Dr. Keith Martin, MD - Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca

By Dr. Keith Martin M.D., Windsor Star - December 2, 2010

Vital Questions that Must be Answered About our Mission in Afghanistan

OTTAWA – Canada will keep 950 soldiers in Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP). This is an essential element for the country to provide for its own security and stability. However, training the ANA and ANP is not enough to achieve this objective. Canada and our NATO allies have repeatedly failed to address a series of crucial challenges that, if left unaddressed, will result in the country continuing to by mired in instability and poverty.

The following questions must be answered before this large contingent of our troops is deployed across the country.

1. Where is the plan to turn and incorporate elements of the insurgency into the country’s governing structure so that they can become a constructive part of the future of the country? Our troops are not fighting “terrorists”, and the “Taliban” is not a monolithic structure but rather part of a multifaceted insurgency made up of many groups with different motivations. “Flipping”, or “turning” parts of a fighting force has been a time honoured technique of defeating your opponents throughout Afghanistan’s war torn history.

2. Why isn’t there an effective plan to get the governments of India and Pakistan at the table to agree to a common security/reconstruction plan for Afghanistan? The failure to do this will mean that there will be an insurgency without end as these countries will continue to use the country as a proxy battleground for their own conflict.

3. The ANA is a ticking time bomb with a non Pashtun leadership leading a Pashtun dominated army. Why aren’t we diffusing this artificial, unstable, and dangerous situation that goes against the natural order in the country?

4. Where is the plan to really hold President Karzai and his government to account to address the rampant corruption that is killing the country’s ability to create a stable nation state? Corruption and an inability to provide for the people’s basic needs have turned many Afghans away from supporting their government. It has also resulted in many local people seeing us as part of the problem for propping up a government that they see as venal and corrupt towards them.

5. With the billions of dollars in aid that have been funneled into the country why don’t the people have access to basic health care services in places like the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar City? This is the major general hospital in Kandahar province, which Canada has taken the lead in securing. It is a hospital where the surgeons don’t even have access to general anesthetic facilities. Imagine doing surgery without general anesthesia! This is the reality for medical professionals and citizens in Afghanistan.

The Afghan people will create a viable, stable economy if they are secure in their lives and have a stable, honest government that works for the people and is by the people. For the sake of the Afghan people and our troops who are spilling their blood in this foreign land, it is crucial that these questions are addressed before Canada’s large scale training exercise begins.