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My opinion vis a vis the Dutch is based on my previous experience (in Afghanistan but not in RC(S)) and by multiple reports from those with first hand knowledge working with and for them when they had command in RC (S).  I have indirect (ie: second-hand) sources from another country operating in...

Yes, not mentioned in the article is the fact that Marine tour lengths are normally also six months, a point that I've used before to silence US Army detractors. JTF A HQ is nine months, battle group is six, but some positions (CO PRT for example) requiring extensive interaction with the...

I seem to recall the Liberal Government of the day firing up a battle group and launching it into Kandahar in January 2002 under US command...or have all the Dion apologists forgotten that?

I disagree with NATO's talking head - "involved" hardly equals fighting.  Aside from the Danes (who seem to be capable of "doing business" in a variety of theatres) and the Aussie SF, I would hard pressed to describe any real combat operations undertaken by the other nine countries cited by NATO...

I suppose I am a "buttons and bows" guy to some extent, in that I feel that uniforms reflect the mindset of the Army wearing them.  I was at a major event with the USMC a couple of months ago and was embarrassed by both our ill-fitting, baggy, faded combats and our cheap, uncomfortable DEUs...

Ya know, I'm "interested in" Angelina Jolie...doesn't mean she'll go out with me though... Let's all say it together..."TLAV"...live it, learn it, love it...

As I suspected, the Liberal "eight-page" policy is hardly that.  One page is the cover page, a further two are devoted to an attack on the government and on Parliamentary tactics and the remainder has so little meat that it can hardly be described as a policy.  It appears that the Liberals would...

As I've said before, it isn't the same and hardly explains French, Italian, Spanish and other attitudes.  The cuts in the seventies - like them or not - were based on a strategic assessment made during peacetime.  This was the era of Vietnam, the opening of China and reproachment with the Soviet...

As opposed to the wildly successful US generals we've seen in this and other theatres thus far....?

ANSO is indeed very active in theatre and provides the day to day security advice to both the UN and to a variety of NGOs.  They can indeed be described as "experts" in at least that sense.  Whether they're positioned to deliver strategic assessments is another matter.

I've been out of the country, so am late wading into this one.  Imagine my shock at arriving home last night to find that Dion has jumped on the "visit Afghanistan" bandwagon - a bit late - yet continues to spout the same ridiculous nonsense regarding the mission in theatre that he's engaged in...

How odd...  The BBC is quoting something considerably different - directly from the source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7139736.stm More on link... TR

If Stoffer is one of our "biggest supporters", he wouldn't be a member of a party that has such an antipathy towards the Armed Forces and such a brainless position on our current mission in Afghanistan. I've collected Victorian Campaign medals myself - medals awarded to soldiers long passed...

My loathing of Axworthy (and, by extension, his like-minded ilk in the Liberal Party - Chretien included) and his weak, vacillating, anti-military, "soft power" travelling road show reached new heights with this trashy, ill-informed shot in the press this morning.

We just went through a huge cycle of political angst regarding the dispatch of politicians of various ilk to theatre, with security concerns being cited as reasons for keeping people home.  Moreover, operational visits have been curtailed because of a plethora of non-operational visits and...

Formal standup for TF 3-09 will be Jan 09.  We're likely to use a "compressed" training timeline, but many issues are still to be resolved.

Yeah, everyone's feeling the pinch out West, hence my hedging my bets ever so slightly ("primary force generator"). As I said, 3-09 doesn't have an assigned mission yet - it's being described as a "high readiness" task force until direction is received.

3 PPCLI will provide the battle group designated for High Readiness in Aug 2009.  It currently, in keeping with GoC policy, doesn't have an assigned mission.  They don't have an assigned Field Amb, although it is pretty safe to assume that 1 Fd Amb and the Edmonton-based HSG will be the primary...

The open source was posted here before...it was the Germans.  There's a Der Spiegel article on it somewhere on the forum...I'm much too lazy to find it at the moment.   As I do the bulk of the Eurotrash that populate ISAF.

Precisely what I had a senior German officer tell me...  It sounds plausible.  There were plenty of Russian-speakers and Croatians with the Battle Group during my time with them too.