Public support in Canada for its participation in Nato peacekeeping in Afghanistan could dissolve if other allies do not help its troops in the violent south, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said on Tuesday.
MacKay was asked at a security conference ahead of a Nato summit in Riga whether there was a risk that shaky Canadian public backing for Nato's most dangerous ground combat so far could crumble if other nations did not send troops to the south.
"Frankly, yes. Losing young men and women is the surest way for that to happen ... If soldiers are coming home in coffins, that's a very difficult thing, especially for a younger generation," MacKay replied. He said there had been 44 Canadian casualties so far in fierce fighting with Taliban insurgents.
"The Taliban are dangerous and determined and they have come back ... There has to be a demonstrated will (among Nato nations) that will not break," MacKay said. Canada, Britain and the Netherlands lead Nato operations in south Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban. Canada has just extended its 2,500-strong mission to February 2009 despite polls showing that a majority of Canadians want the troops back home.
Nations including Germany, France, Italy and Spain have so far refused to send reinforcements there to help them, although there are indications that some allies could agree in Riga to such deployments if there were an emergency.