Mission IS accomplishing the goals
For NDP Leader Jack Layton, Canada's heroic efforts against the maniacal Taliban zealots in Afghanistan is "the wrong mission. It's not working: it's not going to accomplish the goals."

Layton - like a majority of Canadians if you believe the polls - wants to cut and run and leave the Afghani people to the ravages of the Taliban. Quite apart from insulting our brave Canadian men and women - and making a mockery out of their considerable sacrifices (after all, if it's the "wrong" mission, what does that say about all those Canadians who volunteered to fight) - Layton has his facts wrong.

It is working. It is accomplishing the goals.

The problem is, while Layton is in a position to know what is happening on the ground there, your average Canadian isn't. Why? Because the media ignores the positive news that's why. Day after day we get fed the stories of the tragedies - the deaths and injuries of our soldiers. Even there, by the way, while each casualty is a terrible thing, compared to most wars the death and injury count is quite small.

But the real point here is that despite what Layton and other weak-kneed critics claim, the Canadian and other NATO forces are definitely making a difference in Afghanistan.

Just last month, for example, NATO released a report on the "reconstruction and development" in Afghanistan.

Here are a few of the highlights, most of which received little if any coverage in the major media.

Under the category of health, NATO reports that 83 percent of the population now has access to medical facilities, compared to nine percent under the Taliban; 76 percent of children under the age of five have been immunized against childhood diseases; more than 4,000 medical facilities opened since 2004; and over 600 midwives have been trained and deployed in every province of Afghanistan.

And Layton says it isn't working.

In the economy, while there are still obvious problems, the GDP is growing between 12 and 14 percent this year, government revenues jumped about 25 percent and per capita income, while still puny by western standards, doubled to $355 compared to $180 three years ago.

And Layton says it isn't working.

Under the Taliban, of course, girls and women were treated abysmally. Girls couldn't go to school. Women couldn't work outside the home. But now, thanks to our military intervention, over a quarter of parliamentarians are women (which beats our own record) , millions of girls are back in school (there are 400,000 girls starting school for the first time this year) and over 100,000 women have taken advantage of NATO-supplied micro finance loans to set up their own businesses.

And Layton, whose party claims to be a champion for women, says it isn't working.

Under the Taliban, the country had one tightly-controlled university. Now there are 10. Under the Taliban, the government controlled all media, now there are seven national tv stations (six of them private), numerous radio networks and a rapidly growing number of newspapers and magazines.

And Layton says it isn't working.

In addition to those accomplishments, thousands of major infrastructure programs have been developed, and the country has attracted some of the world's major industries - along with the jobs they offer - such as Coca Cola, Siemens, Nestle and Etisalat.

Among the numerous projects, the Kajaki Dam will provide power to 1.7 million people, irrigation to thousands of farmers and thousands of jobs within the next three years.

And so it goes. It IS working. It IS helping the beleaguered people of Afghanistan get back on their collective feet and enjoy benefits of life which were out of the question when the murderous Taliban held sway.

What isn't working, however, is the constant bleating from Layton and his fellow travelers, the consistent downplaying of our accomplishments, which only serves to encourage the bad guys and discourage those who are on the ground in Afghanistan, both military and civilian personnel.

In his wanton quest for easy votes, Layton has decided to completely ignore the benefits of the mission - not to mention Canada's responsibility to NATO and the United Nations - and exploit the fact that Canadians, like anybody else, don't like reading about funerals and body counts.

He says he supports the troops then publicly rails about them being on a failed mission. Some support.

Rather than diminishing their sacrifices, Layton and his ilk would be better advised to thank them and be honest enough to acknowledge their impressive achievements in the face of a brutal enemy.