KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The federal Conservative government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper need to better define Canada's goals and objectives in Afghanistan and spell them out clearly to Canadians, an outspoken Liberal senator said Tuesday.
Colin Kenny was one of six senators from the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence who travelled to Kandahar province for an up-close, in-person look at Canada's specific reconstruction efforts in a war-beaten, poverty-racked region long acknowledged as the cradle of the Taliban.
They visited Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, greeted and chatted with soldiers and police who are actively training their Afghan counterparts, and toured a road reconstruction project that employs 450 local labourers -- many of whom work despite Taliban threats and intimidation.
Kenny said he noticed a lot of change for the better in the year since he was last in country, and described a "synergy'' between the mission's various prongs -- the military, police, corrections officials and agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, or DFAIT, and the Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA.
The difficulty, he said, is that many of Canada's ultimate objectives in Afghanistan remain amorphous and ill-defined, making it hard to measure what sort of progress is being made.
"We have been pushing (the federal government) hard for metrics, but in a few cases there has been trouble measuring anything because we don't know what the objectives are,'' Kenny said.
"A really important message for the government is that they have to outline the objectives here.''
Canadians who aren't seeing Afghanistan with their own eyes can't grasp the level of poverty there, or what the daily struggle is like for local villagers who are just trying to survive, he added.
"The military has got it. DFAIT and CIDA have got it. But Ottawa is not telling Canadians enough about Afghanistan,'' Kenny said.
"The free advice of Colin Kenny is that the prime minister should go on television and talk to Canadians about the situation here.''
It was the committee's third visit to Afghanistan, but only the first time they were able to see anything beyond the relative comfort and security of the main base at Kandahar Airfield.
The visit came as Harper touched down in Bucharest for a summit with leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, where Canada is hoping for more clarity on whether NATO will provide up to 1,000 more troops to assist with security in Afghanistan's volatile south.
It was also the committee's first visit since the formal establishment of 2011 as the new pullout date for Canadian forces -- a deadline the committee opposed, said Conservative Senator Michael Meighan.
"It is better to talk of objectives rather than about when the mission should end,'' said Meighan, who agreed Canada is indeed pushing forward in Afghanistan.
"Everybody gilds the lily a bit, but we are absolutely making progress,'' he said. "So many Canadians and Afghans speak of progress, you can't help but believe that we are on the right track.''
During a stop at a Canadian forward operating base, the senators also met with Haji Agha Lalai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council who represents the infamous Panjwaii district, a hotbed of insurgent activity steeped in Canadian triumph and grief.
Where there was but a butcher shop last year, many other stores have opened up, and some 3,000 families have moved into the area in the last 12 months, Lalai said.
The insurgency, he said, is being fuelled by "neighbours'' from outside Afghanistan's porous borders -- Pakistan primarily, but also Iran, he said -- "who infiltrate and facilitate the enemy.''
He acknowledged the Panjwaii's storied and bloody history -- as a centre for al Qaeda, a home to one of Osama bin Laden's religious schools and as the birthplace of the Taliban and its one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar.
But he said none of that should prevent the fertile district from becoming the region it once was -- a safe and secure place for families, farming, commerce and trade.
"The most influential Taliban are all from here, (but) despite the big players being from this area, we can do our work,'' Lalai said.
"The problem we have is with security. With security we can get a lot done.''
The other vital objective is to establish a national, democratically elected government that is trusted by the nation, said Liberal Senator Rod Zimmer.
"They need democracy. People are willing,'' said Zimmer, citing the example of the hundreds of locals who brave chilling "night letters'' -- threatening notes found nailed to their doors in the morning -- to participate in projects like road paving.
Lalai noted one case of a man who was shot in the leg by the Taliban for participating in the project, and yet he continues to work.
"Look, they are willing to risk their lives to work,'' he said.
"Canada is very involved. They are appreciated and respected. The reaction is very positive from the Afghans.''
