabul.

Kerry restated his call for the withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Iraq by next July, a recommendation that most Democratic senators have already rejected. He also urged new policies to free the United States from its dependence on Middle East oil, which he described as the "great treasury of jihadist terrorism."

"There is simply no way to overstate how Iraq has subverted our efforts to free the world from global terror," Kerry said, according to the prepared text. "It has overstretched our military. It has served as an essential recruitment tool for terrorists. It has divided and pushed away our traditional allies. It has diverted critical billions of dollars from the real front lines against terrorism and from homeland security."

A Republican National Committee spokeswoman, Tara Wall, called Kerry's criticism ill-timed on the eve of the commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks and charged that Kerry's blueprint would embolden terrorists and diminish domestic efforts to prevent attacks.

Extending Canada’s mission in Afghanistan ‘right thing to do’ -
By PETER MACKAY

Alongside our allies from more than 35 other nations, our Canadian Forces members, diplomats and development workers are working to ensure the benefits of peace and prosperity extend to all Afghans.

They are working with the Afghan people and their first-ever elected government to create a better future for the Afghan people. Development cannot occur in the absence of security.

Because of the work of our CF members, girls are now going to school in Afghanistan. Low-income farmers can get small loans to improve their crops. Families can get credit to open a small bakery, or a shoe repair shop, or a teahouse. Wells are being dug and pipes installed to bring water to villages. Roads are being resurfaced so that farmers can get their vegetables to market.

Unfortunately, these images are not the ones most often seen on television. I saw first-hand how our presence in Afghanistan is helping improve the daily lives of Afghan citizens.

Our integrated approach of development, diplomacy and defence is helping the Afghan people stabilize their country and ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for terrorists.

We must never forget that we are there at the invitation of Afghanistan’s democratically elected government. We are guided by core Canadian values: freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Much progress has been made; but laying the groundwork for democratic development takes time and requires sustained support.

Just five years ago, Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban. There was no schooling for girls and limited schooling for boys. Four in 10 men in villages were illiterate, as were nearly all women. Music and TV were banned. Women could not work and were confined to their homes. The country was ruled by violence. Democracy did not exist.

Whether it was on the beaches of Normandy or in Korea, Canada has always stood with allies and engaged where most needed. Canadian soldiers, diplomats and development officers are needed now where terrorists, insurgents, criminals and drug traffickers are fighting to destabilize the progress being made.

Canada’s military efforts, beginning in 2002, started the process of restoring stability in the capital of Kabul. New institutions have been built, including an independent Afghan human rights commission and a Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Afghans in Kabul now enjoy opportunities unheard of under Taliban rule. Almost five million children are now in school. Children I visited in Kabul’s Ashiana school are learning to read and write.

Additionally, Afghan women now make up more than one in four of the elected members of parliament. Women now have the right to borrow money, thanks to a Canadian-backed micro-credit program helping them to set up small businesses.

Almost 63,000 insurgent soldiers have been disarmed, and 11,000 heavy weapons have been secured and taken out of the hands of the Taliban.

This is not a traditional peacekeeping mission. It never has been. There is no ceasefire to patrol, no negotiated peace agreement to respect. Al-Qaida and the Taliban are not interested in peace.

They target civilians, including women and children, in a quest to again impose their will on the Afghan people. They burn down schools and clinics, and threaten governance institutions. As a country, we cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We have chosen a side. We have a responsibility to act.

Success cannot, and is not, assured by military means alone. For this reason, the prime minister recently announced an additional $310 million in development assistance, raising Canada’s contribution to development to nearly $1 billion over 10 years. The mandate of our Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, where Foreign Affairs and development officials work alongside RCMP officers and the military, has also been extended.

The Afghanistan Compact, developed by Afghans, outlines 40 specific, measurable benchmarks to guide Afghan and international efforts over the next five years. Specific examples include:

• The establishment of an Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police and Afghan Border Police able to meet Afghan security needs;

• The enactment of legislation against corruption by the end of 2007; and

•A 20 per cent increase in the number of jobs held by women by the end of 2010.

We are monitoring progress against these benchmarks to ensure the process remains on track.

Canada is not acting alone in this. Over 60 countries are contributing to development efforts, over 35 to security.

We have an obligation to Afghans, to the UN, and to Canadians to see this through. Since March, the prime minister, the minister of national defence and I have all visited Afghanistan. We have seen first-hand how Canadians are making a difference.

Extending our commitment was the right and responsible thing to do.

Peter MacKay is Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, and MP for Central Nova.

Canadian troops making things worse: Afghan legislator - CanWest News Service Saturday, September 09, 2006

QUEBEC -- Canada's troops are making matters worse for the Afghan people, a popular member of the war-torn country's national assembly told an NDP policy convention Friday.

With federal New Democrats debating a resolution to withdraw Canadian troops from combat in southern Afghanistan over the next six months, Malalai Joya, 27, the youngest elected Afghan parliamentarian, said efforts to fight the Taliban are helping warlords and drug lords take control of the country, suppressing the voices and rights of women and children.

"If (Canadians) want to prove themselves as real friends of the Afghan people, they must act independently," said Joya, who has escaped several assassination attempts since she was first elected in 2003. "They continued the policy of the U.S. and our people don't agree with U.S. policy, and this is why there is no positive results right now."

NDP Leader Jack Layton said the federal government is insulting Canadian troops by keeping them in a mission without a clear strategy or analysis of the consequences.

He added that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's defence of the mission in Afghanistan is a sign he is following the priorities of U.S. President George W. Bush, instead of spending money on fights that pose more of a threat to humanity. He cited the spread of AIDS in developing countries and climate change.

"There is such a totally disproportionate investment of the world's energy, time and money on the issues that George Bush has defined as the threat to human security as opposed to the real threats to human security," said Layton. "The toll is taken in lives. This isn't political rhetoric."

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy on HIV/AIDS, said that Canadian leaders are only now starting to recognize that the mission is taking an unexpected turn.

"I well understand and appreciate the way the debate has been opened up by Jack Layton, and the way in which he has made this call (to withdraw the troops) which obviously the convention will overwhelmingly approve," said Lewis, who was also invited to speak to the NDP rank-and-file.

According to party estimates, the convention has attracted about 1,500 delegates to Quebec City, making it the second largest in NDP history.

A few months after losing formal support from one of its strongest traditional allies, the Canadian Auto Workers union, the NDP opened the convention with some endorsements from leaders of the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

"This is not the time, I say, to close the book on our past together," said Ken Georgetti, president of the CLC. "This is time to learn how to work together once again in new ways."

However, the party was unable to attract leaders from Quebec unions to its convention. The largest union in the province, the Quebec Federation of Labour, has traditionally supported the Bloc Quebecois. Layton said he hoped to focus on recruiting union activists at the grassroots level to convince their leaders to move over to the NDP. The party has never elected a Quebec MP in a general election.

Afghan appeal - BILL CURRY Globe and Mail

Canadian troops will not win the support of the Afghan people as long as they continue to work with the United States, Afghan National Assembly member Malalai Joya told NDP delegates yesterday.

As part of a keynote address to the NDP convention, Ms. Joya said Afghans view the replacement of the Taliban with the Northern Alliance as having the effect of replacing one set of "misogynist warlords" with another.

Ms. Joya did not comment directly on the NDP's new position calling for the immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.

"Our people don't consider the U.S. as liberators of our country," she said, noting that she has received death threats for singling out the warlords who have been given senior positions in the Hamid Karzai government.

"Conditions of its women will never change positively as long as the warlords are not disarmed and both the pro-U.S. and anti-U.S. terrorists are removed from the political scene of Afghanistan," she said.

"If Canada and other governments really want to help Afghan people and bring positive changes they must act independently rather than becoming a tool to implement the wrong policies of the U.S. government," she said.

Canada doing more than ‘fair share' in Afghanistan, says MacKay

Canadian Press - OTTAWA — More military help is needed in Afghanistan, says Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, but it's time for Canada's NATO allies to “step up” rather than for Canada to contribute more.

Mr. MacKay told CTV's “Question Period” on Sunday that NATO is currently examining what material and troop requirements are needed to quell the Taliban insurgency raging in Afghanistan's southern provinces.

“Clearly there are other countries — not Canada — but other countries who can do more,” Mr. MacKay said. “Nobody would suggest for a minute that Canada is not doing more than their fair share, above and beyond the expectation.”

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said some NATO members aren't doing enough in Afghanistan, a call echoed by Gen. James Jones, an American and NATO's top military commander in the country.

Mr. Jones acknowledged last week that the “level of intensity” of Taliban attacks has surprised NATO since it took over from U.S.-led coalition forces last month.

Mr. Jones said the alliance needs “additional insurance in terms of some forces that can be there, perhaps temporarily, to make sure that we can carry the moment.”

Canada has some 2,000 troops in Afghanistan and has lost 32 soldiers there so far. Published reports over the weekend suggest the Canadian Forces are set to ship as many as 20 Leopard tanks to Afghanistan — along with up to 300 military personnel to support them — to assist the combat troops and provincial reconstruction teams.

Mr. MacKay said it is time for other NATO members to start shouldering some of the burden. “I think the expectation is other countries will have to step up as Canada has,” he told CTV.

Afghan victim courageous, says friend

September 11, 2006 – The Australian

AFGHAN Australians would not be deterred from assisting their former homeland despite the death of a provincial governor, Australian citizen Hakim Taniwal, in a suicide bombing, a friend and community spokeswoman said.

Mr Taniwal, 61, the governor of Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan, was killed yesterday in a suicide attack outside his office, along with his nephew and chief bodyguard.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for thw assassination. Afghan Australian Volunteers Association (AAVA) spokeswoman Homaira Mershedi said Mr Taniwal – a father of nine – was a courageous man.

“The majority of the Afghan community that has heard about his death are very distressed, but it will not make a difference to everyone, especially the young people, who want to work to rebuild Afghanistan,” Ms Mershedi said of her friend.

“He went to rebuild Afghanistan and put his life at risk and what he did for the country was very courageous. “His death will not mean that we will stop going to work in Afghanistan. “We condemn these acts, but it will not affect at all what we are doing to rebuild Afghanistan.”

Friend Abdul Khaliq Fazal, another Afghan Australian who has served in the Afghan Government as minister for public works, said he believed his friend was a random target. “He was not that person to be in fighting with the Taliban,” he told ABC Radio.

“Those people have lost their mind. They kill anybody.” Dr Fazal said Mr Taniwal's life should be honoured. “His family deserves a call from the (Australian) prime minister, from the premier of Victoria,” he 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.]