Canada, Feinstein, Literacy, and Band-e-Amir

A few items of note to discuss:

• Just as I was applauding the seemingly positive news of the fact that Spain was planning to commit a few hundred more troops to the NATO effort in Afghanistan, President Stephen Harper of Canada’s spokesman Dimitri Soudas reiterated in a briefing Monday that Canada will withdraw its troops in 2011, affirmatively stating that this policy will not be swayed by Obama or anyone else.  “Canada’s position is clear,” Soudas said. “The military component of the mission ends in 2011.”  Canada has fought valiantly ever since NATO joined the fight and the war effort will lose much with their departure.  Alas, 2011 is a ways a way (like that?) and much can change between then and now.  Maybe, Mongolia can pick up some of the slack?

• Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Chair of Select Committee on Intelligence, had an interesting response to a question about whether the US had a clear strategy in Afghanistan:

FEINSTEIN: I believe it is not now. I do not believe we can build a democratic state in Afghanistan. I believe it will remain a tribal entity.

I do believe that clearing out Al Qaida, clearing out the Taliban is a bona fide part one of the mission. I do agree that training Afghan troops, Afghan — Afghan police is an important piece of the mission.

I believe the mission should be time limited, that there should be no, well, we’ll let you know in a year and a half, depending on how we do. I think the Congress is entitled to know, after Iraq, exactly how long are we going to be in Afghanistan.

First off, she makes a very blunt claim that one should not expect Afghanistan to be a democracy now or in any future as she deems it a ‘tribal entity’.  This point definitely has some accuracy, but it of course contradicts US, NATO, and UN objectives to build up the state government.  The latter part of the passage connects leaving Iraq with leaving Afghanistan, and this is very troublesome to me.  In this interview, Feinstein seems to have ‘when are getting out’ mentality, and this is coming from a very powerful Senator and Chairwoman.

• If one read and believed this report from the Associated Press, they might be inclined to be more sympathetic to Sen. Feinstein’s pessimism towards the US objective of state building and bringing stability to Afghanistan.  The AP report on Monday stated that 9 of every 10 members of the Afghan National Army was illiterate.  This one discouraging statistic shows too clearly the challenges facing the US/NATO build up of the Afghan government, police, and army.  One often hears scholars, columnists, politicians say ‘build up the Afghan army quick and let them do the dirty work’, but this report portrays just how challenging that goal can be.

• Let’s end on a positive note: This story is now a couple months old, but I wanted to get it in here.  Last June, the Afghan people officially dedicated Band-e-Amir its first National Park.  Though I’ve never been there, the park is located in Bamian province, central Afghanistan, and has six linked lakes that surrounded by majestic cliffs.  There is hope that if the park is well taken care of it could bring back much needed tourists, and the money in their pockets, back to Central Asia.  However, with the Taliban extending their presence deeper into the Afghan state, this seems far from realization any time soon.  Here’s a video showing the beauty of Band-e-Amir: