OTTAWA - A former diplomat, once held hostage by al Qaeda, says the West is never going to be able to "develop" Afghanistan and a counter-terrorism mission is one of the options the Canadian public might accept after the army ends its combat role.
Robert Fowler, a former deputy defence minister and UN ambassador, said the government's objectives throughout nine years of war have become muddied and it's clear Canada is "not prepared to invest the blood and treasure" needed for a full-blown nation-building exercise.
The Harper government has pledged Canada will stay on with a diplomatic and development role after the military ceases operations next summer, but has not defined exactly how that will take shape.
There is speculation Prime Minister Stephen Harper could lay out the role in advance of the NATO leader's summit in Lisbon, Portugal later this month.
Canada must begin answering some basic questions before committing itself to further action, Fowler said Sunday.
"Are we in fact nation-building in Afghanistan? If so, then why did we pick the most difficult nation in the world to fix?" He said.
"We are not to going to develop Afghanistan. We -- meaning the West -- are currently providing well over 90 per cent of the budget of Afghanistan. When we leave, they're going to try and run everything with 10 per cent? How are they going to do that?"
Fowler and fellow Canadian Louis Guay were kidnapped in Niger by an al Qaeda splinter group in December 2008. They were released the following April in a complicated deal involving several African nations.
He said Canadians understand that threat of terrorism is still very real.
"If the purpose of going to Afghanistan was to take out Al Qaeda, the guys who did 9-11; to destroy their training bases and to make living in the open anywhere difficult, that is a mission, I understand," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Sunday.
But the silence about the future of the country's involvement in Afghanistan and the lack of debate has troubled him.
"If you want to bring Canadians along with what you're doing, then tell them," said Fowler, 65, after addressing receiving honorary doctorate at the fall convocation of the University of Ottawa. "Tell them what it is and then let them decide whether it makes sense or not."
Both the Senate and the opposition Liberals have called the Harper government to consider some kind of training role for Afghan security forces when the Parliamentary mandate for the current mission expires.
So far, the suggestion has been met with silence.
Reports have suggested the federal government is prepared to spend $600 million over three years to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a haven for terrorists.
Fowler also said he was it was sad to see Canada lose its bid for a UN Security Council seat in mid-October and the setback makes the case quite clearly for "for smarter, better engagement" on the international scene.
He said the Conservative government's policy on the environment and its pro-Israeli stand likely contributed to the defeat.
"Canada's voice is no longer required. We can no longer play an effective role in the search for peace in the Middle East because we have disqualified ourselves with our bias."
