Canadian Commander in Afghanistan Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance

Brigadier-General Jonathon Vance, Canada’s commander in Afghanistan, has been the most recent high level official to state publicly what many NATO military and political leaders are increasingly recognizing as a primary obstacle to success in the war torn country.

“The international community is going to demand honesty, integrity and good performance from all levels of government or we won’t stay. We have lost too many soldiers and spent too much of our people’s money to stay if there is not honest co-operation. Our public accepts us here and is deciding right now whether we will stay. Canadians, Americans, the British, everyone is wondering whether it is worth it to stay.” Vance made his comments during his final tour of Kandahar province, meeting with local tribal elders on the eve of his departure as Canada’s top commander in Afghanistan, following his ten month tenure.

His dire warning comes on the heels of similar statements delivered to Afghan president Hamid Karzai, in the aftermath of the election debacle which saw widespread fraud allegations lead to a potential second round of voting, only to have the runoff vote halted at the last moment by the unexpected withdrawal of Karzai’s main challenger, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.

Abdullah had wanted major changes made to the makeup of the election monitoring committee, whom he accused of being loyal to Karzai, and thus responsible for much of the vote tampering, as well as some of the procedural processes which he also saw as flawed. When his demands were rejected, he announced his withdrawal from the runoff process in protest, and paved the way for Karzai to be returned to power, albeit under a cloud of suspicion.

Although this outcome provided some relief among NATO countries whose military deployments have been heavily debated in recent months, particularly in the United States as president Barack Obama has been weighing his decision to escalate his nation’s armed forces in Afghanistan depending on the outcome of the Afghan election, the controversy surrounding Karzai’s government has certainly not abated as a result of the voting fiasco.

Canadian Brig.Gen. Jon Vance and U.S General Stanley McChrystal

In fact, Brig-Gen. Vance is in the rare position of having the opportunity to voice the private concerns of many NATO military and diplomatic personnel, and the growing numbers of their constituents for whom the Afghan mission has become largely untenable.

“I think we have achieved everything, tactically, that we set out to. I feel that the coalition is going to achieve great things. More Afghans are going to be safe and the country is going to begin to recover,” said Vance, when asked if success was still possible in Afghanistan. “What I am hoping for is a political environment where there is the courage to govern correctly and to take responsibility for the insurgency. I was hoping that post-election there would be a real surge of political renewal, but that is still a question mark.”

NATO is seeing a disturbing shift in support among its domestic populations, who are finding it increasingly difficult to define ‘victory’ while the Afghan government continues to present itself as incapable of battling corruption, internal strife and the resurgent narcotics trade, not to mention the Taliban.

Hamid Karzai has been anything but effective or popular as a leader, as the recent election proved starkly. The result has been a steady upswing in the belief that the efforts of Western military involvement will be largely inconclusive in the face of the enormous challenges facing the Afghan people.

General Vance, while trying to strike a more optimistic chord, seemed only to echo the vast disparities between the long term goals of the military mission in Afghanistan, and the harsh realities: “There are still many years before Afghanistan can stand up on its own, but it is achievable,” he said. “Not everything needs to be done in the next year and a half but we need to demonstrate clear and decisive progress in the districts and this must be connected to progress at the provincial and national levels. We are going to get to the zenith of the tactical effect in 12 to 18 months. But if we have tactical success absent a healthy governing environment, it will be much harder for Afghanistan to rally. It is important that leaders at all levels here are seized by this matter. Our tolerance to act here if we are without a solid, altruistic partner would be in jeopardy.”

After 8 years of a grueling ground and air offensive, NATO is in the uncomfortable position of having to admit to very limited gains in the course of the war, and that its partnership with an Afghan government held in suspicion and contempt by its own people and much of the rest of the world, has not strengthened anyone’s conviction that the necessary elements are in place to achieve success, however that is defined.

With president Obama appearing set to authorize an additional 30,000+ American troops to the battlefields of Afghanistan, it appears that Gen. Vance’s prediction of a further 12 to 18 months of military engagement might be simply wishful thinking.

More’s the pity.

Related posts:

1. Canada’s Afghan Mission Continues to Raise Serious Questions About Whether we are Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem Disturbing allegations regarding the treatment of Taliban prisoners captured by...
2. How Much Accountability is Necessary and Do Canadians Care About the Afghan Torture Story? In my honest opinion, this constant reframing of the governments...
3. Canada and Afghanistan; Strange Bedfellows That Are Soon to Part Company Just a week after refusing to entertain the idea of...
4. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper Faces Skepticism Regarding Climate Change and Afghan Torture In a span of just a few short weeks, Stephen...
5. Bloc, NDP Challenge Mackay on Afghanistan Testifying before Canada’s national defence committee on the Hill two...

Tags: afghanistan, Canadian Armed Forces, jonathon vance, taliban

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Canadian Armed Forces, Foreign Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.