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Time to start talking to enemy in Afghanistan, says Ken Dryden

Canadian Press, 17 Nov 06

Military solutions aren't working in Afghanistan and it's time to start talking to the enemy about how to end the conflict, Liberal Leadership hopeful Ken Dryden said Friday.

``Very few problems today have military solutions, Dryden told a Canadian Club luncheon crowd of about 120 people.

He went on to say that if Canada only talks about the Afghanistan war and how to proceed with ``our friends, it's not going to get anywhere.

After the speech, Dryden said Canada has to negotiate with everybody involved in the fight, although he didn't mention the Taliban by name.

``The only way to end conflict is if you engage the other side as well, he said.

Dryden is not the first to suggest the time has come for peace talks, but he said he isn't worried he will be ridiculed for his comments, as NDP Leader Jack Layton was in September when he suggested Canada should engage the Taliban in talks.

Layton's remarks led Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to quip: ``Is it next going to be tea with Osama Bin Laden?

Dryden has long been critical of the Tory government for the single-day debate it allowed before Parliament voted to extend the Afghanistan mission to 2009.

And opposition parties, already annoyed at the time limit on the debate, were further upset when Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly said if the vote didn't go his way, he was going to extend the mission anyway.

``It was completely inappropriately done, Dryden said.

A longer debate wouldn't automatically have meant no support for the extension, but it might have put information on the table to offset the impact of photos of soldiers returning from the war in coffins, he said.

``What a debate does is it also reinforces the reasons why you're there, he said. ``The debate isn't just a way of sliding through to support. In the end, those missions survive only with public support. You need that debate in order for the public to know what they're supporting.''

Dryden is considered a long shot to win the leadership, which will be decided in Montreal on Dec. 2.