In his own words: Layton on Karzai and Afghanistan

NDP Leader Jack Layton (left), whose party has called for a withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, spoke with journalists in the House of Commons foyer shortly after he had a brief meeting with Afghan President Hamid Kharzai. Here is some of what he had to say:

LAYTON: He’s a very thoughtful individual and certainly someone of great courage and I think some considerable wisdom.  I asked him about his remark in his speech which was that the root causes of the terrorism and the sources lie outside of his country.  I asked if he was speaking about the provinces in Pakistan adjacent to Afghanistan and that’s exactly what he meant and I said are you proposing a military approach to that problem and he said no, it’s got to be political. We need to have negotiations.  Well, of course this is one of the points that the NDP has been making. There has to be a comprehensive peace process that involves negotiations and other players including Pakistan.  I have frequently repeated this. 

 

For some reason, our government refuses to take that challenge up.  In fact, our defence minister was over there trying to encourage them to buy — the Pakistanis — to buy our nuclear power.  That’s rather far from suggesting to them that they start to do their share on their side of the border with regard to the Taliban who are coming across and attacking the Afghanis and of course the Canadian soldiers who are there. 

 

We also talked about the poppy situation and he indicated this was a grave problem and that it was equally important to the terrorist issue and of course he said that also in his public speech.  I asked him how that could be approached and, frankly, it was somewhat of a sigh and he realized — he pointed out how complex it is.  I didn’t get into a discussion with him — it was too brief — about that issue and I hope to pursue it further with him tomorrow because economic development for the people of Afghanistan is fundamental. He pointed out the farmers are living in poverty and they need income.  

 

And, you know, unlike the Conservatives who probably would assume that Mr. Karzai wouldn’t talk to someone with a different point of view, his point of view was that democratic discussion and assessing things from different points of view was fundamental in a democracy and he was most forthcoming in his discussion with me which, frankly, didn’t surprise me although it might surprise some of the Conservatives who holler and jeer while you’re trying to ask a reasonable question in the House.

 

Question: Did [Karzai] swaty you in any way in your call for troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan?

 

Layton: Well, of course what we have suggested is that a new strategy forward needs to be constructed, that we need to notify our partners that we would be withdrawing from the south of Afghanistan and then work strongly in a leadership role, hopefully, to construct a new and more balanced approach to Afghanistan and we’ve always said it should involve a comprehensive diplomatic process as well as the balance between defence and reconstruction and aid, that it had to be more complex than this rather single-minded focus that our government seems to have had on the military operations in the south, mirroring the George Bush approach.  And I come away from my brief conversation with President Karzai convinced that a much more complex approach is needed, that the issue of the poppy farms is as important, as he said, as terrorism, that addressing the situation involving Pakistan is absolutely critical to finding a solution here.  These are things our prime minister doesn’t speak about.  He prefers to slip into the rhetoric of suggesting that anybody who wants to have a more complex approach is simply being somehow unpatriotic or siding with the enemy.  That’s not the case.  None of us want to see the Taliban back in power and we believe that the current course in the south of Afghanistan is not going to take us to the results that Canadians are seeking.

 

Question: Did he express any concerns about the NDP position?

 

Layton:No, he didn’t.

 

Question:   Can I ask you briefly about how the conversations with Mr. Karzai came about considering you had no idea whether you were scheduled to actually speak with him?

 

Layton:  Well, fortunately, there was a brief reception for the party leaders that the Speaker had put on. So over a glass of juice and pleasantries we were actually able to get into a discussion about the issues.  The prime minister was present.  All the party leaders were present and it was very productive. I found Mr. Karzai is not nervous or doesn't get his back up when you talk about controversial issues.  Maybe there's a lesson that could be learned by some of the backbenchers here in our Parliament.

 

Question:   Can I ask you briefly about how the conversations with Mr. Karzai came about considering you had no idea whether you were scheduled to actually speak with him?

 

Layton:  Well, fortunately, there was a brief reception for the party leaders that the Speaker had put on. So over a glass of juice and pleasantries we were actually able to get into a discussion about the issues.  The prime minister was present.  All the party leaders
were present and it was very productive. I found Mr. Karzai is not nervous or doesn't get his back up when you talk about controversial issues.  Maybe there's a lesson that could be learned by some of the backbenchers here in our Parliament.