CBC Reports: MPs to vote on motion to take troops from Afghanistan by 2009

A Liberal motion that would ensure Canada end its combat operations in southern Afghanistan by February 2009 is slated to be voted on in the House of Commons Tuesday, but it is not expected to pass.

The NDP is expected to join the Conservatives in defeating the motion, which was introduced by Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre on April 19.

The motion calls on the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to serve notice immediately to NATO that Canada will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in February 2009

Shame on the Liberal Party for their motion to remove Canadian troops by 2009. Playing politics in this realm is dangerous. What will the Taliban take from the vote? If they hang on for a couple of years they will have another run at contoling the country. My question for Dion is what information does he have that the situation will be such as to allow for the safe withdrawl of the troops in 2009. How does he know that the allied forces will not be on the cusp of victory and that a withdrawl will be a set back? How does he know that the troops won't be in the middle of an offensive, from one side or the other and leaving will put our allies in greater danger. How does he know that there will be someone their to take our place ( of course the evil Americans will be there and we know that regardless of the President that they will jump in to pick up our slack)? This cowardice for political gain is sickening.

 Via the Globe & Mail, an interesting stat:

In 1991, Canada contributed more than 10 per cent of all peacekeeping troops to the UN. Sixteen years later, its contribution is less than 0.1 per cent.

Of course, peacekeeping such as it existed in 1991 at the end of the bi-polar world politic has gone the way of the Great Auk. Today, with a war, not on terror, but against ideologies (fundamentalist islam, tribalism, etc) that are opposed to Western Freedoms, our military committment is to defeating our enemies and removing strongmen and tyrants. These actions certainly assist in keeping the peace in Canada, which is a government's first responsibility.

"IN THE FIRST place God made idiots," observed Mark Twain. "This was for practice. Then he made school boards."

(via Instapundit)

UPDATE: more on re-eduation at The London Fog.

Guys getting killed is the NDP military policy. Layton et al get to make hay when the sun stops shining over some poor kid who was killed in doing his duty. That the Canadian military is stretched to limit in Afghanistan is not a secret. The Government is looking to put in more money to the effort:

The government is seeking Parliament's approval to spend nearly $1 billion to sustain Canada's military through the rest of this fiscal year, including hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mission in Afghanistan and to buy new equipment.

What is the NDP response? To hell with the soldiers:

NDP Treasury Board critic Paul Dewar said one concern is that it's not clear from the estimates how much of the funding for the Afghanistan mission is going toward redevelopment.