Afghanistan is unlikely to get safer in 2007, but if the world abandons the fight against the Taliban it will only find itself sucked back in to combat terrorism later, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an interview released on Thursday, according to Reuters. Parliament backed a motion from Harper in May to keep Canadian troops in the country at least until February 2009 but he is under pressure now from the opposition either to pull out or to put less emphasis on war and more on aid. Harper told Global television his goal was to make progress over the next couple years in securing southern Afghanistan, the dangerous part of the country where 2,500 Canadian troops are fighting a Taliban insurgency. "Obviously we'd like the security situation to improve," he said, adding he expected progress. "Frankly, I don't think it will improve in the next 12 months." But he said the alternative of an early withdrawal -- demanded by the New Democratic Party, the smallest of three opposition parties in Parliament -- is unthinkable. "If we pull out today, if Canada, and those that are carrying the freight -- and there's seven or eight countries in the south that are doing most of the heavy lifting -- if we all leave, my prediction is we'll be back there in less than a decade," he said.
