Canada's top general pressured lawmakers to support a motion extending the country's military mission in Afghanistan, saying extended debate may be opening its soldiers up to attacks by the Taliban.
Chief of Defense Staff General Rick Hillier said on Friday that the Taliban was watching the political debate over whether to extend Canada's operation in dangerous southern Afghanistan past next February and was looking for signs of weakness.
"We are, in the eyes of the Taliban, in a window of extreme vulnerability. And the longer we go without that clarity, with the issue in doubt, the more the Taliban will target us as a perceived weak link," Hillier said.
He said he could not rule out that Taliban suicide bombings last week may have been related to the parliamentary debate. A suicide car bomb explosion targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 37 civilians on Monday and more than 100 people were killed on Feb. 13 by a suicide bomber outside Kandahar City.
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that the suicide bombings of this past week have been related to the debate back here in Canada. But I also cannot stand here and say that they are not," Hillier said.
"And, certainly, there is a perception out there that the Taliban will try to take advantage of the debate back here [in Canada] and try to prevent a cohesive mission and will indeed attempt to attack our Canadian Forces in Kandahar," he said.
Canada's minority Conservative government has been trying to extend the military operation in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, the former Taliban stronghold. The government faced pressure from the opposition to withdraw Canada's troops after the deaths of 78 soldiers and a diplomat.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a proposal on Thursday to withdraw forces in 2011. The proposal resulted from a compromise with opposition Liberals, who were against extending the mission and had threatened to force a vote aimed at toppling the government.
Parliament will vote on extending the mission next month -- a confidence vote that would trigger early elections if rejected. An agreement would avoid an early election over the issue.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS