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Canwest News Service November 26, 2009 Top NATO general to visit Ottawa next month to talk Afghanistan By Matthew Fisher KABUL: The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is to meet with senior government and military officials in Ottawa next month, Canwest News Service has learned. McChrystal's visit is connected to next Tuesday's announcement by President Barack Obama on how many additional U.S. forces are going to be sent to Afghanistan. Thousands of those troops are likely to be sent to Kandahar, where Canadian forces are based. It was not known if the Obama administration has asked Canada to reconsider or amend Parliament's decision to pull its troops out of combat operations in July, 2011. However, recent U.S. media reports suggest Washington is putting increasing pressure on a number of friendly nations to stay the course in Afghanistan. McChrystal is expected to return to the U.S. from Kabul within days of the president's long-awaited troop announcement, which is to be made in a nationally televised address from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. The general, 55, is slated to appear before the house armed services committee to discuss the rationale behind the troop buildup and how he intends to use the additional forces to try to turn the tide in the long war against an increasingly emboldened Taliban insurgency. Soon after he testifies in Washington, McChrystal is to fly to Ottawa to discuss what implications the new force structure may have for Canada's 2,800 troops in Kandahar. At one of the daily briefings McChrystal has with his senior advisers that was attended by a Canwest reporter in August, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force's 100,000-plus troops in Afghanistan repeatedly stressed that he regarded Kandahar, which is the Taliban's inspirational home, as key to NATO's campaign. .... McChrystal's planned trip to Ottawa is one of many signs that Washington has become intensely interested in the key role that Canada plays in Kandahar, which is regarded as vital terrain by the alliance and the Taliban. McChrystal has flown south twice to the first model village, Deh-e-Bagh, where he met with Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance who led Canada's Kandahar task force until last week. McChrystal met earlier this month in Kabul with Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, commander of all Canadian troops overseas. He also made a surprise visit to Kandahar on Remembrance Day to console several Canadian families whose sons, husbands and brothers had been killed fighting the Taliban. During that visit McChrystal held talks with Vance, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, Canada's top army commander. Gen. David Petraeus, who commands U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia and has become a hugely influential figure in Washington, also flew to Kandahar earlier this month to hear from Vance and several senior U.S. commanders at a joint Canadian-U.S. forward operating base that has been attacked frequently by the Taliban. During that meeting Petraeus, like McChrystal, asked many questions about Kandahar City and its approaches. .... =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ============================== --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bNM5nn.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [email protected] For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------
