# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2011



## GAP (30 Jun 2011)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2011  *               

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


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## The Bread Guy (1 Jul 2011)

> The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, accompanied by the Honourable Julian Fantino, Associate Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, and General Walt Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff, celebrated with Canadian Forces members deployed to Afghanistan on Canada Day.
> 
> During his 16th visit to Afghanistan, Minister MacKay met with troops of the last rotation of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan, hosting a town hall meeting, sharing a Canada Day barbeque and enjoying a concert.
> 
> ...


Source:  CF news release, 1 Jul 11


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## GAP (3 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 3, 2011*


 Lather, rinse, repeat: Life at Kandahar Airfield
Article Link

Glendon Lee Slauenwhite; sergeant
Based at Trenton, Ont.; 15 years in military; one tour to Afghanistan.

Back in 2007, Kandahar Airfield (KAF) in every aspect was your average small town of 15,000 people — we had fire and police departments, a post office, bus routes, coffee shops and restaurants, shops, banks, garages.

The main difference was that everyone dressed more or less the same and carried high-powered firearms (so maybe it’s an average small Texas town). And with any small town there is only so many things to do in the run of a day.

My day started with me waking up around 9 p.m. for my overnight shift at the Airfield Weather Office. My room was an eight-foot by six-foot section of my weatherhaven (those half-cylinder fabric structures you see everywhere), walled off with plastic tarps running the height of the building. In there I had my bed (an actual bed, not a military cot), all my kit and the goodies I had either bought there, or had had sent from home. There was just enough room to turn around and make my way out the door.

I’d make the 10-minute walk across the boardwalk and over to the Taliban Last Stand (TLS) which was now the Airfield Operations Centre. The TLS was so-named because it was where the coalition had finally cleared the airfield (of Taliban) using an airdrop bomb. The bomb created an instant courtyard in the middle of the building.

I was a night worker in the airfield weather office. Kandahar weather wasn’t much for change so it all blends together more or less: wake, eat, work, gym, shower, call home, sleep, repeat.
More on link

 On final Afghan visit, MacKay announces major Arctic operation
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News July 2, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — While Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar is in its last days, a new training mission has started in Kabul, Canadian fighter aircraft are making daily bombing runs against Libya, and now the armed forces is preparing to send more than 1,000 troops on a huge exercise in the High Arctic next month.

"It will be the largest operation that has taken place in recent history," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Saturday, moments after bidding an emotional farewell to combat troops now leaving Kandahar. "All of this is very much about enlarging the footprint and the permanent and seasonal presence we have in the North. It is something that we as a government intend to keep investing in."

Exercise Nanook is to play out in several phases on and near Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island throughout August. It will involve CF-18 fighter jets as well as surveillance and transport aircraft, a warship, infantry companies from Quebec and Alberta and 5 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group — Inuit reservists who have broad experience surviving in the extremely austere environment of the Far North.
More on link

 Trailer Park Boys favourite 'Bubbles' delights the troops on Canada Day
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News July 1, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — More Canadians may have gathered Friday on Parliament Hill to mark Canada Day, but nowhere was the national holiday celebrated with more fervour and joy than in what used to be the Taliban heartland.

Less than a week before the end of Canada's 62-month combat mission in Afghanistan's south, about 3,000 Canadian troops wearing Canadian ball caps gathered to eat hamburgers made with Canadian beef and drink beer from Canada before an all-Canadian show that featured Mike "Bubbles" Smith of The Trailer Park Boys, singing impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon and a band fronted by Amanda Rheaume of Ottawa.

Before the festivities began, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Canada's top soldier, Gen. Walt Natynczyk thanked the troops.

"You are Canada's team," MacKay said. "They are behind you. They support you . . . God speed your safe return to Canada."

MacKay also read an excerpt from a speech Prince William was giving at the same moment in Ottawa, honouring the sacrifice of Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan.

"This draws to the close an episode that all Canadians can be immensely proud," the prince said.
More on link

 Afghan interpreters say they’re abandoned by Canada
Article Link
By Paul Watson Star Columnist

KANDAHAR—Sayed Shah Sharifi heard a lot of reassuring words from Canadian soldiers during the three years he served under fire, or constant threat of Taliban retaliation, as a battlefield interpreter.

Whether he was pinned down for days in an ambush, stinking of his own sweat and fear, or enduring the dagger stares of Taliban prisoners under questioning by Canadians, the reassuring promises were always the same.

“Most of them were always telling us, ‘You guys are lucky. You guys are going to Canada. The Canadian government is starting a process that will get you into Canada in a month!’ “said Sharifi, 23.

He took that as a promise. It’s one Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government hasn’t kept.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a special visa program two years ago to reward and protect Afghan interpreters who were critical to Canada’s military and aid missions here.

Other Afghans who worked in direct support of the Canadian government in Kandahar province, as well as spouses of any who died because of it, are also eligible for visas under the special program.

Kenney said in September 2009 that he expected “a few hundred” to qualify by the time the program ends this month, as the last Canadian combat troops leave. His ministry estimated applicants would only have to wait an average six months to a year.

But almost two years later, only 60 Afghans have made it to Canada under the special visa program. More than 475 Afghans applied, ministry spokesperson Rachelle Bédard said from Ottawa.

Sharifi, and fellow interpreter Zobaidullah Zobaidi Afghan, 25, say they’ve been told to provide more evidence to Canadian authorities that their lives are at risk even though they live in the insurgents’ heartland.
More on link

 Philly museum displays war rugs from Afghanistan
Article Link

PHILADELPHIA --

From afar, the ornate rug looks like a blur of color and nondescript geometric patterns. But a closer look reveals the unmistakable shapes of helicopters, tanks and weapons.

The carpet from war-torn Afghanistan exemplifies a traditional craft with a modern twist. It's one of more than 60 on display at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia through July.

U.S. and Canadian soldiers buy many of the rugs as souvenirs, and the textiles show the intersection of art, commerce, tourism and war, experts say.

"People who are in pretty severe circumstances will make what sells," curator Max Allen said.

For centuries, rug-makers have woven colorful threads to depict flowers, animals and other elements of nature. Carpets are a major Afghan export as well as a staple in homes, Allen said.

Customary designs are still prevalent, but a subset with battle themes began to emerge during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, he said. It continued when American soldiers invaded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 
More on link

Report: Iran arming Iraq and Afghanistan
Article Link
 July 2, 2011 at 12:27 PM

TEHRAN, July 2 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is arming guerrillas in Afghanistan, Iraq and other restive Arab countries, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Forensic evidence from attack sites in the various countries indicate improvised rocket-assisted munitions, or IRAMS, were manufactured in Iran. The weapons are rocket-powered and can be launched from a "safe" distance from the backs of pick-up trucks, the report said.

Maj. Gen. James Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told the Journal it's anticipated the use of the Iranian IRAMs will mount as Washington has announced troop reductions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I think we are likely to see these Iranian-backed groups continue to maintain high attack levels," he said adding the arms influx was seen as a propaganda opportunity for various factions in Iraq.

"We believe the militias see themselves as in competition with each other," Buchanan said. "They want to claim credit for making us leave Iraq."
More on link


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## GAP (5 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 5, 2011*

 DiManno: Canadian snipers are a high-valued asset
Article Link

SPERWAN GHAR—Breathe calmly, slow the heart rate, squint the eye and slowly, with gentle pressure, squeeze the trigger.

With the Tac-50 bolt-action rifle, too heavy to lift and aim — even for hard-bodies — the shooter rests the weapon on a bipod and, optimally, flattens his rib cage against the ground at a slight incline. The 50-calibre bullet — size of a Tootsie roll — will hurtle out of the internally fluted barrel, rotating fiercely, and heave infinitesimally to the right, what’s call the spin-drift.

Shooter and spotter will have corrected for that, and also the wind currents, the distance, the ambient temperature. Bullets go faster in high heat.

The target — the victim — will feel that bullet before he hears it. And it will kill him.

Less than a second and one “bad guy’’ removed, with no collateral damage done.

No mental anguish either, for killing a fellow human being.

For snipers, it’s the job.

Their motto: “Without warning, without remorse.’’

“Pat’’ has that legend tattooed into his forearm.

Just “Pat,’’ because Canadian snipers can’t be identified by name and no photographs published that show recognizable faces. Pity, really, because they deserve to be acknowledged and praised.
More on link

 Canadian troops departing Afghanistan praise reliable transport helicopters
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News July 3, 2011

ABOARD BLOW TORCH 62 OVER PANJWAII, Afghanistan — With temperatures in the mid-forties and the sky hazy from a sandstorm, it was a typical summer's afternoon when a Canadian Chinook helicopter and its two Griffon escorts set off on a 14-stop marathon, zigzagging across Kandahar to ferry homeward bound Canadian combat troops in from scattered forward bases and take their American replacements out to the same isolated outposts in the Taliban heartland.

As Canada's Task Force Kandahar formally hands over its battle space to the U.S. army this Thursday, the universal opinion of the fighting soldiers is that more of them would have died if they had not been able to count on the battered but dependable Vietnam-era Chinook D model transport helicopters.

Ottawa bought six of the choppers from Washington late in 2008 after the Manley Report recommended that the Afghan mission should end if they were not acquired. The panel reasoned that the lives of too many troops were being put at risk on ground patrols and convoys because of homemade bombs planted by the Taliban.

"There were very strong reasons to bring aviation into this theatre," Col. Al Meinzinger, the air wing commander said. "The roads were really dangerous."
More on link

 Cut red tape for Afghan helpers
Article Link

For a year Sayed Shah Sharifi, an interpreter for Canadian troops in Afghanistan, has been waiting for Ottawa to tell him he can have refuge in Canada under a special visa program. His case is still being processed. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney now says he’ll open the doors wider and speed up the visa program for Afghan interpreters and their families. Good. But he’s been saying that for more than two years.

In April 2009 and again in September that year, Kenney announced that Afghans who worked as interpreters for Canadian soldiers would be allowed to immigrate to Canada.

Kenney’s proposal allowed 450 interpreters to apply under the special visa program, but a meagre 60 have been accepted so far. Kenney blames bureaucratic delays and security problems in Kandahar for the long wait by Sharifi and others.

This week, after the Star’s Paul Watson shone a spotlight on the issue, Kenney sweetened his original promise, saying as many as 550 Afghan interpreters will be allowed to come to Canada.
More on link

 Dog days of war
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan adopt abused puppy, send him back to Canada
Article Link
By: Charlene Adam  07/5/2011

No dog should be left behind. It's an imperative of the Armed Forces. Of course, it should be no man left should be left behind. But for a Canadian soldier, Cpl. Shane Seguin, that command recently expanded to include an Afghan canine.

Since last August, Seguin has been serving as a military police officer in Forward Operating Base Walton, Southern Afghanistan. His detachment's unit belongs to the Regional Training Centre, Kandahar. The unit's role is to mentor select members of the Afghan National Police. Last December, while assisting Afghani Security Forces, they discovered a small black-and-white puppy being kicked and beaten by local kids. The unit stepped in to save the pup.

According to Seguin's girlfriend, Lisa Kneivel, "it's common practice in Afghanistan." Dogs aren't taken in as pets. The puppy was starving. "Hearts melted for this dog, and the group decided to keep him on the base, knowing that if they turned him loose, he would die," said Kneivel.

The unit trained him and even built a little dog house out of scrap wood. In return, the puppy, aptly called Gunner, lifted their spirits. The 25 year-old Seguin added, with "the assistance of the FOB K9 Team we managed to secure good dog food, grooming tools and even toys."

Gunner became part of their team. Since many of the soldiers have pets at home, the pup gave the group a sense of normalcy and familiarity reminiscent of Canada, said Kneivel. Given the daily danger the soldiers live with, Gunner was a spirit-raiser to them.
More on link


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## a_majoor (5 Jul 2011)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/five-years-in-afghanistan-fighting-a-war-within-a-larger-war/article2086549/

*Five years in Afghanistan: fighting a war within a larger war*
By SUSAN SACHS

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Canadian troops return home achieving minor accomplishments despite growing violence and a country teetering on edge of Taliban control.

Canadian troops formally end five years of combat and counterinsurgency in the dust-blown badlands of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, heading home in the midst of a guerrilla war of steadily intensifying violence.

They do not leave with any illusions that they have done more than create some breathing space for the Afghan government to assert itself. Nor do they venture any predictions beyond saying that they may have weakened, perhaps only fleetingly, the resilient Taliban insurgency. That realism is perhaps their strongest legacy for the allies who will continue the fight.

"We are involved in a contest of wills," said Lieutenant Colonel Michel-Henri St-Louis, the commander of the last battle group, the 1st Battalion 22nd Regiment, known as the Van Doos.

"What you have is a political problem," he added in a recent interview. "You can't kill an idea, and you can't kill everyone that disagrees with the government. All you can do is show that there is an alternative."

Canada's years in Kandahar were a war within that larger war, though it was fought on one of its least hospitable battlegrounds. The fight cost the lives of 157 Canadian men and women. Year after year, successive Canadian battle groups chased shadows across Kandahar's orchards and villages, losing soldiers to mines and gunfire from an enemy that seemed to vanish from one spot only to reappear somewhere else.

During the past year, reinforced by an infusion of more than 10,000 American and Afghan soldiers, the last battalion could point to some gains: record numbers of hidden weapons found this spring, a drop in attacks on their outposts, the implantation of a district government and children permitted to attend a newly refurbished school.

At the same time, much of the countryside they leave behind still teeters on the edge of Taliban control. Kandahar city, the sprawling urban centre they were to defend at all costs, has become the murder capital of a country where violent death is a daily fact of life.

Canada entered the war after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when the United States invoked the collective defence provisions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to launch strikes on the Taliban regime that was harbouring Osama bin Laden.

When the NATO mission extended beyond the capital of Kabul, Canadian forces took on Kandahar province, where the Taliban movement was born. In 2006, they fought a pitched battle with insurgents to protect Kandahar city. Operation Medusa, as it was called, was the first and last fight with any resemblance to conventional warfare.

In the years that followed, the Taliban shifted tactics in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Homemade bombs, hit-and-run sniper attacks and rockets fired at Canadian outposts became the template for the war. A flourishing drug trade, corruption and tribal vengeance created an overlay of dangerous rivalries that fuelled more violence that endangered Canada's overstretched troops.

While their departure date was decided three years ago in Ottawa, it has turned out to be the prologue to the end of the larger multinational war. The same weariness that drove Canada's 2008 decision to withdraw - weariness with mounting casualties and with the chronically feeble Afghan government - is now evident in its allies.

In Europe, other NATO leaders say they will follow suit and start downsizing their troop levels this summer. The United States, with nearly 100,000 soldiers in the country, will pull out more than one-third of its forces by next September.

When Major Martin Larose, the senior operations officer for the Van Doos, arrived for his second tour in Afghanistan last fall, an offensive was in full swing to disrupt Taliban movements and supply lines in the districts surrounding Kandahar city.

It seemed the Canadians could turn a corner in their frustrating hit-and-run war. The United States had more than doubled its troops on the ground, with most of the newly deployed soldiers in the restive south. The Afghan army in the province had acquired three brigades with some 2,500 newly trained soldiers.

The Van Doos were assigned a concentrated piece of territory in the Panjwai district, a Taliban stronghold that had been a killing ground for Canadian troops for years. In an interview in late December, about a month into the operation, Major Larose was buoyant about the prospects for tangible progress.

"In 2006, we had one battle group for almost all of Kandahar province, and we were just putting out fires," he said then. "My company had an area of 150 kilometres by 90 kilometres and we were hopping left and right."

This time, he predicted, the Canadians would focus their muscle in one manageable swath of territory. They would build a paved roadway to replace the old switch-back gravel roads that were mined-laced death traps. Afghans would be grateful. And as local government had a chance to establish a presence in Panjwai, people would reject the Taliban and their weakened fighters would slink away.

Clear, hold and build - classic counterinsurgency doctrine. Protect the population, help create accountable governance, sink your teeth into the insurgents "and don't let go," as U.S. General David Petraeus, the outgoing NATO commander in Afghanistan, instructed coalition forces last August.

As his tour began, Major Larose was hoping he and the Van Doos might see those steps through. "The way we're going to tackle this," he predicted, "is to show them we are going to stay, and to create conditions for Afghans to see an alternative to the insurgents."

Seven months later, as the battalion was preparing to leave Canada's longest combat engagement since the Second World War, the major had a more measured assessment of its impact on both the insurgency and the Afghans.

"You clear. You hold. And the holding can be long. It can be two or three years," Major Larose said. "It depends on the local powerbrokers, on the approach. It takes a long time for the population to trust you. The problem is that the insurgents come back, because you cannot be everywhere at once. There's only so much you can do."


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## a_majoor (8 Jul 2011)

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/the-snapper.htm

The Snapper

Bomb Tricks and Techniques in Afghanistan

07 July 2011

CIVCAS (civilian casualties) are a huge problem for our side and for the enemy.  The enemy causes far more CIVCAS but as outsiders our mistakes have a more toxic psychological effect.  We won’t have to wait long for the next report of the Taliban accidentally, or purposefully, blowing up civilians.  It will probably happen today and tomorrow.

Our movements along the roads are predictable.  In many cases nothing that can be done about that.  The times may vary, but many of the routes are set by terrain or circumstance.  Our people are very well trained to spot the bombs, and they are supremely outfitted with an impressive array of countermeasures and armor.  There are few if any complaints from troops about their training or gear to avoid being blown up.  Nobody in history has been more prepared for IEDs than our current combat troops.  It’s hard to blow them up, but the enemy is smart and continues to land hard punches with low expense.  Everyone realizes there is only so much you can do, and then you are in war, and you take chances.

The enemy has difficulty hitting our vehicles with RCIEDs (radio-controlled IEDs) because our countermeasures are excellent.  Low-tech inexpensive methods, such as land mines, can work against us on roads, but the problem with land mines is that they are dumb and they blow up the first thing that ticks them off, which likely will be civilian traffic.  Enemy CIVCAS toxifies their operating environment and also misses their target.

And so the enemy has developed techniques to circumvent countermeasures and reduce CIVCAS.  One of those techniques is “the snapper.”

The snapper uses a tire for a diaphragm in which nails are used for contacts.  When a vehicle rolls over a snapper, the circuit closes.  To avoid CIVCAS, the enemy waits in hiding with a battery.  One of the electrodes is connected.  Traffic is allowed to roll over the snapper but there is no explosion.  When the target approaches, the enemy attaches the other connection and now the snapper is ARMED.

Circuit closed

When the circuit closes this time, juice flows to the bomb, which must be very substantial to defeat our armor, but if the target is lesser-equipped Coalition forces or perhaps unarmored Afghans, it can be small.

And that’s it.  The snapper.


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## The Bread Guy (8 Jul 2011)

The Taliban has to chime in on Canada's shift to training in Afghanistan.



> .... The people of Canada have to ask their government and military chiefs what are the objectives and achievements that they have obtained during the past decade, apart from the innumerous losses in life and equipments. If they have no answer, then why they allow them to continue their illegitimate intervention in Afghanistan under another title in the name of military training.
> 
> We are sure, the new mission of Canada under the name of military training will bring in only losses and bitter outcome like the precedent of their war mission which has had self-same consequences.


Source:  Latest Taliban statement, 8 Jul 11 (link to Army.ca post of full statement, screen capture of same)


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## GAP (13 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 13, 2011*

Afghan interpreter who risked life for soldiers gets visa to Canada
Article Link

VANCOUVER—Canada has finally kept its promise to a brave Afghan interpreter who served alongside Canadian combat troops in Kandahar.

Just days after going public in the Sunday Star with his fears of being abandoned as the last Canadians pull out of southern Afghanistan this month, Sayed Shah Sharifi got word that he can have a visa to immigrate to Canada.

Shah, 23, was sitting at the front gate of his family’s Kandahar home, with his brother and two cousins, when his cellphone beeped Saturday morning with the text message that not only changed his life, but may well have saved it.

It told him to call an official from the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency that helps bring endangered Afghans to Canada.
More on link

 DiManno: Few tears after assassination of Afghan president’s brother
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Wanted dead but preferred alive: That was Ahmad Wali Karzai to the West.

Odious ally yet crucial crony, a man who could get things done, schooled in the murky political machinations of Afghanistan, power-broker in its shadowlands.

Slain by an assassin’s bullets — a man who came as dear friend and trusted liege — the younger half-brother of President Hamid Karzai was to be buried here shortly after dawn on Wednesday.

Already the ground is churning.

And, with Karzai arriving Tuesday night for the funeral, a slew of other government officials expected from Kabul as well, there could be blood. The phalanx of grave-side dignitaries might be too irresistible a target for insurgents, gloating as they are over striking again right at the heart of Hamid’s regime, slicing off his right-hand man.
More on link

 Canada to set up military hub in Kuwait
Article Link

Canada has signed an agreement Kuwait to set up a military hub for Canadian troops to use for training ahead of deployment to Afghanistan, nearly nine months after a spate between the UAE and Canada led to the closure of a similar base in Dubai.

Canadian defence minister Peter MacKay signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) while on a two-day visit to Kuwait hosted by Sheik Jaber Al Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah, Kuwait's first deputy prime minister and minister of defence.
More on link


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## GAP (15 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 15, 2011*

Justice, Afghanistan style: Assassin who killed President Karzai’s brother hanged in public square
Article Link
 Suicide attack at Wali Karzai's memorial service kills four, officials say
By Daily Mail Reporter 14th July 2011

This is the brutal lynching and public display of the close confidante who shot dead Ahmed Wali Karzai - the half-brother of president Hamid Karzai.

A group of men in plain clothes hung the corpse against the wall in Kandahar for around 20 minutes before they carried it away. 

Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated on Tuesday by the man who is said to have been from his own tribe and home town, whom he had travelled with and worked alongside for seven years.
More on link

 Canada must help strengthen Pakistan’s civilian rule
CAMPBELL CLARK Globe and Mail  Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2011
Article Link

Three terror bombings in Mumbai immediately turned suspicion on groups that have been sponsored by Pakistan.

There’s no evidence yet of who is responsible for the blasts that killed 21, and Pakistan’s government quickly condemned the attacks. But that’s unlikely to quell suspicions in India.

It could quickly fuel a cycle of distrust in the region that Canada has been caught up in before – in Afghanistan.

Even after combat in Kandahar, Canada, like the rest of the world, has an interest in seeing that this dangerous dynamic doesn’t heat up. Pakistan and its uncontrolled army intelligence agency, which has already frustrated the United States, is at the centre of the question.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Canada supports India in its fight against terrorists. “We’ve seen a similar attack in a similar way not long ago,” he said.
More on link

 DiManno: A moving experience for Canadians at Kandahar
Article Link
 Thu Jul 14 2011

KANDAHAR

For sale: Canadian junk.

Going-out-of-the-war-business clearance! All items must be sold! Two-for-one on the jigs! (That’s latrines on Civvy Street.)

Well, no, the porta-potties are probably property of NATO and are staying put in Kandahar for all dem bums not yet homeward-bound, unlike the Canadian mission to Afghanistan, now over except for the U-haul.

Three guys with a van ain’t gonna do this relo. It’s a monumental task, packing up all of Canada’s dolls and dishes, combat vehicles and armour, weapons and ammo, right down to the wooden ribbing of forward operating base tents.

Imagine moving an entire small town halfway around the world, by plane, ship and jingle truck.

And much of what’s not returned to Canadian soil over the next six months will be profitably jettisoned via silent auction on-line,
More on link

 Soldiers accused of stealing from fellow CF members
Article Link
CTV News.ca Staff Thu. Jul. 14 2011 10:12 PM ET

Two Edmonton soldiers are accused of stealing from three fellow Canadian Forces members -- two of whom are currently serving in Afghanistan, and a third soldier who recently returned from the war-torn country.

Police say the charges came after several recreational vehicles were removed from a compound on CFB Edmonton.

"The men were arrested and charged after pulling a trailer that was reported stolen. The trailer was for sale but the buyer became suspicious and contacted police and police then started the investigation," police spokesperson Chad Orydzuk told CTV Edmonton.

"The investigation is ongoing, but military police are following up and checking with any other personnel to find out if there have been any other items that have been stolen from that lot."

The victim who recently finished a tour of duty in Afghanistan was also injured in that country.

Varrel Fitzcharles, 25, and Kieran Lawless-Johnston have been charged with possession of stolen property and break-and-enter.

The men have court dates in August. 
end


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## The Bread Guy (17 Jul 2011)

Five years in Kandahar proved Canada's need for better intel, experts say
Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press 
Article link

Afghanistan - Intelligence is never perfect, says the country's top military commander, but as Canada emerges from the five-year trauma of Kandahar, tough questions are being asked about what spy services knew — or should have known — about southern Afghanistan.

"I don't think anyone fully expected the kind of counter-insurgency fight we faced here," Gen. Walter Natynczyk said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

That in itself is an understatement, the sort of explanation that has the blinding clarity of 20-20 hindsight.

But as Canada takes stock of its brutal, bloody war in the desert wastelands of south Asia, there's been little, if any, consideration of how the army — and, by extension, the country — became so embedded in the Afghan quagmire.

One of the lesson's of Canada's Kandahar experience is that there's a desperate need for better foreign intelligence, experts say.

Natynczyk, as both chief of defence staff and vice-chief under retired general Rick Hillier, has been intimately involved in the war almost from the beginning of major combat in 2006.

The fight in southern Afghanistan was almost unavoidable, he suggested, and Canada's far from the only country to have gone into a heavily armed peace-making exercise only to find insurgents coming out of the woodwork.

"We're not the only ones to have gone through this kind of discovery because intelligence is never perfect," said Natynczyk.

"Our guys worked very, very hard with intelligence, but the fact is you cannot assess all of the factors, or understand all of the ingredients that go into a counter-insurgency." .....
More on link


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## GAP (18 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 18, 2011*

 Gunmen kill adviser to Afghan president, lawmaker
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press, July 17, 2011
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A Defense Ministry official says a close adviser to the Afghan president and a member of parliament have been killed during an attack in the capital.

The official, Gen. Zahir Wardak, says Jan Mohammed Khan, a former governor of southern Uruzgan province and an adviser to President Hamid Karzai, was killed along with Uruzgan lawmaker Mohammed Ashim Watanwal. They were killed when two men wearing suicide vests attacked Khan's home in the western Kabul district of Karti Char. 
end

DiManno: Afghanistan hurtling into 21st century
  Article Link

 KANDAHAR

As a young girl, I dreamed of Afghanistan.

Youthful reading of Rudyard Kipling’s work — when friends were still playing with Barbie dolls — may have planted the seed.

But from my sheltered existence in a traditional Italian home, I yearned for adventure in distant places. And nowhere seemed more remote than this mystifying country of horseback warriors and veiled women.

For years I devoured every small piece of information I could find about Afghanistan, assembling an esoteric private library of old texts, obscure literature and ancient maps.

At age 22 I bought my first ticket to Kabul, a trip that was scotched by the Soviet invasion, subsequent civil war and the Taliban’s stunning rise to power. It seemed the opportunity to travel here would never be realized.

And then came 9/11.
More on link

 Afghan turf war 'could embolden Taliban'
Updated: 16:09, Sunday July 17, 2011
Article Link

The assassination of the Afghan president's brother may trigger a turf war for control of the country's critical south that could embolden the Taliban and reverse NATO gains, analysts say.

Kandahar - birthplace of the Taliban, home to President Hamid Karzai's family and scene of some of the war's bloodiest fighting over the course of a decade - is a hotbed of tribal rivalries over local influence and money.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, known by his initials AWK, was the strongman from one of the country's most powerful families, who bound together the region's complex commercial and political networks.

Accused of being a corrupt authoritarian who ran the drugs trade in the south and controlled private militia, Wali Karzai nevertheless managed an uneasy alliance with US forces thanks to his anti-Taliban credentials.

Now dead - assassinated on Tuesday by a longtime friend and head of his personal protection force - analysts say a power vacuum could emerge and give grist to the Taliban insurgency.

'Ahmed Wali's death could lead to further deterioration in the fragile security situation in Kandahar as the rival tribes compete for power and the Taliban keenly follow developments,' said Yunos Fakor, a Kandahar-based analyst.
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## GAP (20 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 20, 2011*

 Mission winds down, but the war goes on
  Article Link
 Vancouver Sun editorial July 19, 2011

Anyone visiting Kandahar Airfield in recent days could be forgiven for thinking that the war is over. After all, as Canadian Forces packed up their belongings in advance of flying home Monday, the base resembled a packing area more than a war zone.

But make no mistake about it: The war will continue, in Afghanistan and at home. Yet that is no reason not to recognize the extraordinary contributions, and sacrifices, made by our troops.

Although the war was controversial from the outset, and although Canadians weren’t on the ground in the first few days of the effort, it didn’t take long for Canadian troops to arrive.

Operatives with the elite Joint Task Force Two were dispatched to Afghanistan in December 2001 and they were followed by regular forces who arrived in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in early 2002.
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## GAP (21 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 21, 2011*

 Afghanistan: who will fill the vacuum left by Ahmed Wali Karzai?
Article Link
As his allies and enemies scramble for position, uncertaintly fills the atmosphere in Kandahar
Matthieu Aikins, in Kandahar  guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 July 2011 

Ahmed Wali Karzai's house is a mansion in a blocked-off street in downtown Kandahar City, guarded by plain-clothed police and barely visible behind blast barriers.

This was where the president's half-brother, the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, held court and was killed last Tuesday by one of his lieutenants, for reasons that remain a mystery.

For a decade this, not the governor's palace, was arguably the real centre of power in the shadowy world of politics in Kandahar. Ahmed Wali was suspected of being a drug kingpin and accused of being a CIA proxy, but his killing has unsettled this ancient hub of southern Afghanistan, and deepened the sense of uncertainty.

The streets of Kandahar were as bustling as ever on Wednesday, with farmers hauling in harvests of melons, but under the surface there is anxiety about the future. Ahmed Wali's presence, both malign and benevolent, hovered above Kandahar. He was rumoured to be involved in everything from a dispute over car registration that benefited taxi drivers to the targeted assassinations that plague the city.

People here are already unsettled by the prospect of the transition from international to Afghan forces. Land prices are down in Aynomina, a wealthy residential district modelled on Californian gated communities, with 10ft boundary walls instead of white picket fences.
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 Lung disease found in returning U.S. soldiers
Article Link
The Associated Press Thursday Jul. 21, 2011 7:22 AM ET

NEW YORK — Some American soldiers have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with an untreatable lung disease that interferes with their ability to do physical exercise, possibly caused by inhaling toxic material, doctors report.

The illness is rare in otherwise healthy young people, Dr. Robert Miller of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues say in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Their analysis can't show how common the condition is in the troops nor positively identify its cause. But 28 of the 38 diagnosed soldiers in the analysis had been exposed to a sulfur-mine fire near Mosul, Iraq, in 2003. That suggests they inhaled a significant dose of sulfur dioxide, a known cause of the lung disease, called constrictive bronchiolitis, Miller said in a telephone interview.

Dust storms and the burning of waste in pits may also have played a role, he said. Identifying the cause would help with prevention, he said. 
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## GAP (22 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 22, 2011*

 Canadian diplomats in Kabul kept embassy bar well stocked: documents
Article Link
By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press Posted: 07/22/2011

OTTAWA - Canada's diplomatic corps in Kabul did not go thirsty.

Hospitality forms show embassy staff and dignitaries drank plenty of booze while posted to Afghanistan, an Islamic country where imbibing is not just taboo, it's against the law.

The embassy consumed close to 3,000 bottles of alcoholic beverages from mid-2007 to last November. The tab for the beer, wine and hard liquor was at least $20,000.

The Canadian Press obtained hospitality diaries from the Canadian Embassy in Kabul under the Access to Information Act.

The forms give the Foreign Affairs Department the cost of the embassy's food and drink orders, along with guest lists and descriptions of lunches, dinners and other functions.

It is not clear whether the department provided all the hospitality forms. While there were dozens of forms in 2008 and 2010, there was just a single sheet for all of 2009.

Foreign Affairs also did not provide any forms for all of 2006 and the first half of 2007 — even though they were requested — so the booze bill could actually be much higher.

Still, the paperwork offers a glimpse of the social side of Canadian diplomacy in the Afghan capital, where alcohol can legally flow on embassy grounds.
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Ruling Afghan skies, drones used with devastating effect
  Article Link 
By William Marsden, Postmedia News July 21, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The sprawling tarmac of Kandahar Air Field parks pretty well every type of military plane in existence. From heavily armed French Mirages and U.S. F-16s and Warthogs to British Harriers and transport planes such as Hercules and Globemasters.

But the sight of a small, sleek grey drone quietly rolling down a runway, blind but not blind, alone but menacing, is without doubt the most arresting of them all.

And so it should be.

Whether used for reconnaissance or as deadly hunter-killers, they have proven in Afghanistan to be the rising star, if not the future, of tactical flight.

Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Australia have all used them with devastating effect.

And they come with the added benefits that their prices are cheaper than manned aircraft and that they require much smaller maintenance crews.

Canada deployed three reconnaissance drones - the Israeli-designed CU-170 Heron - for the first time in Afghanistan and brought in a dedicated air force unit of 39 people to operate them.
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## GAP (24 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 24, 2011*

 Canadians bid farewell to Afghan hockey rink
Article Link
By Jason Gutierrez (AFP) – 14 hours ago 

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Oblivious to warning sirens and the dull thuds of possible mortar fire, Canadian troops battle it out for a tinfoil cup at their last hockey tournament under the sweltering Afghan sun.

With the temperature sizzling above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), soldiers cheered on Task Force Freedom 2, mostly helicopter pilots and techs, as they thrashed Task Force Silver Dart 5-0 in the final of the five-a-side contest.

Organised at the "Boardwalk" -- a huge quadrangle of shops and restaurants on the sprawling Kandahar Airfield -- it was a much milder form of the Canadian national sport than the version contested on ice.

But with red rubber balls instead of pucks, it was enough to give them a fix of the sport that helped many of them cope with the psychological stresses of fighting a nine-year Taliban insurgency on one of its most potent battlefields.

"I will sorely miss this rink," said Major James Armstrong, an intelligence officer and Silver Dart's star goalie, kitted out in a bright yellow shirt under heavy padding and a helmet.

Armstrong's team played four hours straight and beat two teams to get into the final, and the fatigue showed by the time the big game came round.

He failed to stop five balls punching the back of the net, but was impressive with other saves, diving several times onto the hot cement floor for dramatic effect worthy of a National Hockey League highlight.

"It is very hot and we have been playing since six this morning," he panted. "It is certainly the most unique hockey I've ever played."

A Kandahar Hockey League now includes other teams from NATO, such as Britain and the United States.
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## The Bread Guy (24 Jul 2011)

Military used unarmed Airbus after U.A.E. flap: documents
Article link
The Canadian Press (via CTV.ca), Sunday Jul. 24, 2011 11:02 AM ET

The loss of a not-so secret base in Dubai last year forced the Canadian military to use its unarmed Airbus planes for flights into Kandahar Airfield during the final phase of the combat mission, ministerial briefing notes say.

"Pressures imposed by the closure of Camp Mirage and the need to maximize flexibility in providing strategic airlift to support OP Athena have culminated in the (censored) using C-150 flights in KAF," said a Nov. 1, 2010, briefing note prepared for Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

The Canadian military designates its Airbus passenger jets as the CC-150 Polaris but often refers to it simply as the C-150.

The air force initially certified the Airbus aircraft to fly into the war zone in 2007. But their use, according to the documents, was considered a "last resort" and a "calculated risk" by commanders on the ground.

The planes were given two trial runs into Kandahar in August and September last year, before Canada was evicted from Camp Mirage in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Their further use was to be approved by the commander of the 1st Canadian Air Division "on a case-by-case basis," said the documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
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## GAP (24 Jul 2011)

Counterproductive restraint
By Bill ArdolinoJuly 17, 2011
Article Link

British soldiers have been directed not to shoot insurgent bomb emplacers in Afghanistan:

    British soldiers who spot Taliban fighters planting roadside bombs are told not to shoot them because they do not pose an immediate threat, the Ministry of Defence has admitted. They are instead being ordered to just observe insurgents and record their position to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.

    The controversial policy emerged at an inquest into the death of Sgt Peter Rayner, 34, a soldier from the 2nd Batallion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment who was killed in October last year by an improvised explosive device as he led a patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. 

The reason? Counterinsurgency doctrine (COIN) and "courageous restraint" are cited:

    Under the Geneva Convention and the nationally administered Rules of Engagement the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan are told they can only attack if there is an immediate threat to life.

    A key part of the MoD's counter-insurgency theory holds that it is more important to win over civilians by not killing innocent people than it is to eliminate every potential insurgent.

    One officer who has recently served in Afghanistan said that if a soldier wanted to ascertain if an insurgent was an immediate threat, he would have to approach him and expose himself to greater risk.

    He said: "A British soldier manning a checkpoint at night might watch a man digging a hole for an IED 100 metres away and would not try to shoot at him. It's a ludicrous situation.

    "There has to be an immediate threat to life and that's a hard thing to prove. An IED does not count as an immediate threat.

    "The Americans are different - their Rules of Engagement are pretty liberal. If they even suspect someone of laying a bomb, they can shoot them." 

I've previously mentioned the disparity in tactics and outcomes between UK and US Marine forces in Helmand province here and here. While few have questioned the proficiency of individual British soldiers, and the US push into the province has been vastly aided by greater numbers, there are obvious differences in both tactics and political latitude granted to American commanders in the design of their ROE. Western allies in the Afghan security forces, as well as the Taliban themselves, have noticed these differences and described them as the Americans being "more willing to fight."

For example, in addition to US forces maintaining the option to kill individuals they believe are planting IEDs, many units also have the freedom to kill spotters, as illustrated by this BBC clip from Sangin. I should note that I've also witnessed Marine patrols in Helmand refrain from shooting suspected spotters, contingent on the area and circumstances. I suspect the heart of the issue is the difference between limiting forces with a restrictive, uniform policy and empowering commanders to tailor the ROE according to discretion.

Counterinsurgency obviously demands a nuanced approach, one employing judicious restraint, copious "carrots" and surgical "sticks." But effective COIN is also very much about killing the right people, and being perceived as willing to do so by both enemies and the population the COIN force is trying to sway to its side. Shooting bomb emplacers, complemented by media operations warning farmers not to dig roadside holes at night, constitutes a much more rational approach than simply letting insurgents walk. The latter sends a poor message that also has consequences.
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## GAP (26 Jul 2011)

*Articles found July 26, 2011*

 Airman Instructs Afghan Mechanics
July 25, 2011 Air Force News|by Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
Article Link

ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England -- Far from home station and the KC-135 Stratotankers he normally maintains, one Airman from here now spends much of his time around Russian-built helicopters as he instructs and prepares mechanics from the emerging Afghan air force on his trade.

Master Sgt. David Penisten is deployed to the 440th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron where he works daily at the Afghan air force compound in Kabul training Afghan airmen on Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopter maintenance.

"Each day, I advise and mentor 45 Afghans on hourly inspections and heavy maintenance for Mi-17 and Mi-35 aircraft," Penisten said. "This entails maintenance issues as well as professionalization of their air force. We provide the inspection process for 100, 200 and 300-hour inspections for Kabul, Mazar-I-Sharif and Shindand aircraft, as well as Presidential Mi-17's in Kabul."

One major challenge maintainers face is lack of experience working on specific Afghan air force helicopters. For Penisten, this challenge is compounded, as the Mi-17 and Mi-35 are both night-and-day contrasts from the airframes he's typically maintained during his career.
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 Afghanistan faces uphill battle not to slide back into Taliban rule
Article Link
By Peter Worthington ,QMI Agency Monday, July 25, 2011 

t may well be a sign of what the future holds for Afghanistan.

Amid media and political hoopla about combat troops pulling out or cutting back in Afghanistan, killing is already underway. Assassinations and murder.

It’s not encouraging for those who hoped — gambled, really — investing men, time, patience and money in developing an effective Afghan National Army (ANA) and police force might save the existing regime from sliding back into Taliban control.

Canada assigned excellent combat soldiers — officers and non-commissioned ranks — to teach, instruct, guide and mentor Afghan troops into being more effective as soldiers.

There have never been doubts about Afghans as fighters — but soldiering is different.

It is knowing when to fight, when not to fight and how to position yourself so when you have to fight, the odds favour you.

There are now more ANA troops than there are NATO and allied troops in the country.

Despite the gesture of turning over one of Afghanistan’s quieter provinces (Bamiyan) to full ANA and government control instead of NATO, it’s uncertain whether that will succeed.

No sooner had publicity been generated about Canadian fighting troops moving out of Kandahar and returning to Canada than President Hamid Karzai’s brother was assassinated.
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 Russia's Afghan addiction
Article Link
Editor's Note:  The following piece comes from Global Post, which provides excellent coverage of world news.

KOSTROMA, Russia — Yuri Frolov, 24, started using heroin when he was 16 and living in the city of Kostroma, north of Moscow.

Kostroma isn’t known for heroin. The city of almost 300,000 is on Russia’s Golden Ring, a collection of picturesque cities northeast of Moscow visited by tourists for their typical Russian architecture and onion-shaped church domes.

My wife and I met Frolov in May at a drug rehabilitation center in the countryside in southern Russia, near the city of Stavropol. The center is austere. There is no running water and residents have to use outhouses. It’s part work camp, part monastery. The ascetic lifestyle and fresh air are thought to help addicts give up their dependencies. But this bucolic patch of land in the rolling hills of the northern Caucasus comes as a shock for many of the young addicts, who are used to cell phones and urban apartment blocks.

Before he came to the center, Frolov had never worked with livestock. Here he is in charge of collecting water from a nearby reservoir via horse-drawn carriage. In his free time he works with the center’s horses in a sprawling field.

Frolov had been clean for five months when we met. He is broad-shouldered and tall. But there is something delicate about his long face and green eyes.

Sitting on a concrete slab near the stables, Frolov spoke of how easy it was for him to purchase heroin back in Kostroma:
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 Veteran comes home to no job
Neil Pitts did two tours in Afghanistan
By PJ WILSON The Nugget 
Article Link

CALLANDER — "They've cut me loose."

The acknowledgment comes reluctantly, and with a lot of pain.

After 31 years in the Canadian Armed Forces — 20 in the regular forces, 11 with the reserves — including tours of duty in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, Warrant Officer Neil Pitts is fighting to remain in uniform.

It's a battle that confuses him. He's always had good relations with the people he worked with. His personnel assessments have always been positive.

But when he returned from his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, the job he'd hoped to have waiting for him was gone.

"If I worked for McDonald's, I'd have a job waiting for me," Pitts says. "But because I work for the military . . ."

He has his home for sale now. He says he can't afford to keep it now, not with him unemployed and his wife working at a Tim Hortons. He likes to sit at his kitchen table and watch the deer wander through the back yard.
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## Edward Campbell (2 Aug 2011)

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the _Ottawa Citizen_:


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## Mainz (18 Aug 2011)

Afghanistan’s Aviation Future Meets America’s Aviation Legends

Print PostBy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chris Fahey
NTM-A Public Affairs

Updated Aug 18, 2011

It’s rare when a single action, something as simple as a greeting or handshake, can carry enough significance to inspire and motivate.  When American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan and Jim Lovell met four Afghan Air Force trainees at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, during a recent  USO tour, their brief conversation proved to be enough to inspire the members of the country’s future air force.


Former Astronaut Gene Cernan the last man to walk on the moon, leans in to hear a question from a female Afghan air force candidate during a meet-and-greet at Camp Eggers, Kabul, Aug. 16, home to the NATO Training Mission -Afghanistan.
“After meeting them,” said Lt. Safia Feruzi, who is one of only five pilot-qualified women in the Afghan air force training program, “I have a renewed feeling that any Afghan woman or man—including myself—can achieve what they have.”

Despite language barriers and being from opposite sides of the world, the Afghan students and American aviation veterans were able to share a common bond focused on a love of aviation. 

“In school,” said Afghan Lt. Khan Agha Ghaznavi, one of the trainees.  “I had so many questions about space that my teachers could not answer. To actually meet these great men who have actually been to the moon and could answer my questions directly … it’s overwhelming.”

The strong feelings flowed both ways during the meeting, and the astronauts remarked afterward on the genuine excitement and desire they could see in the young Afghan trainees.

“Passion is important in every occupation,” said Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. “A person without it can never beat a person with it … and it’s encouraging to see this young [Afghan] group’s enthusiasm and excitement.”


Astronauts Jim Lovell and Neil Armstrong listen on as a pilot candidate with the Afghan air force asks a question regarding the difficulties of navigating a space craft during a meet-and-greet on Camp Eggers, Kabul, Aug. 16, home to the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan.
Lovell, who commanded the infamous Apollo 13 mission, brought home safely after suffering a near-catastrophic failure en route to the Moon, agreed with his fellow astronaut. “Take it from me … if you don’t have an honest passion for this game then, baby, you’re in the wrong business—these students seem to have it.”

Training for the Afghan aviators is assigned to the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron, a NATO coalition unit that works with and advises Afghan Air Force commanders and senior staff.  The 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron is a part of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, a coalition of 33 nations that works in coordination with NATO nations and partners, international organizations, donors, and nongovernmental organizations to support the government of Afghanistan as it generates and sustains the Afghan National Security Forces. 

Once the four Afghan students finish their initial training program, they will continue to other bases in Afghanistan, including Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and Shindand in the west of the country for more advanced training. For the students, the chance to complete training and take on roles within their country that were unheard of a just a few years ago offers the opportunity to join the astronauts in the pages of history.

“Today, meeting the astronauts, speaking to them and being trained to fly is unbelievable,” said Afghan student Lt. Ahmadzai Kassat. “I truly hope that one day I’ll make a historical difference in my own country.”

http://www.facebook.com/TroopsInAfghanistan


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