MacKay backs general who lashed out at tribal leaders

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he stands behind his top general in Afghanistan, who warned Afghans on Monday that Canada is going to halt development unless he starts getting information from the locals about who is planting roadside bombs that are maiming and killing Canadians.

Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, commander of the Canadian troops, lashed out at elders in a Kandahar village after one of his soldiers was injured in a bomb explosion, saying that he wanted to start seeing some "serious co-operation" from the beneficiaries of Canadian aid.

"If we keep blowing up on the roads I'm going to stop doing development," Vance told a meeting he hastily convened with village elders in Deh-e-Bagh in the district of Dand, according to news reports.

"If we stop doing development in Dand, I believe Afghanistan and Kandahar is a project that cannot be saved."

He also reportedly mused about whether it was "worth another Canadian life" if the situation didn't immediately change.

MacKay said he understands Vance's frustration and the minister concurred that the co-operation of villagers is essential to the ability of Canadians to deliver development and programs, such as immunizing children and building schools.

"Do I think that our security is directly linked to development? Absolutely, and I think perhaps the way in which Gen. Vance has expressed it is indicative of the frustration that he was feeling and certainly the trauma that one would feel after being bombed on the road," MacKay said on Parliament Hill.

"There is a connection between our ability to deliver and the security and co-operation we require from local Afghans."

MacKay dismissed the prospect that Vance was issuing an ultimatum, saying that his message was more "help us to help you."

NDP defence critic Jack Harris, however, said that Vance's outburst was "a very surprising reaction from a general who is supposedly trying to win the hearts and minds of the people he is trying to protect in Afghanistan."

Harris said that identifying Taliban insurgents and giving Canadians advance warning of bomb attacks would not be easy in the complicated politics of Afghanistan.

"To try to simplify the matter by saying, 'You tell us who the Taliban are or we're walking out of here,' is basically throwing up his hands and saying we don't know how to solve this problem, we don't know how to fight this war," Harris said.