PM Harper spells it out

regarding our role in Afghanistan after end of 2011.

.....Parliament has already decided that the combat mission involving about 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan centred around Kandahar will end in 2011. The Department of National Defence has already started preparing detailed plans to move troops and material home.

But at various times over the last two years since that decision was made, there has been some consideration about using Canadian Forces personnel in a different or non-combat capacity or to station Canadian soldiers in a different, more peaceful part of the country.

Harper ruled out such a possibility. "We will not be undertaking any kind of activity that requires a significant military force protection, so it will become a strictly civilian mission," Harper said.

"We will continue to maintain humanitarian and development missions, as well as important diplomatic activity in Afghanistan. But we will not be undertaking any activities that require any kind of military presence, other than the odd guard guarding an embassy."

Harper also said Canada and its NATO allies have lowered their objectives for the mission in Afghanistan. "I think the reality is that all actors over the past few years have been downgrading their expectations of what can be achieved in Afghanistan."

"But it is still important that we have a viable, functioning state in Afghanistan that has some acceptable democratic and rule of law norms. If we don't, we run the serious risk of returning in Afghanistan to what we had before. No matter what differences people have on the mission, everybody agrees that the mission has the purpose to ensure that Afghanistan does not return to being a failed state that is an incubator of terrorism.".......