More on Afghanistan

Idealistic Pragmatist: The NDP's real position on Afghanistan

So again, in point form and rephrased into plain language, the reasons for the NDP's official stance on Afghanistan are as follows:

[1]* like the war in Iraq, the Afghanistan war is poorly planned
[2]* also like the war in Iraq, too much money and effort is being poured into combat while the humanitarian side is being neglected
[3]* we're following the U.S.'s lead in a mission that's supposed to be Canada's
[4]* it's impossible to win a war when we don't have a clear statement of what winning would entail, and
[5]* as things now stand, we're not doing any long-term good over there.
[Numbers courtesy of Ramblings]

Though I am eagerly awaiting response on my previous post I would like to quickly comment on the quotation above.

1. Upon what information is this statement based? What kind of planning are we talking about? I doubt the average Dipper/Blogger is privy to war planning.
2. Is the humanitarian side being neglected?  Remember we were asking for more combat troops recently? The reason was not that NATO countries have not participated in Afghanistan, it was because they are only participating where it is safe to do reconstruction. So, in reality it is the combat side of the house that is suffering.
3. The US is withdrawing more troops every year:

The U.S. force in Afghanistan will be drawn down from 19,000 to 16,500
this year, although both military and civilian leaders have promised an
American presence in the country for years to come.

We have substantial command positions in ISAF and the operation is a multilateral NATO run affair. (See "Which countries are contributing")
4. Winning would certainly not be made easier by withdrawing troops.  This is an argument for better analysis and communication.  What would be a clear definition of success?  How about when the Taliban are no longer capable of fielding an army? The definition is not up to me, but when you think about this question it is not so easy to answer, but that doesn't make the war unwinnable, just unpredictable... much like the way war has been for a long time.
5. Is that what Karzai thinks?  Do you really think that what we have done so far is going to have only a limited long term impact?

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