Pat Dollard | Young Americans

OTTAWA (CP) — NATO’s top generals have arrived in Canada for a meeting to map out strategy amid growing strain in the alliance over the increasingly bloody war in Afghanistan.

The protracted battle to put down the Taliban insurgency has Canada and the Netherlands questioning their deployment of combat troops in the region. Gen. Ray Henault, chairman of NATO’s military committee and former chief of Canada’s defence staff, said the alliance has not received formal notice from Ottawa that it intends to end its combat commitment as scheduled in February 2009.

He said the alliance anticipates there will be changes but has not begun the formal process of scouting out replacement nations.

“A lot of things happen in 18 months,” he told a news conference in Ottawa. We’re certainly hopeful Canada will find a way to continue to operate in Afghanistan.”

The opposition Liberals and Bloc Quebecois want Canadian troops pulled out of Kandahar when the mandate of the mission expires in 2009. The NDP have long demanded an immediate withdrawal.

Henault said he hopes Canada will stay because progress is being made, but added that the final decision rests with the government. He said there’s currently no way to say when NATO will achieve it’s objectives in Afghanistan.

“There isn’t a date you can set on that. It’s an end state.”

The more immediate concern for NATO is the bellweather decision expected within weeks by the Netherlands, which has combat troops, helicopters and aircraft operating in Uruzgan province, north of Kandahar.

The Dutch are expected to say whether their forces will remain in southern Afghanistan - a decision that could trigger a domino effect among and some fear the collapse of NATO’s effort.

The Australians, who are not members of NATO but have nonetheless contributed almost 1,000 support troops and combat engineers for reconstruction, have said they will not stay if the Dutch decide to leave.

Such an exodus combined with the reluctance of some NATO members - notably Germany, Italy and France - to commit their combat forces already in Afghanistan to fighting the Taliban could make a tenuous situation dangerous.

“Shortfalls do create additional risks,” said Henault.

But he quickly added NATO planners are always spinning different troop rotation scenarios and the alliance’s resolve is strong.

The Netherlands this week formally requested that Norway and Germany commit troops to bolster their mission in Uruzgan in the summer of 2008. That would allow the Dutch to partially draw down some of their troops, giving the soldiers and an anxiously public a rest.

The plea has put both the Norwegians and the Germans on the spot, said Allain Pellerin, a Canadian military analyst.

“This signals that (the Dutch) want to stay, but the message they’re sending is that there should be more burden-sharing.”

Even though Canada has complained - sometimes loudly - about the reluctance of its allies to join the battle in the south, Pellerin says it has never put forward its own formal request to other alliance partners for help.

“I’m not sure the government has decided whether it wants to stay in Kandahar,” said the executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations.

Last week Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canada’s current mission in its current “configuration” will be over in 2009.

Pellerin said that could mean simply pulling out the infantry battle group, but leaving behind support elements such as artillery and logistics.

“The other option which I hear also is that the government would pull out completely from Kandahar,” said Pellerin.

“I guess we’ll hear more in the throne speech, but pulling out of Kandahar with the excuse that we’ve taken our casualties, done the heavy-lifting, it’s now time for somebody else to me is not a very mature option.”

The generals, from NATO’s 26 member countries, head to Victoria on Friday for two days of meetings.