Canadian Defence Minster: NATO must succeed or risk 9/11 repeat

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada cautioned Monday that the world risks more attacks if peace and stability aren't restored in Afghanistan.

MacKay and Ambassador Omar Samad said the price of failure is too high for nations like Canada to consider abandoning Afghanistan before it is ready to defend itself against the forces of terrorism.

"Let's not forget that on 9/11, terrorism came to our shores on this continent," MacKay said following a private address in this New Brunswick resort town to a meeting of ambassadors to Canada.

"So we have to be vigilant and very responsible in continuing to play a role" in Afghanistan.

Samad said Canadians only have to remember what Afghanistan was like when it was abandoned and forgotten by the world in the 1990s.

"It fell into the hands of international terrorists, drug dealers, warlords and al-Qaida," he said. "Do we want Afghanistan to revert and once again become a failed state and become a threat not only to its own people, but to the region and to the world at large?"

Obviously MacKay's speech & sentiments are expected given the upcoming anniversary of 9/11. However last time I checked NYC was not part of Canada. Also if memory serves Afghanistan did not directly attack the US on 9/11. If the logic is that OBL resided and trained there then the same should be said for Saudi Arabia. Its laughable that MacKay showcases Afghanistan as being overrun by the drug trade. Someone needs to tell this moron that Afghanistan is now producing record opium amounts and is the definitive world leader for said crop production. This of course happened after western forces invaded. To put it bluntly Canada has no business being there and MacKays ill-informed and pointless diatribe stands as a testament to that.

src cnews.canoe.ca...

brill

[edit on 10-9-2007 by brill]