# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread May 2012



## The Bread Guy (30 Apr 2012)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread May 2012  *               

*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*


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## GAP (11 May 2012)

*Articles found May 11, 2012*

 Attacker in Afghan uniform kills NATO trooper
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – NATO says an attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform has killed one of its service members in the country's east

The NATO statement provided no details about Friday's attack and did not give the nationality of the service member killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide details about troop deaths.

The coalition says an investigation is under way.

The attack is among several this year in which Afghan soldiers or insurgents disguised in military uniforms have opened fire on NATO troops.

The incidents have raised the level of mistrust between the U.S.-led coalition and their Afghan partners as NATO gears up to hand over security to local forces ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops.
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 U.S. military snipers are changing warfare
Article Link

QUANTICO, Va. – When Marine Sgt. Jonathan Charles' unit arrived in Afghanistan, the American troops faced an entrenched enemy that picked a fight with the Marines almost every time they stepped off base.

"They couldn't get outside the wire more than 50 meters before it was a barrage of fire," said Charles, a scout sniper.

The Marine battalion quickly dispersed well-camouflaged scout sniper teams throughout the Musa Qala area in southern Afghanistan, the former Taliban heartland. The teams would hide for days, holed up in crevices, among boulders or in mud-walled homes, and wait for unsuspecting militants to walk into a trap.

The result: Dozens of militants were killed by an enemy they never saw. Word of unseen killers began to spread among the "few who got away," Charles said. Within weeks, the tide had begun to turn and by the end of the unit's seven-month deployment in March 2011, the battalion's 33-man sniper platoon had 185 enemy kills
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US says Iran general key in Afghan heroin trade 
Article Link
 07 March 2012 

Washington on Wednesday named a general in Iran's elite al-Quds force as a key figure in trafficking heroin from Afghanistan.

The US Treasury designated Gen. Gholamreza Baghbani, who runs the Revolutionary Guards' Quds force office in Zahedan near the Afghan border, as a narcotics "kingpin" for facilitating Afghan drug runners to move opiates into and through Iran, as well helping ship weapons to the Taliban.
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Why Afghanistan's girls still need Canada
By Geoffrey Johnston Posted 12 hours ago
Article Link

Last year, Canada withdrew its combat troops from Afghanistan. And the approximately 950 Canadian Forces personnel left behind to train Afghan security forces are slated to be pulled out of the country by the end of 2014, ending Canada’s most significant military engagement since the Korean conflict.

However, Canada’s humanitarian commitment to Afghanistan will likely extend beyond 2014.

Under Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, mothers and children are “entitled to special care and assistance.” And the women and girls of Afghanistan are in dire need of special Canadian assistance.

“Indicators regarding their health, education, economic well-being, and human rights remain among the lowest in the world,” states the government of Canada website. Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, has the dubious distinction of having “the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world with 1,800 deaths per 100,000 live births.”

Since the ouster of the Taliban, access to health care has improved in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. Department of Defence report published last October. In 2002, only 9 per cent of the population had access to “basic health services” within two hours' walking distance, notes the Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan. By 2011, 85 per cent of Afghans lived within an hour of a health facility.

However, the report acknowledges that much work still needs to be done. For example, “the country currently has approximately 2,000 midwives, and requires an additional 4,000 to ensure Afghan women have access to pre- and post-natal care.”

Dave Toycen says that far too many mothers and babies continue to die during childbirth in Afghanistan. “Whenever that happens in a culture, it wreaks a terrible price,” says the president of World Vision Canada, a Christian non-governmental organization that delivers humanitarian aid and long-term development assistance in Afghanistan. 
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## GAP (12 May 2012)

*Articles found May 12, 2012*

 Tortured Afghan teen on attackers: 'The same should be done to them'
By Nick Paton Walsh and Ashley Fantz, CNN Wed May 9, 2012
Article Link

Last year, people around the world were outraged when they heard the story of Sahar Gul.

The Afghan teen was married off at 13. She said her husband, a member of the Afghan Army, raped her. Enraged because she didn't immediately get pregnant, her in-laws locked her in a basement for months, torturing her with hot pokers and ripping out her nails. Ultimately, she said, they wanted to force her into prostitution as punishment for failing her obligation as a woman.

"They told me to go to the basement because there were some guests coming to the house," she told CNN. "When I went there they came in and tied my hands and feet and pulled me upwards from above. They brought very little food for me.

"While going to the bathroom they used to beat me a lot. I was crying all this time," she said. "When they put electric shocks on my feet, I felt like I was going to die at that moment. I screamed and that's how our neighbors realized there was something happening. For one day and night I was unconscious, feeling dead."

Neighbors heard her cries and called authorities, who rescued the teenager in December.

Last weekend, Gul, now 14, trembled as she stood in court and listened to a Kabul judge hand down sentences to three of her attackers.

They each got 10 years. Her husband is still being sought.
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 Red Cross suspends work in Pakistan after staffer's killing
By the CNN Wire Staff  Fri May 11, 2012
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Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was suspending its work in Pakistan pending a review of its presence in the South Asian country.

The decision comes after the killing of Khalil Rasjed Dale, a 60-year old health program manager who was abducted four months ago in Balochistan. His body was found last month.

The 900 national staff members of the Red Cross have been placed on paid leave, and 80 foreign staffers have been flown to Islamabad, said spokesman Christian Cardon.

"Over the last few years unfortunately, it has become very dangerous not only in Pakistan but all over the world with the ICRC staff being targeted and coming under attack," Cardon said.

Jacques de Maio, the head of Red Cross operations for South Asia, said the aid agency was compelled to "completely reassess the balance between the humanitarian impact of our activities and the risks faced by our staff."

The organization has halted all all its activities and said it was painfully aware of the consequences on the wounded, sick and other vulnerable people.

The Red Cross has been working in Pakistan since the country's independence in 1947, providing health care, physical rehabilitation and other assistance for victims of violence and natural disasters.
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## GAP (13 May 2012)

*Articles found May 13, 2012*

NATO troops killed by gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms
 Sat May 12 2012
Article Link

KABUL — Men wearing Afghan police uniforms shot dead two NATO service members Saturday in southern Afghanistan, authorities said, the latest in a string of attacks on international troops by Afghan security forces or militants disguised as police.

Two other coalition service members also died Saturday in Afghanistan, one in an insurgent attack and another of non-battle related injuries.

There were conflicting reports about the shooting in Helmand province.

Fareed Ahmad, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial police, said two Afghan policemen opened fire on coalition troops at 3 p.m. at a joint Afghan-coalition compound, killing two coalition troops. He said a third Afghan policemen fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding the other, who escaped.

The attackers had been members of the Afghan National Police for one year and were from Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Ahmad

NATO said it was aware of the Afghan statements, but that operational reports indicated that the assailants were insurgents dressed in police uniforms, not official members of the police force. The coalition also said that one attacker was killed and the second was being pursued.

It said the shooting was still being investigated.

A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead a U.S. soldier Friday in eastern Afghanistan. That shooting was the 15th incident this year in which Afghan soldiers or insurgents disguised in military uniforms have turned their weapons on foreign troops, according to NATO.
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6,600 lbs. of opium seized in Afghanistan
Article Link
 May 12, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 12 (UPI) -- A joint Afghan and coalition military operation in southern Afghanistan seized 6,600 pounds of opium, officials said.

The International Security Assistance Force said the joint operation conducted two counter-narcotic missions Tuesday through Thursday in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, Khaama Press reported Saturday.

An additional 1,320 pounds of poppy seeds and 330 pounds of morphine were netted in the raids, ISAF said. Drug-processing equipment and explosives were also seized, and the drugs were destroyed on site.
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 Senior Afghan peace negotiator shot dead
By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters 
Article Link

KABUL – Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, police said, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.

Maulvi Arsala Rahmani was one of the most senior members on Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with insurgents.

“He (Rahmani) was stuck in heavy traffic when another car beside him opened fire,” said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the investigations unit for Kabul police.

The Taliban denied involvement in the killing of Rahmani, a Taliban defector but with strong ties to the movement. “Others are involved in this,” its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Rahmani was on his way to a meeting with lawmakers and other officials in a government-run media centre in the heavily barricaded diplomatic centre of Kabul when he was shot dead.

“His driver did not immediately realise that Rahmani had been killed,” police official Zahir told Reuters, adding that no one had been arrested in connection with the shooting.
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## GAP (23 May 2012)

*Articles found May 23, 2012*


Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Bin Laden
23 May 2012 
Article Link

A Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden has been jailed for at least 30 years, officials say.

Shakil Afridi was charged with treason and tried under the tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information.

The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had called for his release on the grounds that his work served Pakistani and American interests.

Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad in May 2011.

The killing triggered a rift between the US and Pakistan, whose government was seriously embarrassed to find Bin Laden had been living in Pakistan.

Islamabad felt the covert US operation was a violation of its sovereignty.

Shortly after the raid on Bin Laden's house, Dr Afridi was arrested for conspiring against the state of Pakistan.
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## GAP (24 May 2012)

*Articles found May 24, 2012*

 Time to call Pakistan what it is — a state supporter of terrorism
Article Link
Jonathan Kay  May 23, 2012 

Here in the West, the killing of Osama Bin Laden was considered a triumph. In Pakistan, where the al-Qaeda leader lived out his final years, attitudes are very different: On Wednesday, a Pakistani court brought down a guilty verdict against the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA locate bin Laden in May, 2011. Having been convicted of treason, Shakil Afridi now faces a 33-year prison sentence.

Each story like this brings fresh evidence that Pakistan, a nominal Western ally in the war on terrorism, actually is doing more to enable the jihadis than fight them. We don’t yet have definitive evidence to suggest that the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment was actively housing and protecting bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. But that certainly would have been in keeping with long-standing Pakistani policies.

And those policies won’t change any time soon: With the Americans, Canadians and others having announced their exit date in Afghanistan, Pakistan has less incentive to co-operate in the war on terrorism than at any time since 9/11. In coming years, the better way to deal with Pakistan will be to acknowledge the reality that the country is nothing less than a full-blown state sponsor of terrorism.

This is not a new idea: It goes back almost 20 years. As former U.S. diplomat Peter Tomsen recently noted in an insightful essay published by the World Policy Institute, George H.W. Bush-era Secretary of State James Baker wrote a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1993, warning him that Pakistan could soon be put on America’s list of terror-sponsoring nations. But the threat proved hollow.

At the time, Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, was actively supporting militant groups in Indian Kashmir. To this day, three of those groups — Harakat ul Mujahidin, Lashkar-I Taiba and Jaish-I Mohammad — are on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Add in the groups that the ISI assists on the Afghanistan front — the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and the Hekmatyar outfit — and it becomes plain that Pakistani spooks effectively are co-ordinating a horizontally diversified terrorist empire spanning three nations.

As Mr. Tomsen argues, the United States — and the West, more generally — shares some of the blame for the expansion of Pakistan’s malign influence. The U.S. diplomat served as a special envoy to elements of the Afghan resistance (most notably, Tajik commander Ahmed Shah Masood, who was killed by al-Qaeda two days before 9/11) during the early 1990s. In that capacity, he bore witness to America’s policy of reckless indifference to developments in the region.

“From 1993 to September 11, 2001 — in perhaps one of the greatest blunders in American diplomatic history — the United States government outsourced America’s Afghan policy to Pakistan, which meant to the Pakistani military and the powerful ISI. American policy was, in practice, giving free rein to the fox in the chicken coup,” Mr. Tomsen wrote in the Journal of the World Policy Institute. “The unholy alliance of the ISI, al-Qaida, and Taliban radicals burrowed into Afghanistan. While bin Laden launched global terrorist attacks against the United States, Pakistan’s military and the ISI organized, armed, and supplied the annual military offensives besieging Masood’s northern enclave. American ignorance of Pakistan’s radical Islamist course in Afghanistan reinforced the isolation of the most successful Afghan commander fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”

Pakistan’s motives in supporting terrorism and attacking its neighbours typically are described as a play for “strategic depth” against India. Mr. Tomsen argues that there are other goals as well — including the expansion of the military’s power within domestic Pakistani politics, and the creation of a unified Islamic power base in Central Asia.

Destabilizing Afghanistan through Taliban-led terrorism is consistent with each of these goals. And the ISI’s strategy for doing so, Mr. Tomsen notes, is a carbon copy of its playbook from 1994 to 1998, when it built up the Taliban the first time around.

For years, Western diplomats have been unable to speak freely about Pakistan, because we’ve depended on the country for logistical support in the Afghan mission. At the same time, the American campaign of drone strikes, which has decimated the senior ranks of Pakistani-based terrorists, has remained a low-profile affair, lest Pakistani sensitivities be offended.

Following the West’s phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, we will no longer have tens of thousands of soldiers being fed, housed, and air conditioned in the Afghan outback. No longer will the United States have to go through the cynical pantomime of “co-ordinating” border operations with the Pakistani military, an exercise that inevitably leads to the Taliban learning of America’s plans in advance.

It is a pity that the West will not be leaving Afghanistan in better shape. But having departed the country, the United States and its allies at least will be able to deal with Pakistan, the greater threat, for what it is: a country that is a haven for terrorists; and which punishes men, such as Shakil Afridi, who fight them.
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US drone 'kills 8' in Pakistan
Article Link
 24 May 2012 

A US drone strike has killed at least eight people in a volatile tribal area of north-west Pakistan, officials say.

The strike targeted suspected militants of Turkmen origin in the North Waziristan tribal area, they said.

This is the second strike in the area in 24 hours. At least four suspected militants were killed on Wednesday.

Drone attacks frequently target Pakistan's restive tribal areas, where many insurgents seek refuge.

The drone fired two missiles at a house in the Isokhel area near Mir Ali. A nearby mosque was also damaged, reports say.

Five people died at the scene and three others who were injured died afterwards, according to a local official.
Foreign militants

This district, near the Afghan border, is known to be a Taliban stronghold and a place where there are a large number of foreign militants, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool.

The attack comes weeks after Pakistan's parliament resolved that the relationship with the US could only move forward positively if there was an end to drone attacks, our correspondent adds.

The US says the region is home to several militant groups involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan. But Pakistan has said drone raids serve to drive local people closer to the militants.

Washington has cut the number of drone operations but has ruled out stopping them altogether.

The issue of drone strikes, along with Pakistan's refusal to re-open Nato supply routes to Afghanistan, has led to increased tension in US-Pakistan relations in recent months.

The Pakistani government repeatedly argues that drone attacks are a violation of its sovereignty.

But correspondents say many analysts believe they could not continue without tacit support from the country's leadership
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## GAP (25 May 2012)

*Articles found May 25, 2012*

US cuts Pakistan aid over jailing of 'Bin Laden doctor'
Article Link
 25 May 2012

A US Senate panel has cut $33m (£21m) in aid to Pakistan in response to the jailing of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has said it will cut US aid by $1m for each year of Shakil Afridi's sentence.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said his term was "unjust and unwarranted".

Dr Afridi was tried for treason under a tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information for US intelligence.

Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011.

The move from the Senate panel follows earlier cuts to the White House's budget request for Pakistan. The cuts would be part of a bill that would send $1bn in aid to Pakistan in the next financial year.
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 Withdrawal schedules (picture below)
Article Link
Monday, Apr. 30, 2012 6:44PM EDT

Browse this month's work by Globe editorial cartoonists Brian Gable and Anthony Jenkins

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## GAP (30 May 2012)

*Articles found May 30, 2012*

 Looks like a rake, drives like a tank: Meet the buffalo soldiers
 AAP  May 30, 2012
Article Link

WHEN it comes to finding insurgent improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the tried and tested but highly perilous method involves brave men with metal detectors and their canine companions.
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But now, there's another way.

"If I'm to be blown up in something, I'd like it to be this," says combat engineer Captain Kevin Hamilton, pointing to an enormous Canadian-made Buffalo mine protected vehicle.

This is a brand new capability for the Australian Defence Force, one of two Buffaloes leased from Canada when their forces withdrew from Afghanistan last year.

But that's not all. With it comes the Husky, an armoured vehicle equipped with ground penetrating radar able to detect buried IEDs.

Watching this dynamic duo in operation is instructive.

First, Husky slowly scans the road surface. When the radar detects a suspicious object, the operator slams on the brakes and marks the spot with a blast of red paint.

Then along comes Buffalo. Crewmen first examine the area and the object with a mast-mounted camera.

Then they get down to business, extending the eight-metre articulated interrogator arm, using a burst of compressed air to expose the object.

If it's an IED, they can then use what looks like an enormous garden fork to pick it up and plonk it on the side of the road for later examination.

Rounding out this new capability is the Sparks-2 mine roller which can be fitted to the front of a standard Bushmaster infantry transport vehicle and which explodes IEDs in its path.

There's also the High Mobility Engineer Excavator, essentially a heavily armoured front-end loader and backhoe, used for improving rough roads and creating safe watercourse crossings.

With the Afghan fighting season now under way, most use of this new equipment will likely fall to the soldiers of Mentoring Task Force-5 (MTF-5) who will soon replace the members of MTF-4.

Captain Hamilton, troop commander of what's termed the mobility support detachment, said this allowed one soldier protected by armour to do the job of four or five walking the route with mine detectors.

"I'm very impressed with the kit," he said. 
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 NATO airstrike kills al-Qaida's No. 2
by The Canadian Press - May 29, 2012
Article Link

The U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan killed al-Qaida's second-highest leader in the country in an airstrike in eastern Kunar province, the coalition said Tuesday.

Sakhr al-Taifi, also known as Mushtaq and Nasim, was responsible for commanding foreign insurgents in Afghanistan and directing attacks against NATO and Afghan forces, the alliance said. He frequently travelled between Afghanistan and Pakistan, carrying out commands from senior al-Qaida leadership and ferrying in weapons and fighters.

The airstrike that killed al-Taifi and another al-Qaida militant took place Sunday in Kunar's Watahpur district, the coalition said. A follow-on assessment of the area determined that no civilians were harmed, it said.

The coalition declined to reveal the name of al-Qaida's top leader in Afghanistan "due to ongoing operations and security concerns."

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan was carried out because al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden used the country as his base to plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

Most of al-Qaida's senior leaders are now believed to be based in Pakistan, where they fled following the U.S. invasion. The terrorist organization is believed to have only a nominal presence in Afghanistan.

Many senior al-Qaida commanders have died in U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan's northwest tribal region, and bin Laden was killed by U.S. commandos in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last May.
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 Khadr is a danger, U.S. doctor says
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By Kris Sims, Parliamentary Bureau  May 30, 2012

OTTAWA -- Omar Khadr is treated like a "rock star" by other terrorist inmates, American forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner says.

Welner has spent hours interviewing Toronto-born Khadr, guards at the American prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; as well as doctors and nurses who have treated Khadr.

In an interview with Sun News Network's Ezra Levant, he said Khadr is a danger.

"Within al-Qaida, within Guantanamo, he is viewed as royalty because he had so much closeness (to Osama bin Laden) and you can appreciate why his family today recognize him as a successor to his father," Welner told the host of The Source Tuesday.

Welner said Khadr has been marinating in jihadist thinking.

"He was asked to be leader of his cellblock and others. You think they want a moderate to be their leader?" he said.

"He is angry, he is alienated, he blames everybody else for being in the position he's in, and the media propagandists who cheerlead him only feed into that."

Khadr travelled to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Canada, the United States, and other allies, were fighting against the Taliban for harbouring the terrorist group al-Qaida after they carried out the attacks in Washington, D.C., and New York.

Welner rejects the idea Khadr was confused and following orders.

"Unlike your typical teenager, he had the opportunity to be at his father's side participating in official business, and unlike your typical 15-year-old, he travelled extensively," Welner said. "He was put into positions where he could be independent, make decisions, and his father was confident in him."

Khadr, 25, has been detained at the U.S. military base since he was captured at the age of 15 in battle in Afghanistan after he threw a grenade that killed U.S. combat medic Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer.

He signed a plea deal in 2010 to serve eight years of a 40-year sentence on five charges including spying and supporting terrorism. The Canadian government agreed at the time to look favourably on his transfer back to Canada after one year.
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 How military skills relate to construction
Article Link
KELLY LAPOINTE staff writer

Retired Brigadier-General Gregory Matte has been chosen to lead the charge as the Helmets to Hardhats (H2H) program officially launches in Canada.

Matte will serve as executive director of the program which gives veterans exclusive access to jobs and training opportunities in the construction industry, where they can apply the skills they developed in the Canadian military.

Of the more than 85 trades in the Canadian military, at least 12 to 15 trades are directly compatible with building trades. Military personnel are often asked to do a wide variety of tasks around the world, explained Matte, pointing to the Canadian military’s involvement in rebuilding Haiti after a massive 2010 earthquake and helping rebuild infrastructure in Afghanistan.

“The skills, qualifications and experience that are earned in the military are not easily understood or ‘translated’ into civilian terms, and as such, it’s not uncommon for ex-military people to experience challenges and frustration in successfully finding a fit in the civilian workforce,” explained Matte.

“However, given that business often hires for skills, but pays for productivity, ex-military personnel quickly become recognized for their solid work ethic and ability to quickly adapt to new challenges, including management positions.”

Between 4,000 and 6,000 people retire from the regular force component of the Canadian military each year.

“The unemployment rate is higher than it has been in the last decade at least; I think there will be a hole to fill. I think there will be people that will be interested in finding steady employment and this will be one opportunity, hopefully, of others that they have,” explained Matte. 
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Afghan dreams die in the dust 
The StarPhoenix May 28, 2012
Article Link 

The smoke was still rising from the ashes of the twin towers in New York when NATO leaders unanimously were proclaiming their determination to stand by the United States as part of their mutual defence treaty.

When the alliance was reminded that every time outsiders invade Afghanistan, they are forced out with their tails between their legs, the leaders insisted, "Not this time!"

This invasion was to be different, hundreds of millions of people in the democracies that support the alliance were told. For one thing, the invasion was being done as much for the benefit of the Afghans as to provide security for the West. Once started, the world was told, the democracies would stay until the job is done.

Last week, however, the leaders looked like the Three Stooges, all trying to get through the exit at once.

The evolution of the alliance mirrors that of Canada's prime minister. When in Opposition and continuing as he took power, Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the war as a central plank of his foreign policy. By 2008, however, he casually told select reporters that Canada was getting the blazes out of there, except for a few hundred trainers moved to a safe location.

Last week the prime minister told his allies that even these few hundred trainers will be home within two years.

This is a dramatic change from 2007, when he insisted a country can't unilaterally declare an end to a war.

The allies brag that, unlike under the Taliban regime, girls now go to school. The honour is temporary, dangerous and fragile. They point out the Afghan government was voted in, although the vote was considered badly flawed and so many officials are considered corrupt, the population has no confidence in them.

When the Canadian military pushed in 2003 for an expanded role in any ground war in either Afghanistan or Iraq, it was hoped the effort would allow it to regain capacity lost since the end of the Cold War. Its performance in Afghanistan, which was outstanding in comparison to most of its allies, suggests it accomplished its goals.
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