U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan

[PMedMoe]

Pending request for up to 600 troops threatens to start standoff in Parliament over 2011 withdrawal date
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The U.S. government will ask Canada to keep as many as 500 to 600 troops in Afghanistan after this country’s military deployment in Kandahar ends in 2011.

Sources inside and outside the government say the formal request is expected toward the end of this year through NATO. The troops would act as military trainers and would most likely be located in Kabul. The deployment would not involve putting Canadian troops in harm’s way, but could nonetheless set off a rancorous national debate among Canadians and especially within the Liberal Party.

No specific request has been raised in meetings between Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Defence Minister Peter MacKay. But officials in the departments of State and Defence have advised their Canadian counterparts that an “ask” is coming.

To fulfill the terms of the parliamentary resolution that Canadian Forces leave Afghanistan, any troops would have to be outside the Kandahar region, and not engaged in military operations.

Trainers stationed in Kabul would fulfill those requirements, and it is what Canadian officials are expecting.

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Edit to add:  My apologies, this has been posted in the Afghanistan Debate: Why we should be there (or not) thread. 
Mods, please merge, delete, whatever.  :-[

 

[Brasidas]

A little late, much?

 

[tk_01]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-urges-canada-to-stay-in-afghanistan/article1516559/

I highly doubt that the government will be able to maintain its presence in Afstan without compromising public support. It is an interesting possibility though.

 

[GAP]

New role for Canada's troops being explored
Trainers needed in Afghanistan: Little chance of combat duty if soldiers stay on in new capacity, NATO says
By MATTHEW FISHER, Canwest News Service May 12, 2010
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NATO is promising Canada that if it keeps some troops in Afghanistan beyond next summer, it is unlikely those forces would ever face combat.

"Our mission is not to be out there in combat," U.S. Lieutenant-General William Caldwell IV, who commands all training of Afghan army and police, said in an interview. "We operate behind the fence line. ...

"If there is a concern about casualties, there have been no casualties in my command for nine months while casualties are up" among other

NATO forces in Afghanistan, he said. Canada has lost 143 soldiers, as well as a diplomat, since deploying to Afghanistan in 2002.

Caldwell said Canadian troops would be "an absolutely superb fit" to train Afghan soldiers and police for war because most of them already have combat experience in Afghanistan.

"We do not operate in the field, but it takes somebody who has done that to be a trainer," he said. "Ideally, they would have served in an operational force."

The deployment of trainers would also cost Ottawa a fraction of the billions of dollars that it currently spends on the combat mission in Kandahar, which Parliament has said must end by next summer.

It would also drastically reduce the size of Canada's military manpower commitment in South Asia to less than 600 from the nearly 3,000 troops there now.

"The only thing we say to those who are coming is bring your own personal kit and a light communications capability," Caldwell said. "Our vehicles are thin-skinned. We don't normally wear body armour."
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