Two more years in the 'Stan?

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The Tories have proposed a two year extension to the Afghanistan mission, to be voted on by the House on Wednesday - which I suspect was a concession to the Bloc who have wanted this (a vote on future commitments) for a while.

It will be interesting to see how the debate and more to the point the vote goes. I find Layton's position, that we would exit Afghanistan for Darfur, to be tenable only in that he and Olivia were together on their Ottawa couch watching recent episodes of ER and got all teary and "we must do something". In terms of capacity to be a tarpit Darfur is no slouch. Foreigners are being beheaded. There are geo-political repercussions at work, and Chinese companies piling into Sudanese resources as fast as "ethical funds" are forcing companies like Talisman out so the Sudanese government and their janjaweed lackeys won't be short of money.

In other news, the Canadian Forces water purification in Kashechewan turned out to be little more than a badly planned PR stunt.

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