Afghanistan: Obama's Vietnam? Harper's too?

Every day, Afghanistan looks like becoming another Vietnam for the Americans. Their chief of operations, General McChrystal, says the war is being lost, and cannot be won without a significant increase in the number of boots on the ground and a change in strategy.

They need to win the hearts and minds of the people, he says. Hearts and minds...where have we heard that before?

President Obama is showing signs of terminal indecisiveness. He obviously doesn't want am embarrassing withdrawal (surrender, surely? ed.) to happen on his watch. But, with his approval ratings already tanking, he doesn't want to pay the political price for committing the additional "resources" (read money and blood) McChrystal has called for.

So Obrama is dithering. And he's not alone. Lost in the fog of comment on the disarray in the Liberal Party was news of Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay's suggestion that it might be necessary for Canadian forces to remain in Afghanistan after Steve Harper's promised 2011 withdrawal deadline.

Mr. Harpoon hasn't had to take a whole lot of flak for the waste of 131 Canadian lives and billions of Canadian dollarsa in a hopeless cause. He can point the finger of scorn at the Liberals for having entered the fray in the first place. And the Liberals voted with the Harper government to accept the recommendation of the commission led by Liberal John Manley that we "stay the course" until 2011.

But Steve must face the political consequences of changing his mind now. At the very least, voters will start asking why he would do so. Could the answer have anything to do with appeasing, once again, his new-found vizmin buddy in the White House? Where is the benefit for Canada? What will we get in return for the enormous price we are being asked to pay?

The NDP went on record in the vote on the Manley Commission report as being opposed to any extension of the Afghanistan commission. They say what a majority of Canadians believe, that we should bring our troops home now. In Quebec public opinion is even more heavily against the war than it is in TROC. The Bloc won't vote against the wishes of its people.

That leaves the Liberals to prop up the Harper government, should they renege on their promises. (What a surprise that would be! ed) But the Liberals are, publicly at least, looking for a pretext to defeat the Tory government, so to force an election which they are confident, publicly at least, they can win. The Afghanistan war might just turn out to be the big election issue they need. Stay tuned!