The new chief of NATO forces in Afghanistan says he'll know within four months if plans to beat the Taliban are working, as he urged Canada not to waver in the battle.

Lt.-Gen. David Richards, the British general who took command of the NATO forces on July 31, said Tuesday that 8,000 NATO soldiers — including 2,200 Canadians — and Afghan units will be sent into six southern provinces over the next four to six weeks.

Richards urged Canadians to continue their contribution to the international forces that have been trying to help stabilize the country since a Taliban government was ousted in 2001.

The NATO commander said the Canadians who have died in Afghanistan have "died for as good a cause as I can think of."

"If ever there was a just war, this is it," Richards said.

Must improve life 'soon,' general warns

He estimated it would take three to five years to significantly improve the lives of Afghans, but noted that ordinary Afghans are already grumbling about a lack of security.

"If it doesn't visibly improve soon, people are going to say we'd rather have the certain security — albeit the rotten life that goes with it — of the Taliban than go on fighting forever," Richards said.

"Can they stick with us a bit longer as we give them the confidence or do they really want to go back to the Taliban?"

The Taliban is particularly active in southern Afghanistan, where last week four Canadian soldiers were killed in fighting and one died in an accident.

The body of the most recent casualty — Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, 32, of Peers, Alta. — arrived in a military transport at Trenton, Ont., on Monday evening. Arndt was killed in a traffic accident near Kandahar airfield on Aug. 5.

Afghan fighters thanked for defeating Soviets

Richards said the West should be grateful to Afghanistan because its militants, predecessors of the Taliban who are now attacking NATO troops, helped bring down the former Soviet regime.

The Soviet Union sent soldiers to Afghanistan in 1979 to keep the country in the Soviet orbit. But the Soviets couldn't quell the mujahedeen fighters and they withdrew in 1989.

The stress caused by a decade of bitter fighting and thousands of casualties contributed to the collapse of the Soviet government in 1991, Richards said.

"The people of this country actually fought and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, emancipating millions and millions of people throughout the old Soviet bloc," Richards said on a visit to the large NATO base at Kandahar airfield.

The fighters, including al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, were initially backed by the U.S. government, but it withdrew its support after the Russians retreated.

Al-Qaeda could have targeted Ottawa, Richards warns

The Taliban then came to power, holding on until American-led forces displaced it in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

"We can't risk the Taliban coming back in with Osama bin Laden," Richards said.

Al-Qaeda targeted Washington and New York, but "it could have been Ottawa. It could have been Toronto," Richards said.

With files from the Canadian Press