While we're sending an additional 3,000 troops to Kuwait, the Mexican government is sending 3,000 soldiers and police -- backed by 28 boats, 21 planes, and 9 helicopters -- to Tijuana to deal with a spate of murders there (more than 300 in 2006).
An independent panel led by former Liberal minister John Manley has suggested that Canadian troops should remain in Afghanistan "indefinitely," if several key conditions are met. Specifically, he recommends that the Canadian contribution to ISAF should be removed at the end of the current Canadian mandate (that ends in February, 2009) unless:
This report, assembled under the leadership of a Liberal party loyalist for the current Conservative government is expected to carry a lot of weight, especially as the Liberal party is directly opposed to the war effort. Whether the rest of NATO will be willing to pony up the additional troops and supplies is, however, uncertain. As we have seen, George Bush has historically been unwilling to send troops to Afghanistan even when his own officers are begging for more reinforcements, and the Marine Corps has suggested that they could do a lot of good there.
Canada has been an important participant in the war against the Taliban and their associates in Afghanistan, and they've taken concomitant losses as a result - 77, which is on par with UK casualties in that theatre (for reference, the war in Afghanistan has led to 87 UK deaths and 480 US deaths).
Casualty counts from the Operation Enduring Freedom Fatalities Page at icasualties.org.
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