“Afghan insurgency will never be defeated, Harper tells U.S.”
“Coalition troops serving in Afghanistan will never rid the country of insurgents and won’t win the war simply by maintaining a presence in the area, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an interview aired Sunday.
“Mr. Harper, speaking to Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s GPS program, said success of the mission in Afghanistan will be measured by the ability to eventually hand over enforcement duties to a reliable Afghan force.
“‘We’re not going to win this war just by staying … we are not ever going to defeat the insurgency,’ Mr. Harper said in the interview, which was recorded last week during the prime minister’s visit to New York. ‘My reading of Afghanistan’s history is that they’ve probably had an insurgency forever, of some kind.
“‘A part of the calculation here is ultimately the source of authority in Afghanistan has to be perceived as being indigenous. If it’s perceived as being foreign - and I still think we’re welcome there - it will always have a significant degree of opposition…’”