With the straight talk to our Canadian ally.  Peaktalk, a Southwestern British Columbia blog by a Dutch-Canadian whose feed is on my Google personalized home page, writes about how Britain's minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs Kim Howells just thrashes NATO for not joining the Brits, the Canadians and the Americans in the actual fighting for Afghanistan's future.  The blog later goes on to thrash Europe for being ignorant of the threat.

Also, Minister of State Kim Howells in his speech said in part,

As part of the International Security Assistance Force – or ISAF – our countries have responsibilities for neighbouring provinces in the South of Afghanistan – the UK in Helmand province, Canada in Kandahar – two of the toughest places on the face of the Earth.

Our troops fight side by side in some of the most hostile terrain on earth. On my five visits to Afghanistan I have had the honour to meet both British and Canadian service men and women, and their civilian counterparts, working together to rebuild a country that has suffered so much.

And I am totally convinced that that hard work – the development assistance, the diplomatic efforts and, yes, the battle-fighting - all of it is 100% for the good of the people of Afghanistan and for the good of the International Community as a whole.

But I do not think, for one second, that we can take any of that hard work – of that sacrifice – for granted. We must never forget why it is that Canadian and British troops are in Afghanistan, and we must never be shy to explain it to the citizens of our countries. We haven’t been too good at that, all too often.

It is just over five years since the international coalition, with the full support of the United Nations, removed the odious Taliban regime from power. The Taliban had brutalised Afghanistan. They had abused the human rights of the Afghan people in unspeakable ways. They had imposed their twisted interpretation of Islam on a country already crippled by years of war, choking off the spirit and opportunity of a people who deserved so much better.

But, as the awful tragedy of September 11 showed, the Taliban posed a threat that reached far beyond the borders of Afghanistan. They, and the groups they supported and sheltered, endangered innocent people in cities thousands of miles from Kabul or Kandahar. Under Taliban rule Afghanistan had become a safe haven for terrorists. A place where Al-Qaeda could operate with impunity, training and preparing for its murderous operations. That could not - and could never again – be allowed to continue.

That is why the international community took action to remove the Taliban. And that is why it is in the interests of every man, woman and child in Canada, in Britain and throughout the world, that Afghanistan is, and remains, a stable, functioning democracy,

And so it is the case today that ISAF forces are in Afghanistan at the express invitation of its democratically elected government. We have done much good. There is much still to do. We must stay the course.

The problem is, Canada's new Leader of the Opposition Stephane Dion has mused about retreating from Afghanistan  - yet his wife considers the Afghani burkas "instruments of torture".  What makes this problem more acute is not that he is a Liberal, but that the Conservative government is a minority government and therefore relies on other political parties to pass its legislation - and hope for the best as to opposition legislation.  (If you need clarification, post a comment and I'll go into great detail.)  One of the other political parties, the Bloc Quebecois (party representing those within a province called Quebec that wants to secede from Canada) said - and I quote exactly:

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe said yesterday his party is prepared to topple the Conservative government over Afghanistan unless it "modifies rapidly and profoundly" Canada's mission there.

"We will not hesitate to withdraw our support," he said, explaining the party objects to the transformation of the mission from reconstruction to combat.

Mr. Duceppe added he doesn't want "the sacrifice of human lives without any result."

But as Secretary of State Howells said, in part because other NATO members are reluctant to send troops to pull dangerous duties while in Afghanistan - and he could have just as easily referred to the situation in Iraq:

He dismissed a common line of criticism - the one regularly submitted by some Liberals and the NDP - that NATO has placed too much emphasis on combat operations and should expend more resources on reconstruction.

"You can't do that if you've got Taliban and drug warlords shooting at you," he said, adding: "Canada would be letting us folks down" if it pulled its combat troops.

"We've got to do everything we can to reconstruct Afghanistan. But to try to pretend that there isn't a priority especially in the south to ensure that you've got security on the streets and in the fields and on the roads is a nonsense," he said. "You've got to have that security, and that means war fighting."

Keep that in mind, folks.  If you still need a spine to fight Islamofacism, go to this Defend Canada post.  Tell you what - send that post to all your Canuck friends and tell them this Yank says "Thank You!"

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