Former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley said Sunday that unless NATO makes a more "serious" troop commitment in Afghanistan, its mission in the war-torn country could fail.
Manley, who led a government-appointed panel that outlined conditions for Canada's continued military commitment in Afghanistan, said the mission is a real test for NATO's credibility.
"When you just look at the commitment, it's about 50,000 troops in Afghanistan. NATO sent 50,000 troops to Bosnia (in the 1990s), which is a country of about 1.8 million. Afghanistan's (population) is over 30 million," he told CTV's Question Period.
Bosnia is a tiny place, while Afghanistan is the size of France, he added.
"They just aren't taking it seriously enough, in my view. The risk of (the mission) coming out without a very satisfactory outcome is a real one."
The Manley panel recommended that NATO find a 1,000-soldier battle group to assist Canada's 2,500 troops in Kandahar province -- one of the most insurgency-wracked parts of Afghanistan. It also said Canada's soldiers should be supplied with helicopters and aerial drones.
NATO has indicated that it will provide the additional troops and equipment. Poland has said it will make two Mi-17 helicopters available to transport hard-pressed Canadian troops around the battlefield in Kandahar province. That should happen later this summer.
A German NATO general said in radio interview Sunday the Western military alliance needs to send as many as 6,000 troops to the region immediately. Egon Ramms told public radio station Deutschlandfunk that the troops are needed to hold on to key areas, win over Afghan citizens, and to allow NATO to eventually handover security control to the Afghan government.
Ramms said NATO's presence in Afghanistan will need to be extended, unless NATO sends more troops now.
Manley said the outcome of events in Afghanistan is important as NATO carries out its first mission outside of Europe.
"The consequences for NATO failing will be very serious," he said.
The prison break
Manley said this month's prison break in Kandahar -- which freed almost 400 Taliban prisoners -- indicates just how quickly the situation in Afghanistan could turn for Canadian and NATO forces.
"It's an indication that (insurgents) are capable of accomplishing something that clearly required not an insignificant degree of coordination," Manley said.
Manley said he was "very dismayed" by news of the prison break, which he said indicates "a break down in our intelligence."
"Information on something like that is something we should have been able to obtain," he said.
CTV Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer told Question Period that about 30 prison escapees from Sarposa Prison been recaptured. Afghan authorities have said the men are being kept at a secret location, she said.
Officials are now trying to find out how to better co-ordinate Afghan security needs with NATO, she said. Beyond the official investigations into the matter, she said. Frayer said the incident has raised serious questions in the Afghan public.
She said people are wondering how Taliban fighters "can file into town with a tanker bomb, roll up to the front gates of the prison, blow them up, and have mini-buses waiting for the prisoners as they ran out."
