Around the World: Canada

'West won't defeat Taliban'

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Western forces alone won't defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and that the US must have a viable exit plan before asking other countries to do more there.

"Frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency," Harper said in an interview that aired on Sunday on CNN. "My reading of Afghanistan history is that's it's probably had an insurgency forever of some kind."