Politics: Canada: Libral Party leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff backs Afghanistan NATO mission for Canada
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Michael Ignatieff, the former Harvard international human r+ts prof, has come out foursquare in support of Canada's military role in Afghanistan, where the Canadian Forces constitute an important part of the NATO forces there and are taking casualities almost daily. In making this support for the war an important part of his platform for the leadership of the Federal Liberal Party, Ignatieff is continuing the previous Liberal regime's policy. Continuing that policy has been under attack by some of the other FedLib leadership candidates; but in a drama-queen overstatement, Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democrats, whined that the role was no longer peacekeeping but war.
North America > Canada
Indeed, it is a warrior role; and it is the only way open presently to keep the peace there, to preserve democracy and to deter the renascent Taliban which has reinvigorated its terrorist campaign. In this case, apparently Layton would simply abandon the Afghanis, since all the reconstruction and humanitarian work to which Layton is so patial is at the same time utterly dependent upon pro-democracy warriors against the Taliban. In contrast , to the NDP's Layton and some of the other FedLib candiddates, Ignatieff would seek to fulfill what he calls Canada's "moral promise" to seek the democracy Afghanistan could be, even by means of combat alongside NATO and the Afghani military, to help reconstruct the country, and to help meet the Central Asian country's humanitarian needs. Ignatieff itemizes all three of these tasks, and supports Canada's participation in all of them.
Jack Layton's pullout statement
Interview with Michael Ignataieff: Liberalism in today's Canada
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