KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military is capable of training Afghan security forces past 2011, but it could be a challenging task depending on the number of experienced personnel required, the leader of Canada's mentoring teams in Afghanistan said Friday.
Col. Ian Creighton, who became commander of Canada's Operational and Mentoring Liaison Teams a month ago, said the Canadian Forces could continue training the Afghan police and army if Ottawa decided in favour of it.
"Could we do training up in Kabul or some place like that at some training centre? Sure, absolutely, if that's where the government wants to go," Creighton said. "How many? Not sure."
Creighton said maintaining a training role could be difficult depending on the number of Canadian military leaders who would be needed.
"If you've got a force of 200 trainers ... that's like two battalions' worth of leaders," he said.
"While you could put a small number in there in relative terms to what we've got on the ground here, it would be challenging still from a leader perspective."
Earlier this week, MPs on the all-party parliamentary committee on the Afghan mission who visited Kandahar and Kabul said they were still open to the possibility that Canada could maintain a military presence that would focus on training, not combat, after next year.
The Canadian military must cease combat operations by July 2011 and withdraw from Kandahar, not the whole country, according to a motion passed by Parliament in March 2008.
There have been persistent calls from NATO for Canada to maintain a small non-combat military presence that would help in the ongoing -- and often frustrating -- effort to train local soldiers and police officers.
In response to the committee's musings, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay repeated the federal government's well-worn message but did not say whether a non-combat role for the military was being considered once the mission ends in July 2011.
"We welcome any constructive discussion," Dan Dugas said in an email. "The prime minister and minister have been repeatedly clear that our military mission is over next year."
Creighton said most troops would prefer taking more of an active role if they were to remain in Afghanistan.
"I will tell you that as a soldier, we don't like to be on the outside looking in," he said. "A normal soldier would say, 'Hmm, I'd rather be in the combat area than sitting in a training centre.' That's the way soldiers are. They don't join to sit in the back row. They are warriors."
The Afghan National Army is considered far more prepared to crack down on insecurity than the Afghan National Police, a force that continues to struggle with a tarnished reputation among local villagers after years of corruption, extortion and drug abuse.
Many officers still lack training and equipment as basic as handcuffs.
During a tour of Kandahar two weeks ago, federal International Development Minister Bev Oda said the U.S. has offered to provide security for Canadian civilian projects past July 2011, though planning is still at a preliminary stage.
And the Mounties have already started looking at how to continue the police training mission next year, RCMP Commissioner William Elliot said in April.
Since Canada's mission in Afghanistan began in 2002, 146 Canadian military personnel and two civilians -- diplomat Glyn Berry and journalist Michelle Lang -- have been killed.
Canada has more than 2,800 military personnel in Afghanistan, the large majority of whom are in Kandahar.
