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Afghanistan Violence To Worsen

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:33:53 -0500

The head of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan said Tuesday he expects to see an escalation in violence in the war-torn country over the next year.

Speaking to reporters in Kandahar, Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier warned that the surge of U.S. troops arriving in 2009 will likely prompt retaliation from the Taliban, particularly in Afghanistan's volatile southern region.

"There will be a higher level of violence in 2009 than there was in 2008. I wouldn't actually see a decrease in violence until perhaps the following year when we begin to gain traction with some of the capacity," said Gauthier, who has spent the last several days in meetings.

Gauthier's expectation for an eventual decrease in violence by 2010, however, may seem a little optimistic in the eyes of many analysts and even Afghans themselves, the CBC's David Common reported from Kandahar.

"For many people in Afghanistan, particularly in the south where it has been very violent, it's something that is difficult to believe because there has been so very little stability for some time," Common said.

Gauthier's comments come as conflict in Afghanistan is at its highest level since the U.S. invaded in 2001, followed shortly by Canada. The number of allied and Afghan troops, as well as civilians, killed in the conflict continues to rise.

Britain announced Monday it had deployed an additional 300 troops to southern Afghanistan to help soldiers there battle a resurgent Taliban. Those troops, redeployed from Cyprus, will remain until at least August, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

In the U.S., president-elect Barack Obama has said he hopes to shift troops from Iraq and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan in the upcoming year. Commanders there want at least 20,000 more troops, while Obama has pledged to send up to 12,000 to complement the more than 30,000 U.S. troops already stationed.

Canada has about 2,500 sol...

World Leader’s UN Speech

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:41:15 -0400

Canada boycotted a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday evening, protesting his denial of the Holocaust and verbal attacks on Israel.

The Canadian delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, walked out at the start of Ahmadinejad’s address. Several other delegations, including lower-level U.S. diplomats, left during the speech. Israel's UN delegation was not present for the speech.

Ahmadinejad's address to a half-empty chamber in New York slammed Israel and railed against the West and capitalism.

He criticized Israel for staging "barbaric" attacks in the Gaza Strip last year, and he slammed the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ahmadinejad didn't talk about his country's contentious nuclear program, instead calling for the end of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Ahmadinejad's "absolutely repugnant remarks" previously made about the Holocaust were reason enough for Canadian officials to boycott the Iranian president's address.

"There are times when things are being said in this world that it is important that countries that have a moral compass stand up, make their views known," Harper said in Oakville, Ont.

"And our absence there will speak volumes about how Canada feels about the declarations of President Ahmadinejad."

Holocaust denial

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly made comments denying that six million Jews were killed during the Second World War. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad claimed again that the Holocaust was a lie and a pretext for occupying Palestinian lands.

"President Ahmadinejad has said things, particularly about the state of Israel, the Jewish people and the Holocaust, that are absolutely repugnant," Harper said.

"It is unfitting that somebody like that would be giving those kinds of remarks before ...