"Stay the Course"

The foremost challenger to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the widely-acknowledged corrupt election proceedings that had Western allies throwing up their hands in consternation and disbelief, has admonished Canada that it is in that country's best interests, along with that of Afghanistan itself, to remain skeptical, as they have so far done, of the scurrilously-absurd plans underway to buy the loyalty of infirmly-committed (low-ranking) Taliban.

Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, far more credible than his adversary who now again leads Afghanistan with his corrupt cronies, credits the Canadian-led Electoral Complaints Commission for managing to prevent a fatal rupture during last year's November presidential election. Canada, cited once again as the honest broker. It was that recount ordered by the commission that highlighted the extent of the election corruption.

What truly alarms Mr. Abdullah, as it should anyone who hasn't their head buried six feet under is the unbelievable depth of the overtures President Karzai is holding out to the Taliban. Going well beyond the NATO-ISAF alliance tentatively accepted thesis that offering payment to uncommitted Taliban underlings might successfully bring them under the banner of the Afghan government, lessening the strength of Taliban troops.

President Karzai has offered a clearly disinterested Taliban leadership welcome into the very government that he leads. Offering to share with key Taliban figures dedicated to the overthrow of his government and the restitution of the governing Taliban, key ministerial posts in a shared administration of the country. Power-sharing that would last as long as a western presence and their troops remain.

Within Afghanistan, Afghan women are aghast at the very suggestion of such an arrangement, visualizing, and with good reason, a return to their former status as helpless and hapless third-class residents of the country, with all their hard-fought rights and equality measures removed. Children will no longer attend school, and women and girls will forfeit all their human rights.

"The Taliban ... say that they want the foreign forces gone. Is this negotiable? Canada has come to bring us democracy. If you leave, I don't know how many days I will have", said a young Afghan MP, Sabrina Saqib. An "exit strategy" would represent a sell-out and speedily reverse all the gains made since the Taliban were driven from power.

"The government is shifting the whole focus to how we should bring the Taliban back. This is very dangerous", warned Mr. Abdullah. Who is himself busily engaged in early stages of putting together a broadly representational political party focusing on political accountability, transparency, and free elections.

Canada was correct in reacting with doubt to the British, French and American buy-in to President Karzai's enthusiastic ideas for buying off Taliban loyalty. And Canada needs to continue to express its skepticism, and to remind its partners in that country that rigidly brutal ideologies cannot be bought off; they fester and they reassert their ardently held beliefs.

As violently and as long as need be to succeed in their mission.