"You have to put an end date on these things," Harper said.
He added that while Canada's military leaders have not acknowledged it publicly, a decade of war is enough.
"By 2011, we will have been in Kandahar, which is probably the toughest province in the country, for six years," Harper said.
Coming from a man who can't even abide by his own fixed election date law, I don't think I'd put too much stock in any date of withdrawal put forward. In fact, if I look back in time a bit, it wasn't so long ago that Harper was rejecting any kind of end date.
While there may be a few Canadian soldiers who stay on after 2011 as advisers, the bulk of the troops will be home by then, Harper said.
"I don't want to say we won't have a single troop there, because obviously we would aid in some technical capacities," he said.
Uh huh. Spot the weasel words anyone? If anyone is naive enough to believe that an occupied country is going to be mysteriously be able to govern itself after the occupying troops leave, they are deeply mistaken - especially not when you consider the long history of war and occupation in the geographic area that is now called Afghanistan. (and I mean history in terms of millenia of recorded history, not just the Soviet era attempt at control)
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