Obama not aware of Canadian forces in Kandahar.

Below is an article from a Canadian blog liberal catnip. The article shows that Obama is not being clued in about what is happening in Canada. We just finished a debate on Afghanistan which resulted in a compromise motion that both Liberals and Conservatives (the two largest parties) agreed to support. This motion extends our mission until 2011. There is much opposition to the war in Canada and the other two main parties (NDP and BLoc Quebecois) want to end the combat mission in 2009.
The cry in the Canadian parliament was for others to take on the combat role, the one Obama doesn't realise we even have! Our prime minister is very pro-U.S. and pro-Bush even. If he wants to get noticed he had better do something to piss off the U.S.


Sunday, March 02, 2008
Quote du Jour: Memo to Obama - Canadian Soldiers are Fighting and Dying in Afghanistan

Barack Obama via the Times Online:


“You can’t have a situation where the United States and Britain are called on to do the dirty work and nobody else wants to engage in actual fire-fights with the Taliban.”

Apparently, Canadian soldiers don't count for anything.

The fact that 79 of our soldiers have died in that useless war - the latest one just this weekend - means absolutely nothing to Senator Obama. They are invisible.

This, coming from a politician who didn't even attend all of the Foreign Relations committee hearings on Afghanistan.


...since joining Foreign Relations, Obama has missed three meetings on a "new strategy" in Afghanistan, a country he has never visited.

Obama was absent from a January 31 meeting this year, and also was not present for a hearing on Sept. 21, 2006. He did attend a March 8, 2007 hearing on a new Afghanistan strategy.

On Feb. 15, 2007, Obama also missed a committee hearing on U.S. ambassadors to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet, he has the audacity to be lecturing other countries on what needs to be done while ignoring Canada's role?

And how does his campaign answer that? It changes the subject:


Obama spokesman Bill Burton, who acknowledged Obama has never been to Afghanistan, said Obama's missed meetings and the lack of a visit. [sic] to Afghanistan does not change the fact that Obama was right on Iraq.

How insulting.

h/t marisacat

Military plan spills the beans

Probably the TOries (Conservatives) do not plan right now to extend the mission. They have other fish to fry right now but obviously when the time comes and if they are even in power then they will need to extend the mission. The plan shows that the Taliban are not to be defeated in the short run. Perhaps Karzai may entice enough into negotiations to weaken the resistance. Already there are "reformed" Taliban who co-operate with the Karzai government.


Tories deny plan to extend mission in Afghanistan
Last Updated: Monday, January 29, 2007 | 10:59 PM ET
CBC News
Opposition critics are accusing the Conservative government of wanting to extend Canada's military operations in Afghanistan, but the Tories say they have no such plans.

The opposition members of Parliament were reacting Monday to a document released a day earlier that outlines Canada's goals in Afghanistan.

NDP defence critic Dawn Black spoke to reporters at Kandahar Airfield on Jan. 23. Members of the Commons defence committee visited Kandahar last week.
(Murray Brewster/Canadian Press) The document — written by military leader Gen. Rick Hillier and obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act — says the military's job won't be complete until Afghan security forces have full control of their country.

Military analysts have since said this plan cannot be achieved in the existing military timeframe, which calls for the removal of Canadian troops by 2009.

NDP defence critic Dawn Black says the document is evidence that the government has plans to extend troops' deployment.

"Clearly this government is preparing the military for a long war," she said during question period in Ottawa. "And that's not what Canadians have been told."

Continue Article

Opposition MPs say the document suggests that Canadian troops could be in Afghanistan for several years, with withdrawal coming as late as 2011.

But Conservative government said this is not the case.

"Our military has basically built a campaign plan to go on, but right now, they are limited until the end of February 2009," Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said.

He said the government won't consider an extension for at least a year.

But Denis Coderre, the Liberal defence critic, said if the government is sticking to the 2009 plan, it should have specified as much in its documented plans.

"Now, if you're supposed to leave by 2009, why don't you