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| Afghanistan |
| NATO south Afghan mission has enough troops: Canada |
| 2007-02-18 |
| Senior Canadian military officials, who have long complained there are not enough NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, said on Friday that alliance force levels in the region are now adequate. Canada has 2,500 troops in the southern city of Kandahar and as recently as last October it said it could not maintain the mission without more support. But the official tone changed sharply after President George W. Bush said on Thursday the United States would keep higher troop levels in Afghanistan ahead of an expected surge in Taliban attacks and called on NATO to commit more troops. "The United States is putting in more forces, Britain is putting in more forces. We have sufficient force structure on the ground in the south at this moment to do the job that we have to do," said General Rick Hillier, chief of Canada's defense staff. Canada complains that it and a handful of other nations bore the brunt of fighting with the Taliban last year while other NATO members stationed their troops in quieter parts of Afghanistan and restricted what they could do. "Would we like to see more countries down there with us than the nine that are there? Of course we would," Hillier told reporters after speaking to a meeting of defense officials. "Right now we are in a much better position from NATO's perspective in my view now than we were a year ago." |
| Posted by:ed |