Messaging Afghanistan

We've been seeing stories for several weeks now about how Canadians are divided on our mission to help rebuild Afghanistan. Part of this is due to the failure of the government to communicate to Canadians about why we have been there for several years and why we are now leading the NATO mission in that country.

In a news conference today, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had this to say:

"Please convey to your people, to the people of Canada, the immense gratitude of the Afghan people for what your country, your people have done for us,” he told Mr. Harper after an hour-long meeting.

“For giving the lives of your sons, for contributing in money, for contributing in soldiers and for being one of the biggest helpers in Afghanistan.”

I liked his statement because of the humanness behind it. It is clear and helps people understand that the sacrifice that is being made is understood and appreciated.

The new Canadian government is doing a better job at helping people understand why we're there, but there's still a long way to go to move public sentiment to more fully support the mission. As with any initiative, government or corporate, if the initiative is lost when communicating, public positions will be set and they won't always be in the place you want them to be. Fixing the situation after the fact is much harder than if things were proactively communicated in the first place.