So ... What does the Manley Report really say?

The long awaited report on what Canada's future in Afghanistan should be has appeared. There does not seem to be anything startlingly new in it. As anticipated, Canada should stay beyond the current deadline of the mandate - February 2009. But we should do less fighting the Taliban and more training of the Afghan army to defend the country unless two additional factors are met: 1000 more fighting troops from our NATO allies; and better equipment in the form of helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles are provided. Now it is up to the government to declare its approach to these recommendations. Already the NDP and the Bloc Québecois have said, "Not on your life!" Thus, it will be the Liberals who will decided whether the government's policy will be adopted by Parliament. Both of those initiatives will be forthcoming later in the week.

On the other hand, there are other recommendations that will require further study. Some of these has to do with the general failure of the Canadian CIDA efforts to assist local Afghan communities and citizens with much needed aid. These are people who are among the poorest in the world. Per capita income, Manley said in a CBC Radio interview I heard as I was taking my afternoon nap, is half what Haitians live on. (Haitians are the poorest in the western hemisphere with a per capita income of less that one dollar a day.) The Afghans who have survived more than two decades of war and opium-driven corruption in what little governance they have had from whoever held power, especially tribal chiefs and government officials. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be in the plethora of media opinion that even now is being composed. That includes this one, of course.