Sharing the duty of securing Kandahar

Letter to the Editor, Kingston Whig-Standard

Michael Den Tandt (Growing opposition to Afghan war gives Harper a weapon, The Kingston Whig-Standard, July 6, 2007) criticizes Stéphane Dion’s calling for Canada to rotate out of our combat role in Kandahar in February 2009, and to arrange now for other NATO forces to move into that role. It is clear that Canadian soldiers are working an especially dangerous part of Afghanistan and it is standard practice to rotate units in and out of such a front-line area. But Mr. Den Tandt seems to think that such a rotation would be a, “moral victory for [the insurgents], a public relations bonanza, and ample reason for them to continue with the tactics that are serving them so well.” On the contrary, preparing an orderly rotation of duties between NATO allies and sharing the burden of securing Kandahar could help protect our troops by showing the Taliban insurgents that targeting Canadian soldiers won’t work. They would instead be dealing with the formidable staying power of the entire NATO alliance.