The nice enemy

Canada: the 'nice' enemy

Canada: the 'nice' enemy

As the Taliban's snowbirds frolic in camps in Pakistan, experts reflect on the protagonists in Afghanistan

By MATTHEW FISHERDecember 30, 2008



Taliban fighters who only weeks ago were at war with Canadian troops in Kandahar frolicked at a lake near the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The holidayers are part of the annual fall migration of large numbers of Taliban fighters from the many battlefields of southern and eastern Afghanistan. As cold nights sap their energy to fight in the lowlands and snow chokes mountain passes, the Taliban flood into Afghan refugee camps to the north of the Pakistani capital for the winter.

"Those who fight the Canadians are retiring for the winter," said Sami Yousafzai, a Newsweek correspondent widely considered to have the best contacts among the Taliban of any journalist.