Discussion of Canada's Role in AFG (merged)

[paracowboy]

Polaris Institute = Fifth Column.  :

ISAF = Eurotourists

NATO = safe and secure Afghanistan.

paracowboy = mondo cool

 

[Bograt]

IIRC Stephen Staples is a member here --

You are correct. http://forums.army.ca/forums/members/12834

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

If you look at their efforts under Staples, the Polaris Institute has become a dedicated anti-Military advocacy group, and he is spending more-and-more time on TV promoting their very distorted world view.

The thing I very much dislike about the guy is his willingness to complain about the status-quo but his aversion to talk to about his recommended alternative course of action.



Matthew. 

 

[Bert]

Stratfor makes note of Canadian and Taliban activies in southern Afghanistan:

Afghanistan's Mean Season: The Taliban Take on the Canadians
www.stratfor.com

Fierce fighting continued May 18 in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province as British, Canadian and Afghan forces engaged hundreds of Taliban fighters near the village of Azizi. In neighboring Helmand province, Taliban fighters overran the town of Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold, only to be forced out later by Afghan troops backed by British and Canadian helicopter gunships. The fighting came a day after a Canadian offensive in Kandahar's Panjway district ended in the death of at least 18 Taliban and one Canadian soldier, while a suicide bomber struck a U.N. convoy, killing only the bomber. In the two days of fighting, some 50 Taliban have died, compared with about 14 Afghan and coalition fatalities.

The fighting reflects an overall increase in Taliban activity in southern Afghanistan since late 2005 -- the result of al Qaeda's reinvestment in the country and the change in coalition forces there.

The United States has turned responsibility for most of Afghanistan over to NATO forces in order to free up U.S. troops to concentrate on operations in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, where the Taliban and al Qaeda are most active -- and where many senior leaders are believed to be operating. Al Qaeda does not have as heavy a presence in southern Afghanistan, particularly in Uruzgan, Helmand and Kandahar provinces, though the Taliban continue to be active in the area.

As part of the NATO deployment, Canadian Brig. Gen. David Fraser on Feb. 28 took control of the multinational force in southern Afghanistan from U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry. The Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan include troops from the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry; an engineer squadron; an artillery battery from 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery; an armored reconnaissance troop from 12 Régiment blindé du Canada; and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle unit from 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. The Canadians relieved battle-hardened troops from the U.S. Southern European Task Force, including the 173rd Separate Infantry brigade, 3rd battalion, 6th Marines, and the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade. Late May 17, the Canadian Parliament narrowly approved a bill to extend the deployment of the country's 2,300 troops in Afghanistan to 2008.

Three factors are converging on the Canadians in Kandahar province: The perception by the Taliban and local warlords that the Canadians are not as formidable an opponent as the U.S. units they replaced, an influx of younger Taliban commanders eager to apply tactics used by insurgents in Iraq to their fight in Afghanistan, and a lack of financial resources to pay off local warlords, tribal leaders and government officials. Until the Canadians and other NATO troops can adjust to their new environment, fighting will continue, and possibly increase, in southern Afghanistan.

The U.S. presence in southern Afghanistan included selectively spreading money around the region for reconstruction projects. Although ostensibly meant to benefit the local population, especially in rural areas, these projects are actually used as a tool to buy the allegiance of the local warlords and tribal leaders who benefit more directly from them. By building roads, schools and other infrastructure in their areas, the local commanders see their people employed, receive money to provide "protection" for the projects, and get other "gifts" and gratuities as well. The United States had about $30 million to spend on these projects in southern Afghanistan, in addition to projects funded by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Canadian commanders, however, lack that kind of money to spread around the local area for reconstruction projects, having only about $2 million to put to work in the area. The Canadians will try to work with various NGOs operating in Afghanistan to fill the shortfall in projects, but this less-direct route could deny them the flexibility that U.S. commanders on the ground enjoyed when disbursing goodies to the locals. This could make local warlords and tribal leaders less cooperative with the Canadians.

The local insurgents began testing the Canadians within hours after they took over, detonating a roadside bomb in front of a Canadian military convoy in Kandahar. Anytime one military unit assumes responsibility from another, the new unit must learn the nuances of operating in the area, despite a transition period during which soldiers from the old units train the new units. No matter how thorough the changeover, however, the new unit must develop tactics and procedures that are best suited to the way it operates. While the Canadians are learning their way around and establishing new relationships with local commanders and leaders, the Taliban will try to take advantage of the opportunity to take over as much territory as they can in southern Afghanistan. This will include attacks against government buildings in small towns, convoys and reconstruction projects.

New Taliban commanders have come into southern Afghanistan in recent months as areas sympathetic to the Taliban across the border in Pakistan continue to produce a supply of recruits and combat veterans have risen through the ranks. These younger commanders are eager to apply tactics used by insurgents in Iraq that have proven successful against coalition and Iraqi forces. This might include more urban warfare, suicide attacks, attacks against towns loyal to the Afghan government, and attacks against government officials. The increase in Taliban and al Qaeda activity has brought with it an increase in suicide attacks. Through mid-May, 11 suicide attacks have occurred in Afghanistan, compared to seven in all of 2005.

Taking a lesson from the insurgents in Iraq, the Taliban realize that gaining media attention is an important aspect of their fight. Overrunning a remote small town in Kandahar or Helmand province and holding it for a few days until coalition and Afghan forces arrive to run them out could have an impact locally, but results in little media attention. On the other hand, a suicide or roadside bomb attack that kills a local police chief or official does result in media attention. An attack against coalition troops, particularly a suicide attack, can have even more media impact.

Unlike Iraq, however, suicide bombings against coalition targets in Afghanistan rarely result in serious casualties. This is partly because of terrain limitations, fewer vehicles on the roads in predominantly rural Afghanistan compared to the urban areas of Iraq, and lower-quality materials used in improvised explosive devices. Convoy tactics learned by coalition forces in Iraq and up-armored Humvees also have mitigated the effects of suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

As the spring turns into summer, militant activity in Afghanistan will increase. The Canadians and other NATO troops in southern Afghanistan have been adjusting to their surroundings and developing sound operating practices. The attacks will continue, but the casualty counts will continue to be disproportionately heavy on the Taliban side.
Send questions or comments on this article to analysis@stratfor.com.


www.stratfor.com
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provision of the Copyright Act.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

"Canadian helicopter gunships"

I had no idea we had these.

 

[paracowboy]

"Canadian helicopter gunships"

I had no idea we had these.

every pilot has a sidearm.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

:rofl:

 

[Springroll]

Christie Blatchford on Canada's mission in Afghanistan
Globe and Mail Update

Globe columnist Christie Blatchford was on patrol with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan over the weekend when Corporal Tony Boneca was killed in a fight with Taliban insurgents near Pasmul. Her story Soldiers engaged in lethal two-day game of cat-and-mouse with Taliban fighters is a vivid, personal account of what happened that fateful day. Her reporting from the scene sparked a strong debate on globeandmail.com as readers alternately praised and condemned it, the issue of embedding journalists and the wisdom of Canada's continuing mission in the troubled country.

Christie followed that up today with a second report Three days of fierce, bloody war

Christie was on-line earlier today to take your questions on these stories, the mood of Canadian troops in the field and all things Afghanistan. The questions and answers appear at the bottom of this page.

This is Christie's second assignment with the troops in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, she described the reality of life — and war — for our troops in her two-part series The Belly Button and Into the forbidding Afghan hills.

You can read the rest of Christie's reports from Afghanistan, along with other Globe stories, editorials and comment on our special report on Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Christie started at The Globe in 1972 while still at Ryerson and worked here for six years, four as sports columnist, before joining The Toronto Star for four years as a general assignment reporter. She spent 15 years at the Toronto Sun, first as a humor columnist and then as the paper's main news pages columnist. She covered the first Gulf War for The Sun. Christie joined The National Post for five years, dating from its birth, and then came back to The Globe where her primary beat now is the criminal courts. She's also a general assignment columnist who still dabbles in sports (at the Turin Olympics recently) and in politics (during the recent federal election).

To read the comments and questions click the following link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060710.wlivekandahar0711/BNStory/specialComment/home/?pageRequested=all

 

[Edward Campbell]

Please, please, please, Springroll: when you lift text from somewhere else (as you did, in this case, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060710.wlivekandahar0711/BNStory/specialComment/home/?pageRequested=all ) provide at least a citation as the rules ( http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/24937.0.html ) require.  Your little link at the bottom is insufficient; you need to indicate, clearly, that all the text above it is a direct lift from the Globe and Mail's web site.  You leave the impression that the complete post is your work - your idea, your words.

I'm sure you do not want to mislead Army.ca members and guests - some of whom may work for the Globe and Mail.

There is a good reason so many of us are careful to document sources and post a disclaimer re: the Copyright Act when we copy text from copyright holders' sites.  It is their intellectual property and they deserve (and may require) an acknowledgement of that fact.

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

I wish we could clone her...she's wonderful.


Matthew. 

 

[Roy Harding]

She's the only woman on earth that my wife need worry about - and I've told her (and my wife) so.

What a goil!!

 

[Springroll]

Please, please, please, Springroll: when you lift text from somewhere else (as you did, in this case, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060710.wlivekandahar0711/BNStory/specialComment/home/?pageRequested=all ) provide at least a citation as the rules ( http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/24937.0.html ) require.  Your little link at the bottom is insufficient; you need to indicate, clearly, that all the text above it is a direct lift from the Globe and Mail's web site.  You leave the impression that the complete post is your work - your idea, your words.

I'm sure you do not want to mislead Army.ca members and guests - some of whom may work for the Globe and Mail.

There is a good reason so many of us are careful to document sources and post a disclaimer re: the Copyright Act when we copy text from copyright holders' sites.  It is their intellectual property and they deserve (and may require) an acknowledgement of that fact.

Thank you for that, Edward Campbell.
I do not normally post news items, but when I read that, I wanted to share it with the many on here who enjoy what she has to say.
I also thought that the "Globe and Mail Update" underneath the title would have been sufficient to show that it was not a work of mine, as well as the link at the bottom. I had checked the first few posts in the Current Affairs and News section and they did not have a disclaimer.
I also had no intentions of misleading anyone, so if I did, I am sorry. I did go through the rules and according to them, I did do as per the rules by posting the link and by putting down "Globe and Mail Update"(citing my source). I will fix the link so that it does not read as "Read the comments and such here" and will put the entire thing into quotes so that it it can not be mistaken that it is not a work of my own creation.

Thank you.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Your post seemed obvious to me to me, then again what do I know about copywrites and stuff.

I miss the old ol army.ca days

 

[Edward Campbell]

Here is a bang-on piece from Christie Blatchford in today’s Globe and Mail.  It is reproduced here under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060804.wxafghanblatch04/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

Seriously, this means war

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
From Friday's Globe and Mail

The bleeding was barely stopped when the bleating began.

On the day of Canada's most appalling losses yet in Afghanistan -- four soldiers killed in three separate but linked attacks and 10 injured -- it took but an hour for the open-line radio talk shows in Toronto to fill up with the cries of those who would pull the plug on the mission there, yank the troops home immediately, have the nation revert to its mythical, if cherished, peacekeeping role and go back to that sterling foreign policy of keeping fingers crossed.

I thought of what Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad, the boss of the combat logistics arm of the Canadian battle group, said not so long ago in Kandahar.

We were talking about the Canadian mission when Col. Conrad said, "Each man and woman has asked, 'Why am I here? Why did I volunteer?' " but most, he guessed, had come to the same conclusion he had. "For all that we're here to help Afghans," he said, "we're also here to protect our country."

It was only later, when I was going through the notes of that conversation, that I realized he was the first person I know to put it so squarely.

If it is a thought that might offer some comfort to the families of the dead -- that their sons did not die only in service of a Biblical-era faraway foreign land where violence is as reflexive as breathing, but also in service to our own -- it might also stand as a reminder that notwithstanding the absence of a formal declaration, Canada is at war.

So are the other seven nations of the now-NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, and so are the Americans and British in Iraq, and so is Israel in Lebanon.

So are the Western democracies which do not have troops in any of these hot spots, but which also prize freedom, opportunity, education, tolerance and diversity.

And so in his way was Tarek Fatah, the moderate Canadian Muslim who this week resigned from the Muslim Canadian Congress, citing threats and a climate of intimidation that led him to fear for his safety and the safety of his wife and children.

The common denominator is thuggery -- whether it is the Taliban yesterday gleefully claiming credit for the spate of attacks that also left 21 Afghan civilians dead and 13 wounded, or Hezbollah launching rockets from private homes, or Mr. Fatah being labelled an apostate by those who know full well the peril that engenders -- and a nihilism so naked it is stunning.

The rocket-propelled grenade attack that yesterday left three Canadians dead, for instance, was launched from a school. In most civilized parts of the planet, schools are places of learning, places for children, places of peace; to the Taliban, and to all those who would keep their fellow Muslims in perpetual poverty and ignorance so that they might be made into martyrs, schools are buildings to be burned down, trashed, defiled and turned into launch pads by those who, if they understand nothing else about the West, understand that Western soldiers, with their regard for education and soft spot for children, must struggle on some level to seriously regard the school as a likely spot to set up an ambush.

Some of the fighters in Afghanistan are hardline Taliban ideologues, and some are drugs bosses and tribal warlords who align themselves out of convenience.

But some are from other countries, fighting for a pan-Islamic cause. The first time I was in Kandahar, last spring, two would-be suicide bombers blew themselves up prematurely in a graveyard: They were from Pakistan, as documents and cellphones retrieved from their bodies proved. When I was in Kandahar last month, in what has become known as the Battle of Pashmul and was also the site of yesterday's attacks, one of the arrested fighters was a Chechen man.

What business does a Chechen have trying to kill Canadians in Afghanistan? Oh yes, I forgot: The glory of Islam.

Mr. Fatah's sin was to be an outspoken liberal in a religion that has increasingly little stomach for it, even in Canada.

His resignation came after he was singled out in a recent e-mail campaign aimed at painting him as an illegitimate voice for Muslims, but he says the threats against him -- including an instance where he was surrounded by a mob of shrieking young Muslim men in Toronto -- go back years. It appears he was particularly unsettled by a June 30 article, written by Mohamed Elmasry, the director of the Canadian Islamic Congress. In the piece, headlined "Smearing Islam and Bashing Muslims, Who and Why," Mr. Fatah was identified, as was my fellow Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente, as one of four people who are anti-Islam.

Mr. Elmasry was describing a panel discussion, held in the wake of the arrest of 17 Muslim men in Toronto alleged to be terrorists, at which Mr. Fatah participated; Mr. Elmasry directly accused him of smearing Islam and bashing Muslims, which Mr. Fatah regards "as close as one can get to issuing a death threat, as it places me as an apostate and blasphemer."

Mr. Elmasry had a busy few weeks there: More than a month after I wrote a column about the arrests of the Toronto 17, and after my byline conveniently had appeared from Afghanistan, he devoted an entire article to me in which he described me as having made a name "by writing about Islam and Muslims in a manner that consistently lacks accuracy, fairness and balance." While I was in Kandahar, a reader alerted me that the piece had been picked up by a U.S. website and an Egyptian newspaper: Golly, I wonder what Mr. Elmasry was hoping for with that?

My point is, the war is on. Canada did not declare it, but it has come to our shores as surely as it came to Manhattan's five years ago. Our soldiers are dying for it, in Afghanistan, but they are also fighting for Canadians.

The least we can do -- and we do, in this country, prefer to do the least -- is stiffen our collective resolve, face up to the truth, and recognize that the soldiers' terrible sacrifice is in our name.

Christie Blatchford has reported from Afghanistan on two extended trips, in July and in March and April of this year.

She has managed to pull together the Middle Eastern/West-Central Asian battlefields and events right here at home.


I agree 100% with the last two paragraphs (which I highlighted):


• We are at war, whether that dumbkopf Ujjal Dosanjh and the (apparent) majority of the ostriches in the Liberal Party of Canada’s caucus understand it or not; and


• Those many (most?) Canadians with the jelly-like spines need to stop taking counsel of their fears; there is much to fear, right here in our own towns and cities, from the radical Islamic fanatics who, as Blatchford says, ”… would keep their fellow Muslims in perpetual poverty and ignorance so that they might be made into martyrs …”.  We are also under attack, as a_majoor has pointed out here in Army.ca, in a 4GW campaign being waged in newspapers and public meetings by those who want to stifle all dissent within their own community and bend Canadians to their own specific point of view.

BZ, Ms Blatchford!

Edit: to spell the dunderhead's name correctly

 

[Weinie]

As always, Christie is bang on. She's like the Don Cherry of journalism, willing to say "here be monsters" as opposed to taking the bland, middle of the road, PC approach that so many in the MSM take, when they are not spouting leftish tripe.

 

[MarkOttawa]

See Norman's Spectator's TODAY'S IDIOCY, Dosanjh and Axworthy:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/nspector4/IDIOCY.htm

This is the Toronto Star story it's based on, "Afghan mission under fire":
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1154641811978&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

For the record: this is what NDP leader Jack Layton said a year ago about Gen. Hillier's "scumbags" remark:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20050716%2FMILITARY16%2FTPNational%2FCanada&ord=1388346&brand=theglobeandmail&redirect_reason=2&denial_reasons=none&force_login=false

'"Controlled anger, given what's happened, is an appropriate response," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "We have a very committed, level-headed head of our armed forces, who isn't afraid to express the passion that underlies the mission that front-line personnel are going to be taking on.

"A bit of strong language in the circumstances, I don't find that to be wrong."'

This what he said in the Commons debate on Afghanistan, May 17 this year:
http://www.ndp.ca/page/3757

'Mr. Speaker, New Democrats stand in opposition to this government’s plans to lock our country into a long-term war-fighting role in Afghanistan, a role that does not properly reflect the principles and ideals of the people of Canada...

For nearly five decades Canada has pursued peace in nations around the world...Canada has built a reputation as a respected peacekeeping nation...

...Our foreign policy must reflect the reality that we are a country renowned for our pursuit of peace, we are a nation of facilitators not occupiers, we are a people committed to the ideals of building bridges not burning them, we must not allow that legacy of good work to falter in the growing shadow of the Bush Administration’s Operation Enduring Freedom...'

What changed his mind? And we're now under NATO command anyway.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Is tar and feathers still in vogue? I have a spare chicken and I am sure Alberta will donate the tar....  ;D

 

[military granny]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/LAC.20060804.AFGHANBLATCH04/TPStory/National/columnists

My favorite line.
The least we can do -- and we do, in this country, prefer to do the least -- is stiffen our collective resolve, face up to the truth, and recognize that the soldiers' terrible sacrifice is in our name.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Some of the stupid stuff in the Crvena Zvezda:

Afghan mission under fire
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1154641811978&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Excerpts:

'"The news is sad, frustrating and troubling," said Peggy Mason, who served as Canadian ambassador for disarmament under the Brian Mulroney government. "What are we doing there?"..

Only a few years ago, Canadian troops were sent off to Kabul on what was billed as a peace mission. Today they're poised at the pointy edge of the bloodiest region in the country as the death toll rises.

Fifteen Canadian soldiers have died in the last six months and that tragic trend may continue, worries Steven Staples [my emphasis], the director of security programs for the Polaris Institute, a privately funded public research institute.

Staples reacted to yesterday's news with "sadness, alarm — but not surprise," he said.

"The trend lines have been moving down this path," he noted. "The increasing effectiveness of insurgent attacks suggests that our defences have been eroded.

"And we're seeing an increased sophistication in the tactics used by the insurgents."

Parliament should be recalled, former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy said in a telephone interview from Manitoba. The crisis in the Middle East and the tragic news from Afghanistan demand it, he said.

"I don't think Parliament should be on summer holiday," Axworthy said.

He said the discussion should focus on how Canada's original peace support operations in Afghanistan have evolved into what now appears to many as all-out combat.

"We were originally told that we would apply the concept of the 3-D approach in Afghanistan — the application of defence, diplomacy and development," he said. "Now it has become one big `D.'..

Axworthy said Canadians have yet to get a satisfactory explanation from the federal government as to how and why that shift in Canada's Afghan mission occurred.

"But," he added, "there's an innate sense among the public that this is not right."..

Mason, who has tried to spark a national debate about why Canadian troops are in Kandahar, spoke plainly: "There is no military solution to Afghanistan's problems," she said, suggesting aggressive combat operations have simply made the situation worse.

Mason, a faculty member of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, said that "instead of focusing on a losing military battle," Stephen Harper's government should be urgently working with NATO and its North Atlantic Council, "to develop a new strategy, a winning strategy."..'

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Funny, how the people[media, polititions and soldiers] that have had the parts to go there and see the complete 3D work that Canadians do, are not the ones crying crocodile tears.......just the ones that sit here and whine therebye aiding world terrorism everywhere.