Defence Minister Visits Troops In Afghanistan
Posted August 29, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Amid public pressure to better explain why Canadian troops are fighting in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor is visiting soldiers in the battle-scarred region.
Military officials greeted O’Connor at Kandahar Airfield Tuesday as his flight touched down near where Canadian troops are stationed in the south of Afghanistan.
The minister didn’t say much about his visit, though he outlined several goals upon arrival.
“I’m here on this visit to get three perspectives,” O’Connor said in meeting senior military officials for lunch.
“One is what’s happening on the ground here. The other in Kabul for what’s happening on the national level, and then I’m going to Pakistan for the international perspective.”
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has come under fire for failing to sufficiently explain why Canadian troops belong in Afghanistan. Opposition parties have argued that the military’s role has gone far beyond peacekeeping, and have expressed fears that too many Canadian lives are being lost in the mission.
In the latest example of the difficulties Canadian soldiers are facing there, a military convoy was hit by a bomb only hours before O’Connor’s Hercules cargo plane landed.
So far 27 Canadians have died since being deployed in Afghanistan in 2002.
