By Joan Bryden
OTTAWA (CP) - Conservatives and New Democrats formed an unlikely alliance to defeat a Liberal motion Tuesday calling for Canada to withdraw from combat in Afghanistan by 2009.
The motion was aimed at guaranteeing the Afghan mission wouldn't be extended beyond the current commitment, which is scheduled to end in February 2009.
The Bloc Quebecois supported the Liberals. But Tory and New Democrat MPs came from opposite sides of the debate over Afghanistan to defeat the motion by a vote of 150-134.
The vote was held amid mounting concerns about the alleged torture of Afghan detainees and the rising death toll among Canadian soldiers.
The Tories opposed the motion because they refuse to be tied to a firm exit date, having suggested troops should remain until the job is done. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has vowed to seek parliamentary approval for any extension of the combat mission.
The New Democrats opposed it for very different reasons. They want Canadian soldiers to immediately cease combat duty in the increasingly bloody Kandahar province where eight Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive roadside bomb on Easter weekend.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said both positions are irresponsible. He said Harper wants to keep Canada involved in "an open-ended war" that could drag on for years.
By 2009, Dion said, the troops will have been fighting in Kandahar for four years, amounting to "the longest combat mission" in recent Canadian history. He said it will be time for other NATO partners to take up the battle against Taliban insurgents.
Just prior to the vote, British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said putting a time limit on Canada's combat mission would send the wrong message to insurgents. Howells said a fixed exit date doesn't make sense when significant progress is being made rebuilding the war-torn country.
However, Dion argued that Canadian soldiers could be more profitably deployed in other ways, helping Afghanistan to set up democratic processes, a judicial system, a functioning economy.
"If we focus on the combat mission and we don't try to do the other things, what is being gained?"
Given the controversy over reports that detainees are being tortured after they're handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers, he said soldiers should be putting more effort into training Afghans to respect human rights. But Dion said Harper's cavalier attitude toward the scandal is smearing Canada's reputation in the world.
"The way the prime minister seems to think that we don't need to care because it's the enemy (who's being tortured), it's a very, very big concern for me.
"It's a shame. It's not Canada. Canada cannot behave this way. We're a civilized country."
As for the NDP, Dion said they would leave Canada's NATO allies in the lurch, reneging on a commitment to remain in Kandahar until 2009.
Dion said the most responsible approach is to remain in Afghanistan until the current commitment ends but to give Canada's allies plenty of advance notice that the mission will not be extended beyond that.
The government has insisted it has no plans for to extend the current mission. But Dion said there's plenty of evidence to the contrary, including the multibillion-dollar purchase of tanks and helicopters that won't be on the ground before 2009.
Copyright © 2007 Canadian Press