Stamping out a relentless Taliban insurgency and winning peace in Afghanistan will be more difficult than stabilizing Iraq, President Barack Obama's new envoy to Afghanistan said on Sunday.
As the U.S. prepares to step up its military campaign against the Taliban, Richard Holbrooke told a delegation of European policy experts in Munich to expect a prolonged and difficult struggle in the war-torn nation.
"It is like no other problem we have confronted, and in my view, it's going to be much tougher than Iraq," he said.
Holbrooke, who helped negotiate the end the Yugoslavian war more than 13 years ago, plans to visit the region later this week, underlining the Obama administration's pledge to make Afghanistan a greater U.S. foreign policy priority.
Obama's plan to send 17,000 more U.S. troops to the country is still being debated by U.S. lawmakers, but is expected to be approved in the coming weeks.
Holbrooke was joined at the Munich Security Conference by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and James Jones, the U.S. National Security Adviser.
Jones, a former general, said that a "new, comprehensive strategy" was needed to stamp out the Taliban. And he blamed a muddled international effort and a failure to address problems in the greater region as reasons for the Taliban's revival.
"It is a regional problem set. We've come to the realization that the region as a whole must be considered," he said, adding that the conflict is "not simply an American problem. It's an international problem."
Canada will end its Afghan mission in 2011 but there has been speculation that Obama will ask Ottawa to extend the campaign.
But that's doubtful, former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
Obama will make his first foreign visit when he comes to Ottawa later this month, and the new U.S. president "will want to talk to Prime Minister Harper about our experience in Afghanistan, about what direction we think things should be going in," said Manley.
"I think he'll want to take advantage of the opportunity just to talk around what happens for the next two years - 2011 is still two years away."
So far, the Afghan campaign has claimed the lives of 108 Canadian soldiers and cost taxpayers about $18 billion. Currently, there are 2,700 Canadian troops stationed in the country.
Even if Obama did ask for Canada to keep its troops in the war-torn country, "I'm not sure that Mr. Harper could accept to stay on beyond 2011," said Manley.
"There's also the question of whether the Canadian armed forces could extend that mission. Many of the soldiers are into third, fourth rotations. It's very, very challenging for them."
