CANADA'S 'EYES WIDE OPEN'

Afghanistan Opium Poppy Report Pooh-Poohed By Politicians, Military

Canadian politicians and military leaders are rejecting a British
report suggesting both troops and Afghan civilians are being killed
because of Canada's support of failing U.S. policies on elimination
of the opium poppy crop.

The poppy eradication campaign has driven rural farmers into such
extreme poverty that they are shifting their support to the Taliban
as the international community and the Afghan government fail to meet
their basic needs, says the report by the London-based Senlis Council.

"Canadian troops have been handed an impossible mission which can
only lead to significant casualties," says the report, released on Wednesday.

"Until Canada fundamentally re-evaluates its approach and creates its
own new strategy for its presence in Kandahar, with a clear split
from the failed U.S. policies there, the Canadian mission in
Afghanistan is blindly following a path that will lead to senseless
military and civilian casualties."

But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Canada isn't blindly
following anyone.

"Our eyes are wide open. We know what we're doing over there,"
O'Connor said in Edmonton.

O'Connor acknowledged poppy eradication is a tough sell in a country
where its cultivation is often the only form of livelihood.

"We have to find some way to compensate the farmers," he said.

"I believe that if you're going to destroy somebody's crop, you have
to give them compensation."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Canada's activities in the
war-ravaged country.

Canada is working to eliminate the threat of terrorism, but also
wants to eliminate drug trafficking which is causing problems in our
streets, he said.

"For that reason we support the efforts of the international
community to eradicate drug production," Harper said.

"Of course, we're not directly involved in the eradication of the
growing of poppies, but we do support those efforts and we support
the efforts of providing alternatives to people."

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier described the report as the
work of drive-by experts.

"One of the thing that I found when I was the commander on
international operations was the most dangerous thing of all was the
individual who visited the theatre of operations for 48 hours and
then left as instant experts with the solution to everything, which
invariably was wrong," he said from Edmonton Garrison.

"We don't have everything right in Afghanistan. We know that. Each
day we change the way we do business just a little bit and we'll
continue to do that until the day we come home from that mission."