In this bulletin:

• UN envoy urges sustained support to tackle Afghanistan’s security
  challenges
• Don't 'wobble' on commitment to NATO force in Afghanistan: UN envoy
• UN Security Council Says Terrorists, Drugs Still Biggest Problems in Afghanistan
• Danish officer dies after mortar attack in Afghanistan
• Afghan Suicide Bomber Kills Own Family
• Doc: More than 80% of Afghan suicide bombers are disabled
• Prayer leader beheaded in Zabul
• Trader gunned down in Paktia
• Afghan president concerned over alleged US Koran abuse
• Afghan President to visit Britain
• Afghanistan 'a success story,' World Bank says
• Most Canadians want troops to stay in Afghanistan: poll
• Canadian expert team to visit Afghanistan
• Top general says Afghanistan mission unaffected by political furor
• McParland: How Stephen harper did the right thing and annoyed Stephane Dion all at the same time
• Japanese divided over extending naval mission to back coalition forces in Afghanistan
• Poland's top soldier can emphasize with Canada over Afghanistan
• 'No plan' for more troops to Afghanistan
• German lessons: the Afghan conundrum

UN envoy urges sustained support to tackle Afghanistan’s security
challenges

U.N. News Service, 15 October 2007

15 October 2007 - Security remains a major challenge for Afghanistan, the
United Nations envoy to the strife-torn nation said today, urging troop-contributing countries to resist the temptation to reduce their
commitments with the caution that “now is not the time to wobble.”

Tom Koenigs, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Afghanistan, told the Security Council that, although the violence has
subsided in the past two months, the number of violent incidents was up 30
per cent from last year.

“The sad result is a significant increase in the numbers of civilian
casualties – at least 1,200 have been killed since January this year,” he
stated, noted that the UN has recorded 606 improvised explosive devices
(IEDs) and 133 suicide attacks compared to 88 by this time last year.

Mr. Koenigs, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA), said it is imperative that the protection of civilians remain at
the forefront of efforts in the country, and noted the concrete steps taken
by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the United
States-led Operation Enduring Freedom on the issue.

“Failure to secure the population’s support will not only protract the
conflict causing further devastation, but also hold the country’s
development hostage to violence, and undermine the legitimacy of our
efforts,” he stated.

Mr. Koenigs emphasized that for the time being ISAF represents the most
capable defence of the government against the violent insurgency that has
plagued Afghanistan, which has this year witnessed some of the worst
violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

While the Afghan National Army is expected to be 70,000 strong by the end
of 2008, he warned that “numbers are not a measure of capability” and also
cited the “poor standards” of the Afghan National Police. Hampering the
Police’s development is resistance in the Ministry of Interior to
principles of accountability and transparency, he said.

The Special Representative also stressed the need to address the “twin
challenges” of governance and outreach. “Only good governance, led by
senior leadership within the Government, and delivered through both the
civilian and military arms of the State, will end the culture of corruption
and impunity that has dangerously eroded public confidence to date.”

He added that “for the dangers of weak governance, one needs to look no
further than the 34 per cent increase in opium production in 2007.”

Against such a challenging backdrop, Mr. Koenigs did point to “clear signs
of progress,” including the passage by Parliament in recent weeks of
legislation governing political parties, government structure, and
property, as well as a new law protecting the independence of the Afghan
media.

In addition, the recent formation of two new political parties is “the
healthiest indicator yet that Afghans are taking charge of their own
destiny,” he said.

Don't 'wobble' on commitment to NATO force in Afghanistan: UN envoy

UNITED NATIONS - The top UN envoy in Afghanistan on Monday urged countries contributing troops to the NATO force in Afghanistan not to "wobble" in their commitments to fight the Taliban.

Tom Koenigs said that while the Afghan national army will have 47,000 troops at the end of the year, and hopefully 70,000 by the end of 2008, "numbers are not a measure of capability."

NATO remains the most capable force to defend the Kabul government against a tough insurgency, he said.

Insurgent violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who harboured al-Qaida leaders blamed for planning the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The focus of the violence has been in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces, but the insurgents are increasingly using Iraq-style tactics, such as roadside bombs, suicide attacks and kidnappings, to hit foreign and Afghan targets around the country.

Even though levels of violence have subsided in the past two months, Koenigs said, the number of violent incidents has increased by approximately 30 per cent from last year.

The United Nations has recorded the detonation of 606 improvised explosive devices and 133 suicide attacks compared to 88 by this time last year, Koenigs said.

"The sad result is a significant increase in the numbers of civilian casualties - at least 1,200 have been killed since January this year," he told the UN Security Council.

Koenigs told reporters afterward that better co-ordination among international and Afghan military forces and the UN mission he heads has led to improvements in the rules of engagement, "and we hope by that we can prevent civilian casualties to a certain degree."

This includes orders to all regional commands to adjust tactics where possible to increase protection of civilians, he said.

"It is imperative that the protection of civilians remains at the forefront of everyone's efforts in Afghanistan, for a failure to secure the population's support will not only protract the conflict causing further devastation, but also hold the country's development hostage to violence, and undermine the legitimacy of our efforts," he told the council.

Koenigs stressed that NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, remains essential to fight the insurgency.

"Because of this, nations should resist the temptation to reduce their commitment: now is not the time to wobble," he said.

NATO troops - mostly from Britain, Canada, the United States and the Netherlands - have been on the front lines of the fight. Several other NATO countries including Spain, Turkey and Germany refuse to send troops to the southern battlefields.

Rising casualties and public disenchantment have triggered calls for a withdrawal among some countries on the front line - notably Canada and the Netherlands.

About 2,300 Canadian troops are in Kandahar province where the Taliban have long been active. Seventy-one Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

The mandate for the Canadian mission expires in February 2009. The Conservative government in Ottawa has indicated it will decide by April next year whether the current mission will be extended.

The NATO-led alliance raised its troop level to almost 40,000 in the face of an emboldened insurgency, which has demonstrated the fragility of Afghanistan's fledgling western-style democracy. But the increase was largely because several thousand U.S. troops already in Afghanistan were transferred to NATO command. The United States maintains about 13,000 troops in a separate counterinsurgency force.

Koenigs told reporters the UN has received reports from the military and its intelligence operatives that "the Taliban have lost quite a number of mid-level and even lower high-level leaders" who have been replaced by non-Afghans.

"So apparently the Taliban forces are short of commanders and trained leaders," he said. "On the other hand, we have heard from Afghan sources that this hasn't gone down very well with the locals," he said, adding that he had no further details.

Koenings, a German human rights expert who announced he will step down as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special representative at the end of the year, stressed that "the successes of recent months deserve to be translated into visible durable results for all Afghans."

He emphasized the importance of NATO working with the government and the UN mission in Afghanistan to co-ordinate security and political-military strategy.

"Although amid the violence in Afghanistan, suicide attacks receive the most publicity, perhaps the biggest threat to the civilian population (and overall stability) is the ongoing campaign of intimidation, abduction and execution being carried out by anti-government elements against all those seen to have a connection with the Afghan government or the international community," Koenigs said.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said last month his government is working hard on peace talks to bring Taliban supporters "back to the fold."

But Koenigs told the Security Council that "the Taliban as an organization remains at least in part determined to continue its military campaign (and) negotiations with the top leadership of the Taliban are not now in prospect."

-With files from The Canadian Press.

UN Security Council Says Terrorists, Drugs Still Biggest Problems in Afghanistan

By Mona Ghuneim - New York 15 October 2007 - The United Nations Security Council says terrorism and the drug trade in Afghanistan continue to undermine peace and stability. From VOA's New York Bureau, Mona Ghuneim reports.

Head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, says an increase in civilian casualties and violent incidents in 2007 shows that the international community must strengthen its resolve to help the Afghan nation.

Briefing the U.N. Security Council Monday, Koenigs said the protection of the civilian population must remain a priority as the Afghan government and international community continue efforts to stabilize the country.

"The biggest threat to the civilian population and the overall stability is the ongoing campaign of intimidation, abduction and execution being carried out by anti-government elements against all those seen to have a connection with the Afghan government or the international community," he said.

Council members say improvements in education, healthcare and the economy are being overwhelmed by challenges in governance, regional cooperation, security - especially an ineffective police force - and drug trafficking. He says there was a 34 percent increase in opium production from 2006 to 2007.

Koenigs says the link between the drug trade and the growing insurgency could jeopardize the already weak government.

U.S. representative Alejandro Wolf told the Security Council that the international community must assist the Afghan government in exerting its authority throughout the country. "While the international community's assistance to Afghanistan has been great, the needs are greater still. We must not slacken in our resolve to provide the Afghan people with the tools to rebuild," he said.

Wolf says one way to help tackle the drug problem is to create a robust agricultural sector in Afghanistan that will reduce the incentive to grow opium. He says the international community must help strengthen Afghanistan's rule of law, security and human rights, and that long-term assistance to the nation is imperative.

Danish officer dies after mortar attack in Afghanistan

The Associated Press - Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - COPENHAGEN, Denmark: A Danish army officer has died from injuries sustained during an operation in southern Afghanistan, Denmark's military said Tuesday.

Maj. Anders Storrud, head of a mechanized infantry company, was injured by mortar fire Monday in the volatile Helmand province, said Maj. Gen. Poul Kiaerskou, head of the Army Operational Command.

The unit was recovering an armored vehicle that had struck a mine. Storrud, 34, was evacuated to a Danish base where he died Tuesday, Kiaerskou said.

Denmark has some 600 troops in Helmand province that are part of NATO's 40,000-man force in Afghanistan. A total of seven Danish troops have now been killed in Afghanistan.

Afghan Suicide Bomber Kills Own Family

By AMIR SHAH – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings, police said Monday.

The would-be bomber had been studying at a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan, and when he returned to his home in Uruzgan province over the weekend announced that he planned to carry out a suicide attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.

Surviving family members told police that the suicide vest exploded during a struggle between the mother and her son, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's police chief. The man's brother and two sisters were also killed.

Family members said the would-be bomber gave his family $3,600 before telling them he intended to carry out the attack, Himat said.

Bashary said the explosion happened on Sunday, but Himat said it occurred on Monday morning. It was not clear why the two accounts differed.

In a second accidental explosion, another would-be bomber killed himself Friday in Paktika province when he tried to take off the bomb vest he was wearing and it exploded, Bashary said. The man told authorities he had been instructed by his handlers in Pakistan to launch a suicide attack, but changed his mind when he saw people praying in a mosque.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said it had looked into allegations that soldiers had desecrated the Quran during a raid on a home in the eastern province of Kunar and found no evidence of wrongdoing. The allegations had outraged villagers, who met with the governor, provincial leaders and U.S. military commanders on Sunday.

Kunar deputy provincial governor Noor Mohammad Khan said American soldiers raided the home of Mullah Zarbaz on Saturday, arresting him and three others. Villagers claimed that soldiers ripped, knifed and burned a Quran during the raid, allegations that led to an angry demonstration, Khan said.

But Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, which oversees Special Forces soldiers who usually carry out nighttime raids, said the allegations had been investigated and were found to be baseless.

"We looked into it. There was no desecration of the Quran or any religious symbol by U.S. forces," Belcher said. "Had a soldier desecrated it, we would take action."

In the latest violence, Taliban militants ambushed a NATO patrol in central Afghanistan on Sunday, leaving about a dozen soldiers wounded, a NATO official said. The troops called for an airstrike on the militants in Wardak province, but there were no reports of casualties, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

The official did not identify the nationality of the wounded troops. Most of the troops in Wardak province, which borders the capital of Kabul, are Turkish.

In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp., President Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan has suffered "the law of unintended consequences" because of the war in Iraq.

"We did suffer by movements of people, by movements of extremist ideology, by transfer of knowledge by extremists to one another," Karzai said in the interview, which was broadcast Monday. "There is no doubt that al-Qaida is linked all across the world."

Karzai said he knew "with confidence" that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar were not in Afghanistan. But he said he did not have "precise information" on where they were. Afghan officials say the two are hiding in Pakistan.

The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, meanwhile, urged countries contributing troops to the NATO force not to "wobble" in their commitments to fight the Taliban and help counter a campaign of intimidation, abduction and killing by government opponents.

Tom Koenigs said at the United Nations in New York that while the Afghan national army will have 47,000 troops at the end of the year, and hopefully 70,000 by the end of 2008, "numbers are not a measure of capability" and NATO remains the most capable force to defend the government against a tough insurgency.

Insurgent violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level since U.S. forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who harbored al-Qaida leaders blamed for planning the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The focus of the violence has been in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces, but the insurgents are increasingly using Iraq-style tactics, such as roadside bombs, suicide attacks and kidnappings to hit foreign and Afghan targets around the country.

Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kabul and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Doc: More than 80% of Afghan suicide bombers are disabled

NPR, Morning Edition, 10/15/2007 - There have been at least 110 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, more than in any other country except Iraq. Most of the Afghan bombings are linked to the Taliban, but the identity of those recruits is often a mystery.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his security officials claim the attackers are foreigners, often from Pakistan. But a recent United Nations report says that bombers who were caught before they could carry out their attacks were overwhelmingly Afghan.

Whatever their nationality, many of the bombers have one major thing in common. A senior Afghan doctor who examines their remains finds that most of them were disabled or sick.

In his classroom at Kabul Medical University, Dr. Yusef Yadgari keeps the eyeball of a suicide bomber in a glass jar. Attached to the eye is a tumor that, Yadgari says, left the attacker partially blind.

It is one of many ailments the Afghan pathologist says he has found while autopsying the remains of bombers who carried out attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the past three years. Some were missing limbs before the blasts. Others suffered from cancer. One had leprosy.

80 Percent Have Physical, Mental Disabilities - Based on such autopsies, Yadgari estimates that at least three of every five bombers suffer from a physical ailment or disability. Adding those who suffer from mental illnesses, the number of sick and disabled bombers climbs to more than 80 percent, he says.

"They are probably resentful because in Afghan society they are outcasts," Yadgari says. "They hold a grudge because many of them can't get a job. So, to make money for their families, they agree to become suicide bombers."

Yadgari says guessing the bombers' motivation is easy, but identifying who they are is a lot tougher. Police say the bombers never carry identification, and their remains are rarely claimed.

Christine Fair, who co-authored a United Nations report released in September on Afghanistan's suicide attacks, says there are other factors that make it difficult to figure out who the bombers are. She says Afghan investigations into suicide bombings leave a lot to be desired.

Afghan Gen. Nik Mohammed Nikzad, who heads crime scene investigations here, agrees. He complains that by the time his team is permitted to enter the scene, evidence has often been compromised or removed — sometimes by Western soldiers.

Afghan Bombers Not Celebrated - Fair says another obstacle is that Afghan suicide bombers are not celebrated like their counterparts in other Arab nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs, and their remains are not carried through town in raucous funeral parades.

"Many parents don't even seem to know that their child or their relative blew themselves up in this act," Fair says.

She says there is another difference between bombers in Afghanistan and other countries. A bomber in Afghanistan kills an average of three victims, compared with an average of 12 elsewhere. Also, United Nations interviews with would-be bombers in Afghanistan have found that most are young and poorly educated.

"So, the good news is that they are not as lethal as they are in other theaters. The bad news is it's not really clear what it would take to get the campaign of suicide attacks to abate," Fair says.

University student Qais Barakzai believes there is nothing that could have stopped his friend from blowing himself up two years ago in Kabul.

Barakzai says Qari Sami was a brooding loner who was upset about the Taliban's ouster.

Barakzai says his friend grew a Taliban-style beard and wore traditional baggy tunics and trousers, shunning the Western jeans and shirts preferred by other university students.

"He was depressed. He would fight with people. He was emotional, especially when it came to religious issues," Barakzai recalls. He says his friend took antidepressants daily, but they failed to lift his mood.

Sami talked of joining the Taliban in waging holy war, or jihad, after graduation, but never said he had been recruited as a suicide bomber, Barakzai says.

In May 2005, the young man walked into the Park Internet café and blew himself up. He killed a U.N. worker from Myanmar and an Afghan customer and wounded five others.

Prayer leader beheaded in Zabul

GHAZNI CITY, Oct 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Suspected militants beheaded a prayer leader in Arghandab district of the southern Zabul province last night. Spokesman for Zabul governor Gulab Shah Alikhel told Pajhwok Afghan News the Imam or prayer leader named Maulvi Saleh Muhammad was kidnapped by armed men while returning to his house after leading the Eid prayer Friday morning.

His headless body was found on the road connecting Arghandab district with the provincial capital of Kalat this morning, said the spokesman. Alikhel said Maulvi Saleh was a prayer leader and did not possess a government job.Claiming responsibility for the killing, a self-proclaimed Taliban commander Maulvi Abdul Hadi told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone that the cleric was spying for the government troops.

Earlier, the militants had killed a paryer leader in Deh Naw village of the Muhammad Agha district in the central Logar province.
Sher Ahmad Haidar

Trader gunned down in Paktia

GARDEZ, Oct 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified armed men gunned down a trader in Gardez, capital of the southeastern Paktia province, officials said on Sunday. Din Muhammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the slain named Nizamuddin was resident of Zadran area of the province.

He said the businessman was coming from Herat City to Gardez. Armed men sprayed bullets at his car in the main square of Gardez city around 11pm last night, said the spokesman. The body had been shifted to the police headquarters to register a case, said Darwesh, who added that police were investigating the incident.

Afghan president concerned over alleged US Koran abuse

Kabul (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is concerned over allegations US troops burnt a copy of the Koran and will take "suitable action" should the claims be proven, his spokesman said.

"The president heard the news from the Afghan authorities and the media with much concern and is aware of it," Homayun Hamidzada told reporters. "We contacted the forces urgently and they have assured us they will investigate the issue," Hamidzada said.

He said if it was proven the soldiers had committed "such an obscene crime," his government would take appropriate measures to punish the troopers.

"If proved, Afghanistan will take suitable action for such an important and serious matter. So far there is not sufficient evidence to prove the issue," he said.

Members of parliament and village elders have claimed that US troops burned and tore up a copy of the Muslim holy book early Saturday during a raid in the eastern province of Kunar.

The US military has rejected the allegations but said it would try to find out what had happened. Afghan investigators have sent burnt pages from a Koran to Kabul for tests to verify when they were set ablaze.

At a heated meeting in the Kunar capital of Asadabad on Sunday, villagers from the district where the raid occurred demanded an apology. Iran called on Monday for worldwide protests.

There are some 55,000 foreign soldiers here, about half of them from the United States, helping Afghan security forces fight back an insurgency by the extremist Taliban movement that was in government between 1996 and 2001.

Afghan President to visit Britain

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai will soon pay a visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghan Presidential spokesman Hamayon Hamidzada said Tuesday.

"At the invitation of Prime Minister Brown President Hamid Karzai at the head of a high ranking delegation would soon visit Britain," Hamidzada told newsmen at his weekly press briefing.

During his stay in the Untied Kingdom, the President would hold talk with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Prince Charles and the Queen, the spokesman said.

However, he did not disclose the exact date of the visit but added that the President's talks with UK leaders would cover matters pertaining mutual interests including the war on terrorism and the role of Britain in rebuilding the war-ravaged Afghanistan.

With having some 7,000 troops in Afghanistan the United Kingdom is the second after the United States being involved in fighting Taliban and the al-Qaida operatives in the post-Taliban central Asian state. Source: Xinhua

Afghanistan 'a success story,' World Bank says

ALAN FREEMAN - October 16, 2007 - OTTAWA -- Economic and social conditions in Afghanistan have improved dramatically since the fall of the Taliban, despite continuing problems with security, corruption and the drug trade, according to the World Bank's top official responsible for the country.

"This is a success story," Alastair McKechnie, country director for Afghanistan at the World Bank, said in an interview yesterday. "Afghanistan has defied predictions and has achieved a lot in a short period of time."

Mr. McKechnie, in Canada for meetings with officials in Ottawa and a speech in Toronto, pointed to a series of positive indicators, including double-digit economic growth, an expanding road network, a surge in school attendance - particularly by girls - and a drop in infant mortality from 165 per 1,000 live births to 135 in 4½ years.

He said it is easy to get a negative view of Afghanistan if one focuses on the south and east of the country, where the insurgency is strongest. In two-thirds of the country, there is no insurgency and conditions are improving more quickly.

Some of the credit goes to the World Bank, which has committed $1.5-billion (U.S.) of its own money to the country and set up the Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund, which has so far gathered $2.4-billion in pledges from two dozen countries.

This year's single top donor to the fund is Canada, with $211-million. Britain is second, with $145-million.The Canadian money goes to a variety of projects and uses and is a major source of funding for the daily operations of the Afghan government, which still does not generate enough tax revenues to fund these activities on its own.

"Otherwise, teachers and health workers don't get paid," Mr. McKechnie said.

He conceded that much remains to be done in reducing corruption in the police and improving the functioning of the justice system. Another challenge is to reduce the influence of the poppy trade. Afghanistan is estimated to furnish 93 per cent of the world's illegal opium supply, used in the manufacture of heroin, and opium production accounts for one-third of economic activity.

Even there, Mr. McKechnie said, the picture is not as bad as it seems, with only 4 per cent of the country's total arable land being cultivated with poppies and more provinces becoming poppy free. To battle the opium trade, the most effective methods include the interdiction of traffickers, encouraging alternative cash crops such as grapes and appealing to the religious values of Afghans, he said.

Most Canadians want troops to stay in Afghanistan: poll
CanWest News Service , Monday, October 15, 2007

OTTAWA -- A slight majority of Canadians -- 54% -- want Canada's troops to stay in Afghanistan but few want to extend their current combat mission past the February, 2009, scheduled date of withdrawal, according to the findings of a poll released Monday.

Forty-four per cent of Canadians want a full withdrawal of the troops, while 40% would like to see them redeployed to "do something like train Afghan soldiers or police officers."

Just 14% believe the government should "extend our current role and mission as required," says the poll of 1,001 adults conducted by Ipsos-Reid. The results are considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Residents of Quebec are most likely (51%) to support withdrawal of troops, while residents of Alberta are most likely to support redeployment (45%) or an extension of the mission (22%).

Women (51%) are more likely than men (36%) to support withdrawal of troops, as are younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 (49%) compared to older generations.

The poll was conducted Oct. 9-14, a period that encompassed telephone interviews before and after last Friday, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a five-member panel to recommend what the military should do after the mission in Kandahar expires.

The panel appeared aimed at defusing political tensions over the mission that has splintered Parliament for more than a year and has threatened to cause a political showdown in the session that begins today.

The minority Conservative government has vigorously defended the mission; the New Democratic Party has called for the immediate withdrawal of the soldiers; and the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois have sought confirmation that the combat mission will expire as scheduled in early 2009.

About 2,500 members of the Canadian Forces are participating in a NATO-led force to provide security in the volatile Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan. The Harper government inherited the mission from its Liberal predecessor.

Canadian expert team to visit Afghanistan

NEW YORK, Oct14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Canadian committee constituted with the mandate to review the countrys Afghan mission is likely to visit Afghanistan so as to take into account the viewpoint of the Afghan government, experts and people of the war-battered country.

The five-member committee headed by John Manley, former deputy prime minister, was constituted by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday. The committee, which would look into various options of Canadas mission in Afghanistan, including the option of withdrawal of troops from the country or its extension beyond the existing mandate of January 2009, has been asked to submit its recommendations by January next.

Mission Afghanistan, in particular the presence of its security forces in Kandahar, has been a major domestic political issue in Canada. And with the increasing deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, the political opponents of Prime Minister Harper are making things difficult for him and his government.

Diplomatic sources told Pajhwok Afghan News the Manley committee would not only seek the opinion of various political parties and experts inside the country, but also visit Kabul and other Afghan cities to get first hand experience and the ground realties in the country and Canadas contribution in rebuilding Afghanistan.

The committee would hold consultations and seek opinion of Karzai government, Afghan experts and interact with the people, sources said. Officials said details and other formalities would be worked out soon after the committee begins its work. Lalit K. Jha

Top general says Afghanistan mission unaffected by political furor
CanWest News Service, Monday, October 15, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The senior general directing Canada's war in Afghanistan says the political furor at home over the future of the mission has not changed how he does his work.

"All of these discussions do not really impact my job. It does not affect planning," Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, head of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, said in an exclusive interview Monday. "Our focus is on the mandate period. The horizon that I look at is 12 to 18 months. There is not much need at my level to look beyond that."

As Parliament prepared to hear Tuesday's speech from the throne, in which Afghanistan could be a central theme, the commander of all Canadian Forces overseas added that he welcomes the involvement of a blue-ribbon panel struck by the Harper government last week to recommend what Canada should do here after the current mandate ends in February 2009.

"It provides an opportunity to generate a better understanding of the full scope of Canadian operations," Gauthier told CanWest News Service, referring also to the presence here of officials from the departments of Foreign Affairs and Corrections, as well as the Canadian International Development Agency and the RCMP.

"I hope that it will lead to a better understanding for Canadians, beyond 15-second sound bites, of all that needs to be done here and the role that we ought to play."

Moments before he boarded an aircraft for Canada at the end of his 18th visit to Afghanistan since 2002, Gauthier quietly outlined the successes and failures of the mission so far and the long, slow road ahead.

The three-leaf general, who seldom speaks at length with journalists, had "observed a sense of confidence that is palpable up and down the chain of command," during his most recent visit. "We have the initiative. From our perspective, the insurgents are in disarray. The leadership has been seriously interrupted. We are getting indications that they are losing their willingness to fight."

But, at the same time, he added, "I don't want to sound too rosy." "The Taliban are continuing to fight. They will still launch attacks and plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices). From time to time they will mount an offensive. But they are outmatched and they know it."

It has been a steep learning curve with some miscalculations along the way, Gauthier acknowledged, particularly involving the Afghan National Police.

An especially difficult time occurred last summer as the first Canadian battle group to go to war in southern Afghanistan was replaced by another, just as a major offensive, dubbed Operation Medusa, began at Pashmul, not far to the west of Kandahar City, with some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

"At the point of transition we had insurgents who chose to make a stand and go conventional on us," Gauthier said. "Over a thousand bad guys were dug in around Pashmul. We could not travel on Highway 1 and as the next rotation arrived there was a clear and present danger to Kandahar City."

At the time, most of the battle group was deployed along a line that was to become Route Summit, with "platoons dug in, First World War-style," said Gauthier, whose early military training was as a combat engineer. With the Taliban flushed out of Pashmul by the end of Medusa and the subsequent opening of Route Summit by Canadian engineers, the battle group pushed out to establish a security bubble for the Zhari and Panjwaii districts. This, in turn, allowed for the return of 10,000 Afghans who had fled the fighting, and for reconstruction projects such as irrigation ditches to proceed.

Part of the plan had been for Afghan police to take over some of the security responsibilities after last year's battlefield successes, "but as we came into (this) summer, and the height of the fighting season, we were not able to hold the checkpoints," Gauthier said. As the checkpoints failed, Canadian forces pulled back.

"This was a conscious retraction. It was not a retreat. It was a consolidation," Gauthier said. We gave up some ground because of the support that was available to us at the time."

As part of NATO's mentoring plan, the Afghan National Army, which is generally held in high regard by the Canadians, has been deploying with Canadian help into new areas over the past two months. But the police, who also have Canadian mentors, have not yet inspired similar confidence.

 "It used to be that the police at a checkpoint were interested in taxation. They would slap faces and they have stopped that," Gauthier said. "As long as we are with them, it looks very promising. We obviously want to get to the point where we can leave them alone, but that won't be for a while. The police really need mentoring."

Recalling a conversation he had in June with Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, who was about to deploy from Quebec as the commander of the incoming Royal 22nd Regiment battle group, Gauthier said that a holding operation was planned through the summer fighting season. But the regiment, dubbed Van Doo, exceeded expectations by quickly establishing new checkpoints and building police substations across the Zhari and Panjwaii districts.

 "We have not taken back all of the land, but the bubble has been expanding," Gauthier said. "We are carefully managing how far and how fast. It is hard work with overlapping considerations."

The general, who once headed Canadian military intelligence, was an advocate of "full-spectrum operations," a military doctrine that shifts the emphasis away from traditional military operations toward counter-insurgency tactics that include mentoring local security forces and using other assets to strengthen local government. This has not only required learning how to work with the Afghan army and police, but also how to co-operate with the different cultures that exist in the other Canadian departments with staff in Kandahar.

"We were thrown together in a complex place and had to get our gears meshed," Gauthier said. "It was a challenge, but it is working now. This is all about leveraging different elements."

Notwithstanding a recent UN report that found violence has increased in southern Afghanistan, "Kandahar City is not 100 per cent safe, but it is safer," he said.

"It is not Ottawa and will not be like Ottawa soon. But shops are staying open longer, and this speaks to a level of confidence of the people. I was on Route Summit two days ago and there were Afghans out on motorcycles or walking with their kids. Where three platoons were dug in last year, there is now a police substation."

As for the overall picture, "clearly progress is fragile," the general said. "I don't want to be a propagandist. What we have done in the past year are small steps forward."

With the security situation in Zhari and Panjwaii more stable now than at this time last year, the intention was that when the traditional fighting season wanes soon, significant progress should have been made on reconstruction projects, in cooperation with Foreign Affairs, CIDA and the Afghan government.

Military planners spent the past six months "looking at where we want to be next summer," Gauthier said.

"Fighting will not end then, but if we are successful over the next eight months, there will be a lot fewer Afghan and Canadian casualties," he predicted.

"I am confident of this as an immediate objective. I am not saying everything will be OK next summer. But it will be better than this summer, which was better than last summer."

McParland: How Stephen harper did the right thing and annoyed Stephane Dion all at the same time

Stephen Harper’s effort to get Afghanistan out of the daily insult-fest of Parliament was treated fairly cynically in the weekend papers.

Most of the usual pundits viewed it as just another tactical move designed to make Stéphane Dion’s life as miserable as possible. And by that measure, it was judged pretty adroit. How can the Liberal leader continue to attack government policy, when a panel headed by the former Liberal foreign minister is heading a committee that will produce recommendations on the future of the mission? The Liberals sent the troops to Afghanistan in the first place, now the cabinet member who implemented that decision will help decide where the government goes from here. Pretty hard to blame the mission on the Conservatives in that light.

You could tell how upset the Liberals were by the number who suggested John Manley had either become dangerously naive about the realities of politics, or was a flat-out turncoat for lending aid to a government run by that other party, the one that isn’t the Liberals.

What wasn’t addressed, at least not that I could tell, was the possibility that Harper honestly thinks it’s a bad idea to have the lives of Canada’s troops kicked around in Question Period like any other political football, and set out to find a way to keep that from happening. It’s a measure of the bad blood in Ottawa that this wouldn’t be considered. The press pack doesn’t like the Prime Minister much, partly because he treats them like dirt, and partly because he hasn’t suffered much from treating them like dirt. His polls are up near 40%, Canadians think the country is on the right track, and close to 50%, according to Ipsos Reid, think Harper deserves to keep his job. No wonder they hate the guy. Pierre Trudeau treated the press with equal disregard, but Trudeau was glamorous, and Stephen Harper isn’t. So he doesn’t get fawned over to the same extent.

Nope, Harper never gives a break, so he doesn’t get many in return. The assumption is that his every move is coldly calculated for political advantage, and carried out solely in the interest of advancing Conservative fortunes.

Whether it happens to be the right thing to do is deemed as secondary. Except maybe this time it shouldn’t be. Whether or not you believe Harper was sincere when he stood beside John Manley looking solemn and prime ministerial, it can hardly be argued that Canadians will lose out by not having the three opposition parties yammering away daily about whatever aspect of the mission they think they can exploit to their own advantage. Ottawa is not Washington, and Afghanistan is not Iraq. The troops were sent there by the Liberals with the backing of Parliament, and Parliament has confirmed the continuation of its support under the Conservatives.

The current commitment is due to end in February 2009, and the government has pledged that events after that will depend, again, on a consensus from elected MPs. A panel has been appointed to explore the options and given four specific scenarios to focus on, none of which includes extending combat activities around Kandahar.

So what’s to argue about? None of the four options given the panel should be difficult for the Liberals to live with. Every one of them involves getting the forces out of the most dangerous area of the country. All but one — total withdrawal, backed only by the NDP and Bloc — involve shifting the emphasis onto rebuilding and retraining in order to get the country back on its feet.

This is exactly what the Liberals have been calling for, and you’d think they’d be pleased with having so successfully influenced the debate. Instead they’re pouting. Moving Afghanistan off the daily agenda means no more opportunity for grandstanding. It means no more chances to try and blame the war on the Conservatives, even though it was launched and approved by the Liberals. No more hoping that funerals for fallen soldiers will somehow result in more votes for its opponents.

Whether or not Harper’s move complicates Dion’s life — which it certainly has, if only because it shows once again how easy Harper finds it to out-think his opponents — it also has the happy consequence of protecting the troops and their families from being sideswiped by the casual disregard Ottawa regularly shows for victims of its ravenous need for TV face time. Afghanistan isn’t just a game for them, it’s actual life and death. It shouldn’t be reduced to another daily dose of political inanity. It’s just possible that Harper recognized this and acted accordingly. For which he deserves credit.

Kelly McParland is the National Post's politics editor .

Japanese divided over extending naval mission to back coalition forces in Afghanistan

The Associated Press - Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - TOKYO: Japanese remain divided over extending their country's naval support for coalition forces in Afghanistan, as the government struggles to win support for a law underwriting the mission, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.

The Asahi, a major daily, reported that 44 percent of respondents opposed extending the mission — under which Japan's navy provides fuel for coalition forces in the Indian Ocean under an anti-terrorism law that expires Nov. 1. The margin was down from 45 percent in a similar poll last month.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they support extending the mission, up from 35 percent, the paper said.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda wants to extend the law and his government is preparing compromise legislation that would place greater restrictions on the refueling and water supply mission. The scope of the Japanese mission is a sensitive issue due to the country's pacifist constitution.

The Cabinet is expected on Wednesday to approve the legislation, which has been opposed by the opposition bloc.

Support for the Fukuda Cabinet, launched late last month, dipped to 47 percent, from 53 percent in a Sept. 25-26 poll, according to the paper. The disapproval rate rose to 30 percent, from 27 percent.

The paper conducted phone interviews with 2,113 voters nationwide between Oct. 13-14. No margin of error was provided.

Poland's top soldier can emphasize with Canada over Afghanistan
CanWest News Service , Monday, October 15, 2007

WARSAW -- Gen. Franciszek Gagor, Poland's top soldier and perhaps NATO's after an upcoming vote to replace Canadian Ray Henault as chairman of the western alliance's military committee, can empathize with Canada's public relations challenge over Afghanistan.

"Well, it's a challenge for us also," Poland's chief of the general staff told CanWest News Service.

Gagor, competing with generals from Spain and Italy to replace Henault in the Nov. 14 vote, would be the first officer from the old Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact alliance to become top soldier in the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He brings to the international table considerable peacekeeping experience in the Middle East and guarded optimism about the Afghanistan mission.

But Gagor cannot claim popular support in his own country for Poland's military role there. One poll this month by the Warsaw-based firm CBOS said 72 per cent of those surveyed were opposed to Poland's decision earlier this year to deploy 1,200 soldiers primarily in the dangerous southeast provinces of Ghazni and Patika. Poland also has elite forces working with Canadians in Kandahar.

Objections to the fighting are even stronger than in Canada, where public unease and election fever have caused the government to declare that Canada's current role in Kandahar, where there are more than 2,000 Canadian troops, won't continue past early 2009 without an endorsement from Parliament. Three of four Canadian parties, in a position to trigger an election after Tuesday's throne speech, currently oppose an extension.

Poland, despite its rich though often tragic military history facing brutal invasions by neighbours like Germany and Russia, is a "peaceful nation," according to TNS Global managing director Andrzej Olszewski, a Warsaw-based pollster.

"We have become good soldiers because we are usually defending ourselves. But people don't recognize war as something good and beneficial." Poland's public mood is soured partly by Iraq, where the country has lost about 20 soldiers since 2003. One soldier has been killed so far in Afghanistan.

The public objections, however, don't appear likely to have an influence on Poland's role. Despite this country's own current election fever there is no organized peace movement, the issue doesn't get major media coverage and the conflict hasn't become a political football in Poland's Oct. 21 parliamentary elections.

One possible explanation is that Poland, with 38.5 million people in a country half the size of Alberta, has been anxious since breaking free of Moscow's dominance in 1989 to use Europe and the U.S. as buffers against Russia. There is therefore an elite consensus to go along with NATO and, like Canada, take on a challenging role in a high-risk region of Afghanistan.

"Everyone considers this issue so fundamental for our foreign policy that responsible political parties would not like to have it as part of the daily campaign," according to Andrej Szeptycki, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

A second argument is that Poles, sensitive to the country's dominance by larger neighbours through most of its history, are reluctant to criticize an institution that reflects Polish independence.

"The uniform in the Polish mentality (became) something sacred ... after the trauma of the 19th century, when Poland vanished from the map of Europe," said Gagor, still wearing military fatigues after meeting troops earlier in the day.

Gagor said the West's military effort in Afghanistan has been generally successful this year, particularly because NATO forces disrupted a threatened spring Taliban offensive by launching pre-emptive attacks.

But he said western countries must do more to win Afghan hearts and minds by bringing better health care, education, and basic infrastructure to the country.

"I would say if the international community was more generous in supporting the people there, I think that would enhance significantly the progress and success of the operation."

Gagor beams with pride when asked about Poland's military history, captured in various works of art in military headquarters here that typically celebrates Poland's famous charging calvary in colourful, bloody battle scenes.

Poland's major military victories have been few in number but spectacular in scope. In Vienna in 1683 the army of Poland's King Jan III Sobieski helped Austria's Habsburg empire successfully put down Ottoman Turk invasion. And in 1920 near Warsaw, in the so-called Miracle on the Vistula, the Polish army outmanoeuvred and routed the Soviet Union's much larger Red Army.

Both are victories that Poles, now Europe's most devoutly Roman Catholic country, say potentially saved Christian Europe from domination by Muslim and then Communist domination.

Even in defeat the Polish army is romanticized. In 1939 the out-manned and out-gunned Poles held off the German blitzkrieg for more than a month, inflicting 60,000 casualties on the Nazi invaders and 11,500 on the Soviets, who joined the siege as a result of a Hitler-Stalin pact to divide and conquer Poland.

A senior British officer at the time sniffed to a Warsaw-based colleague, "Your Poles haven't put up much of a show, have they?" But historian Norman Davies has argued that the Poles ended up performing better than British and French ground troops did while being subsequently steamrolled when the blitzkrieg rolled westwards in 1940.

There is one lingering myth of Polish calvary, with sabres drawn, charging futilely against the blazing guns of Nazi tanks during the 1939 invasion.

Historians have concluded that it is fiction, begun by Nazi propaganda and perpetuated by the Communist regime after the war to press the theme that the Polish military was foolishly brave and incapable of defending their country.

"Nobody's that crazy, to ride a horse against a tank," Gagor said. "The truth is that Poles used horses as means of communication. When they got to the place of their destination they dismounted and kept fighting. That's it."

'No plan' for more troops to Afghanistan

The Age- Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Howard government has no plans to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan.

Speaking on the ABC's Lateline program on Monday night, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his country would welcome more Australian troops.

"If Australia can send us more troops in order to stabilise the country further, in order to conduct a more vigorous campaign against terrorism, that would be welcome. Australia is also helping us in other ways. We would welcome an increase in all manners," Karzai said.

Labor has said it would be "attentive to any requests" for more troops for Afghanistan, but would make the judgment based on Australia's defence resources at the time.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Howard government has no plans to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan.

Speaking on the ABC's Lateline program on Monday night, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his country would welcome more Australian troops.

"If Australia can send us more troops in order to stabilise the country further, in order to conduct a more vigorous campaign against terrorism, that would be welcome. Australia is also helping us in other ways. We would welcome an increase in all manners," Karzai said.

Labor has said it would be "attentive to any requests" for more troops for Afghanistan, but would make the judgment based on Australia's defence resources at the time.

Speaking in Tonga, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum, Downer said the coalition government did not intend to raise troop numbers in Afghanistan. "We have no plans to increase the number of troops that we have in Afghanistan," he said.

He said The Netherlands - Australia's partners in Afghanistan - was considering a drawdown of its forces, and NATO was looking for partners to fill any gaps left by a smaller Dutch force.

"But we are not proposing to fill those gaps with Australians," Downer said. He also said there were no plans to reduce the number of Australian soldiers in East Timor, where they are serving as part of a peacekeeping mission.

"I think there is still a need for that deployment. "I think the situation in East Timor is still fragile," he said, but added "they are making strides forward".

German lessons: the Afghan conundrum

ULF GARTZKE - Special to Globe and Mail Update October 16, 2007

Last Friday, the German parliament extended the Bundeswehr's 3,100-strong ISAF mandate in Afghanistan for another year. It is revealing that a military deployment backed by more than two-thirds of all MPs is increasingly viewed by German public opinion as a lost-cause mission with little moral legitimacy. Surveys now indicate that two-thirds of all Germans favour a military withdrawal.

For Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative allies, the Bundeswehr's bloody, seemingly open-ended Afghan engagement is a political time bomb that could go off in the run-up to the next federal elections, to be held by 2009.

So far, only the post-Communist Left Party is calling for a pullout. But left-wing MPs from the Social Democratic Party and even a growing number of MPs from their conservative Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union coalition partners, under strong pressure from constituents, are increasingly skeptical of the Afghan mission. Given this highly charged domestic political context, international demands that German troops deploy beyond the "safe" parts of northern Afghanistan to support terrorist-hunting operations in the south are not only misplaced but also play into the hands of those who want a swift German pullout.

First of all, the north is not a safe area. Suicide attacks on German forces there have increased sharply in recent weeks and months, bringing the total body count to 21. Second, if Germany's continued Afghan presence were to be seen as the result of conforming to U.S. pressure, the public diplomacy case for sustaining the mission would certainly be lost at the hands of left-wing demagogues, who are waiting to play the potent card of latent anti-Americanism. There is already a growing German perception that the Afghanistan mission forms part of George W. Bush's "war on terror" crusade.

Finally, any move to significantly reduce or withdraw its deployment could cause a dangerous chain reaction across the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. German politicians and public opinion are following the Afghan debates in Canada, the Netherlands and elsewhere quite closely, and vice versa. After all, no country wants to be the last to sacrifice troops for a lost cause when others are already beginning to retreat.

So how can this conundrum be solved? In essence, there are two options. The first — politically tempting but strategically dangerous — would be for the allies to cave in to public pressures and pull out of Afghanistan. In the short term such a move would defuse the concerns of disgruntled voters who no longer believe in the moral legitimacy and military necessity of the Afghan intervention the way they did shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The huge risk, of course, is allowing Afghanistan to revert to a failed-state haven for international terrorists and drug lords.

The second option is to go on the offensive and try to convince domestic public opinion that Afghanistan is still worth fighting for. For instance, Germany narrowly escaped disaster a few weeks ago when a group of Islamic terrorists, trained at al-Qaeda camps along the Afghan-Pakistani border, were arrested before they could set off massive car bombs at airports in Frankfurt on Sept. 11. But making the case for the mission directly to the public is a politically risky strategy that demands honesty and strong leadership. The brutal truth is that we are unlikely to successfully transform Afghanistan into a thriving Western-style democracy. Rather, the litmus test should be to make sure that the country can never again serve as a safe haven for international terrorism.

Political leaders from the NATO countries involved can no longer afford to avoid engaging in a fundamental public discussion of why losses in Afghanistan are justified in terms of our core national security interests. So far, Ms. Merkel has successfully managed to stay out of Germany's acrimonious Afghanistan debate, opting instead to bask in her many foreign-policy accomplishments. But with al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the rise in Afghanistan, and increasing domestic opposition to the German deployment there, a defensive, reactive strategy ultimately carries huge political and security risks, both at home and abroad.

Ulf Gartzke is a visiting scholar at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington.

[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.]