The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread November 2010

[GAP]

The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread November 2010              

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

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 1

Canada’s PRT in Afghanistan ‘wildly successful’: U.S. diplomat
Postmedia News, Oct. 31, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.globalnews.ca/story.html?id=3755179

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — Canada has come closer to working out an effective relationship between soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan than any other country in the world, according to a U.S. diplomat.

Bill Harris, the top U.S. diplomat in southern Afghanistan, believes that “people will write dissertations” one day about a Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team he describes as a “wildly successful … irregular warfare unit.”..

Canada’s so-called whole-of-government approach in Afghanistan been concentrated on the PRT since Paul Martin’s Liberal government ordered Canadian troops south — away from Kabul — in late 2005. But the activities of the diplomats and other civilians assigned to the PRT have since received far less media attention than the exploits of the battle group.

Nevertheless, the PRT has made a name for itself with its American co-workers, who are the civilian part of a surge ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama.

While there were only four American PRT members on the ground last Christmas, there are now nearly 100 integrated into the PRT. The team is expected to become entirely American when Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan ends next July…

Analysis: Why the military plays down vital Afghan battle
Reuters, Oct. 31
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69U0EI20101031

The battle for Kandahar, its importance played down even before it began, has been eclipsed in the media and in Washington by a focus on corruption and peace talks, but its outcome is crucial to the wider Afghan war.

Operation Dragon Strike is the first major attempt since 2001 to regain control of a city that is the Taliban's spiritual home. This autumn may be the last time that the NATO-led alliance has sufficient boots on the ground to try the push.

Victory would give NATO and the Afghan government more leverage in potential peace negotiations, as acceptance grows in Kabul and abroad that a political solution may be the most likely end to a war now in its tenth year.

If winter arrives and insurgents are still capable of mounting major attacks and intimidating the local population, it could further chill Western governments' already diminishing appetite for a long-term presence in Afghanistan...

For all its importance, NATO and the U.S. military have tried to keep the operation low-profile and expectations modest.

It was formally unveiled only after it had kicked off, and this week the region's top commander said it would not be possible to judge the results until next June.

The military has been stung by criticism of a much-publicized spring effort to take control of Marjah, a trade hub in neighboring Helmand province. There, foreign forces promised a quick takeover followed by roll-out of a "government in a box."..

Casualty figures in a main Kandahar hospital over the summer were testament to the violence. Almost twice as many patients with war injuries were treated in August and September -- some 1,000 -- compared with the same period in 2009 [emphasis added].

Dragon Strike was launched at the end of September...

...Kandahar had been virtually ignored by NATO for years, garrisoned by Canadian forces with little counter-insurgency experience [emphasis added] and far too few to hold major swathes of territory.

"One of the things that scared us when we first started looking at Kandahar last year was how little we knew about it," said Andrew Exum from the Center for a New America Security, who fought in Afghanistan and worked as an adviser to former top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 1, 2010

Canada In Action: Armoured Overwatch
Article Link
31 October 2010

A Canadian Forces Leopard2A6M main battle tank provides combat overwatch in Afghanistan. Canada originally leased 20 Leopard 2A6M mine-protected tanks from Germany as an interim measure to replace its Leopard 1A5/C2 tanks that were deployed to Afghanistan but were found to suffer from a lack of air conditioning and insufficient armour protection. Canada later purchased 100 older-model surplus Leopard 2 tanks from the Dutch. The first of 20 Leopard 2 A4M CAN modernized battle tanks was delivered by the German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann to the Canadian Forces on October 7th 2010.
end

U.S. takeover of Kandahar PRT base harbinger of Canada's withdrawal
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News October 30, 2010

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — The troop surge ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama that has swept southern Afghanistan this year has led to dramatic changes at what until recently was an entirely Canadian base in Kandahar's provincial capital.

While Camp Nathan Smith's population has more than tripled recently, Canada's numbers have dwindled to the point where there are now only about 175 Canadian soldiers and civilians left. Every one of the other 1,300 people now shoe-horned into every nook and cranny of the tiny base is American — a visible sign that after eight years Canada's mission is on its way out of Afghanistan.

Canadians used to be responsible for the city's quick reaction force, making safe homemade bombs and manning guard towers at the camp. These days they have a small group of construction engineers working on civil affairs projects, an even smaller number of signallers and an infantry platoon that still runs several convoys every day to escort civilians such as Corrections Canada officers to places such as Sarpoza Prison.
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Afghan counterterror role might fly with war-weary Canadians: Diplomat
Published On Sun Oct 31 2010
Article Link

A former diplomat, once held hostage by al-Qaida, says the West is never going to be able to “develop” Afghanistan and a counter-terrorism mission is one of the options the Canadian public might accept after the army ends its combat role.

Robert Fowler, a former deputy defence minister and UN ambassador, said the government’s objectives throughout nine years of war have become muddied and it’s clear Canada is “not prepared to invest the blood and treasure” needed for a full-blown nation-building exercise.

The Harper government has pledged Canada will stay on with a diplomatic and development role after the military ceases operations next summer, but has not defined exactly how that will take shape.

There is speculation Prime Minister Stephen Harper could lay out the role in advance of the NATO leader’s summit in Lisbon, Portugal later this month.
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Taliban briefly overrun east Afghanistan district
Article Link
The Associated Press Date: Monday Nov. 1, 2010 7:51 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan —  The Taliban briefly overran a district seat in eastern Afghanistan, torching government buildings and capturing police officers after an intense gunfight, officials said Monday.

The government was back in control of Ghazni province's Khogyani district headquarters a few hours later, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary, adding that three rooms in the government headquarters had been burned and a vehicle damaged. He did not have any information on casualties.

Local police chief Mohammad Yasin, who wasn't there during the attacks, said government buildings were captured and set on fire.

All the police guarding the district headquarters were either killed or taken prisoner, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, and their weapons and vehicles were confiscated.

He put out a press release later saying the Taliban had left the district after damaging the headquarters.

A NATO spokesman said he did not have any details of the incident.

In recent months, Ghazni has become one of the most unstable provinces in Afghanistan. Insecurity around the country shot up after NATO and Afghan troops began pushing into the Taliban heartland of the south in July.
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 2

Taliban fighters briefly overrun Afghan district, abduct 16 police officers
The insurgents didn't need to fire a shot in the strategic Khogyani district. Government forces regain control after a few hours, but the fate of the abductees is unknown.
LA Times, Nov. 2
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-taliban-20101102,0,7213645.story

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan —

The Taliban didn't even need to fire a shot. A band of insurgents overran a small rural district in eastern Afghanistan before dawn Monday, setting government buildings and vehicles ablaze and abducting at least 16 police officers, provincial authorities said.

Some observers warned that the overnight incident in the Khogyani district of Ghazni province was symptomatic of an intensifying Taliban push in parts of the country other than the south, the movement's traditional stronghold, and where Western officials have been reporting significant military progress.

Government forces regained control of the district within a few hours, provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir said; the Taliban melted away when a large contingent of Afghan police and soldiers moved in. NATO forces were not involved, the Western military said. The fate of the abducted Afghan police officers was unknown.

Provincial officials said the brief takeover underscored the growing vulnerability of isolated districts in a province where the insurgency has been growing stronger.

Ghazni's geographic position is strategic; the main highway between the capital, Kabul, and the south's main city of Kandahar runs through it. NATO supply convoys come under frequent attack when they pass through the province...

U.S. Marines begin to hand over small bases to Afghan army in southwest
Washington Post, Nov. 2
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110106069.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

NAWA, AFGHANISTAN - U.S. Marines have begun handing over some of their small bases to the Afghan army in this once-volatile district in the country's southwest, a transition that top military commanders intend to cite as proof that the Obama administration's troop escalation and counterinsurgency strategy are succeeding.

The transfer, which calls for most Marines to withdraw from populated parts of Nawa and consolidate in a series of desert bases by the spring, would allow the overall number of U.S. troops in the district - now about 1,000 - to be reduced by next summer. Senior Marine officers said that insurgent attacks in Nawa have declined significantly and that the capacity of the Afghan army to operate independently has increased.

But the Marine plan still envisages a significant U.S. military presence in the desert and in the district's main town to provide emergency backup to Afghan soldiers, mentor the fledgling police force and interdict insurgents seeking to enter the area...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 2, 2010

Canadian-sponsored junior officer staff course in Afghanistan
Graduation ceremony Government of Canada
  Article Link

On August 10, 2010, 47 members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) graduated from the Canadian-sponsored Junior Officer Staff Course (JOSC) in Kabul, Afghanistan alongside two Afghan National Police and two Afghan Border Police officers.

"This fourth graduation ceremony of the Junior Officer Staff Course demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to building the capacity of the Afghan National Security Forces," said the Honourable Minister of National Defence, Peter MacKay.

The 14-week JOSC is the primary component of the multi-national Staff and Language Training Centre - Afghanistan (SLTC-A) announced by the Government of Canada in 2008. The SLTC-A project was established to build the capacity of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and help the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan build a more secure environment throughout Afghanistan.
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Explosive Detection Dogs invaluable asset to Coalition Forces in Afghanistan
Nov 1, 2010 By Sgt. Richard Andrade, 16th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Article Link

MA'SUM GHAR, Afghanistan - The sun hasn't risen yet as an Explosive Detector Dog (EDD) team of American K-9 Detection Services (AMK9) prepares to lead a dismounted patrol through Panjwai'i District in Kandahar province Oct. 8. The partnered dismounted patrol leaving Combat Outpost Nejat consists of Afghan National Army soldiers, Afghan National Police and Canadian forces of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group.

To counter the growing Improvised Explosive Device (IED) threat in Afghanistan, the increased use of EDDs have become a critical part of daily operations. The EDDs consequently save the lives of both civilian and military personnel.

EDDs patrol military installations, take part in dismounted patrols, work at vehicle checkpoints, assist cordon and search missions and help find buried explosive devices.

Ambar Limbu, a Panchkhal, Nepal, native is part of a four-man team of dog handlers working with Canadian forces in Afghanistan. Limbu has a military background, having served in the Nepalese army for five years.

"We have worked together for almost three years," said Limbu of his German Shepherd, Tinus. This is their first tour together in Afghanistan.
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[GAP]

Articles found November 3, 2010

Canadian police officers walk the Kandahar beat
Published On Tue Nov 02 2010
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Midday, not far from a notorious insurgent neighbourhood, and the Afghan police station’s observation tower was empty, except for a swept-up pile of cigarette butts and a thick piece of black cardboard.

It was lying on the concrete floor, roughly shaped like the upper half of an adult human, wearing the slightly soiled grey-blue uniform of the Afghan National Police.

The fallen cardboard cutout cop was the Afghan security force’s version of a scarecrow, meant to give the impression to all that the dummy surveyed, including any Taliban plotters, that the police were watching.
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NATO troops get new Canadian commander in Kandahar
Published On Tue Nov 02 2010
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Canadian soldiers in Kandahar begin answering to a new NATO commander today.

U.S. Maj.-Gen. James Terry has taken control of all NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, including 2,800 Canadian troops.

He takes over from British Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter, who oversaw the launch of a major operation this summer to secure Kandahar province.

Canadians have played a central role in the operation in recent months by moving against insurgents in Kandahar’s Panjwaii district.
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Afghan vet's new job just the ticket
Uses overseas skills in parking enforcement
By Doug Schmidt, The Windsor Star November 3, 2010
  Article Link

When Ian Carey returned to Windsor a year ago after serving in Afghanistan with the Canadian military, he, like so many others in Canada's unemployment capital, couldn't find a job.

A master corporal reservist with the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment, whose commanding officer praised his work on his first overseas deployment, Carey, 26, was left wondering what to do.

His well-paid, 18-month Canadian Forces immersion included six months in a war zone helping train Afghan military police. Carey's big dream was to become a police officer at home, but "there's a long wait in the recruiting process," he said.

Luckily for him, his EKS commander, Lt.-Col. Morris Brouse, is also the chief executive officer of the Windsor division of the Commissionaires, a private, not-for-profit corporation established 85 years ago to provide employment opportunities for veterans of the military and police.
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Afghan combat mission to wind down before deadline
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News November 2, 2010

Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan is to rapidly begin winding down as much as three months before a July 1, 2011 deadline set by the House of Commons.

Citing the Dutch army's pullout from Uruzgan province this year as a guide, the American general who is the outgoing director of operations for the war in Kandahar said he expects Canada's battle group in Panjwaii to start handing over combat duties some time in April to an as yet unnamed coalition brigade.

"It is in the early spring that they are going to have to start looking inward," said Brig.-Gen. Fred Hodges, who returned Tuesday to Washington at the end of a 14-month tour directing the war for NATO's Regional Command South.

"Our experience with the Dutch was that in order to make their timeline, three months out they had to start doing things. And the Canadians have a lot more infrastructure out than the Dutch did. To either hand over things, pack things up or tear them down."
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[GAP]

Articles found November 4, 2010


Tears flow as Van Doos leave for Afghanistan
  Article Link
Postmedia News November 4, 2010

At first they were smiling, holding hands or hugging each other.

But as the roll call neared, tears started to flow, turning into uncontrollable sobbing.

Families and friends bade farewell at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier yesterday to 145 Quebec-based soldiers deployed to Afghanistan as part of the last combat rotation before the Canadian mission ends next summer.

During this month, a total of 1,900 soldiers from CFB Valcartier will be deployed to the war-torn country for a seven-month mission.

"It's so hard," said Krystal Siokalo, wiping away tears.

Her husband, Cpl. Adam Siokalo, is taking part in his first mission abroad.
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NATO Seeks Unity on Kabul
Article Link

BY YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

KABUL—Coalition commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for a show of unity at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Portugal this month, concerned about the pressure by some European allies to speed up transition to Afghan control and leave.

The U.S. and the NATO headquarters in Kabul oppose naming at the Lisbon summit Nov. 19-20 any Afghan provinces or districts that would move to Afghan security control next year. Releasing location names ahead of time, one senior coalition official said, would "paint a bull's-eye" on these areas, inviting Taliban attacks.
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[MarkOttawa]

The Future in Southern Afghanistan...
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Nov.4
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1288898897/0#0

...
On his blog, Matthew Fisher points out that Canadian casualties in Kandahar have fallen nearly 80 percent, and the region is becoming increasingly safe and pacified...
http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/canada-at-war/archive/2010/11/03/low-casualties-rare-optimism.aspx

Low casualties, rare optimism
Postmedia News blog,  Nov. 3, by Matthew Fisher
http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/canada-at-war/archive/2010/11/03/low-casualties-rare-optimism.aspx

...
A major factor contributing to the decline in casualties is that the fighting season is just about over. The capital "T" Taliban have gone back to Pakistan to recuperate and decide where they intend to try to blow people up next year. Many of the small "T" Taliban, who are impoverished locals often fighting for a few Pakistani rupees, have undoubtedly cached their weapons and returned to their farms.

But nobody here believes this is the whole story. From Canadian privates and corporals deep in the field to the most senior commanders and diplomats, everyone that I have spoken to over the past couple of months agrees that the Taliban have never been challenged like they have been since Barack Obama's surge began a couple of months back and never before have they suffered such catastrophic losses and had so many senior and middle-ranking leaders eliminated or captured.

Afghans are notoriously cynical and habitually complaining that everything is getting worse and worse. But, against all my experience after many years reporting from here, they say they notice a difference, too. I first picked up on their optimism in late September at a shura of village elders in Sperwan Ghar that was sponsored by the Canadian battle group. Hundreds of men in magnificent turbans and flowing gowns showed up where only a few, if any, would dare to venture before. To a man these hardscrabble farmers said they felt they could do so because the Taliban was finally on its back foot.

It was the same, relatively happy story a few days ago when I spoke with a number of educated Kandaharis. They all said that while the Taliban continue to circulate night letters threatening mayhem in Kandahar City, the security situation in the provincial capital had improved tremendously since the U.S. Army flooded the city with hundreds of military policemen and more than 1,000 infantrymen this summer.

It is a narrative that has been slowly picked up my most of the American and British media. But you'd never know about this sea change from reading and hearing the usual doom and gloom about Afghanistan that passes for informed commentary in much of the Canadian media [emphasis added].

However rosy the situation looks right now, as the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal both pointed out in articles today, the coalition is on tenterhooks because they know the remarkable gains of this summer and fall will be totally for nought if President Hamid Karzai's Kabul-centric government does not begin to supply government services in the south — something that it may not be capable of, but worse than that, does not seem much interested in even trying to deliver...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 5, 2010

Tiny NATO ally Estonia says Canadian Afghan retreat is wrong signal
Article Link
By: Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press Posted: 4/11/2010

Canada's military withdrawal from Afghanistan next year will encourage al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents, says Ottawa's NATO ally Estonia.

"My principal opinion is that to speak about final dates is the wrong message. It encourages al-Qaida and Taliban," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview Thursday.

He said he planned to deliver that message to his counterpart, Lawrence Cannon, and Defence Minister Peter MacKay, during meetings later in the day.

Paet said the 28-country NATO alliance took the decision to enter Afghanistan together and it should decide on withdrawing together.

MacKay didn't dispute Paet's position, but said Canada is bound by a parliamentary decree that combat operations end in July 2011.

"I'm a believer in that to some degree, but the reality is, in order for us to extend as we did, that was part of the arrangement," MacKay said, referring to the vote in the House of Commons that extended the mission by two years.

"The parameters that we have set in the parliamentary motion are firm, and 2011 is the time of transition for us. That doesn't preclude us making further governance, development, reconstruction efforts."

Like Canada, Estonia has soldiers fighting in volatile southern Afghanistan, but in much smaller numbers. The tiny Baltic state will leave behind its 170 troops in Helmand — the most violent province in Afghanistan — after Canada's 2,800 military personnel begin their withdrawal from neighbouring Kandahar this spring.
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Ottawa will spend $300-million to close Camp Mirage
Jane Taber From Friday's Globe and Mail Thursday, November 4, 2010
Article Link

It is costing the Harper government an estimated $300-million to close Camp Mirage, the secret airbase in the United Arab Emirates that Canada used as a logistics hub for its troops in Afghanistan, a senior Conservative official confirmed Thursday.

The Canadians were forced to close the base – they officially left this week – as a result of a dispute with the UAE over landing rights at Canadian airports.
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Military does take PTSD seriously: Worthington
Article Link
More than at any time in the past, Canada’s military today is alert and concerned about PTSD
By Peter Worthington November 4, 2010

A recent Sun Media editorial slammed the Defence Department for not doing enough to help soldiers returning from Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

While well-intentioned, aspects of the editorial were grossly unfair.

For one, the editorial urged Defence Minister Peter MacKay to “force” the military “to face the fact that PTSD within its ranks cannot simply be macho-ed off as mere weakness.” The editorial scolded: “Ignoring PTSD our military’s shame.”

Of all institutions in Canada, the military is arguably the one most aware of the realities of PTSD. To suggest it is viewed as “mere weakness” is not only wrong, but grotesquely unfair.

That may have been a common view back in the First World War, when soldiers who cracked under fire were occasionally executed by firing squads for desertion or cowardice. But those days have long since passed.

The military today needs no reminding that “PTSD is real, and it is destructive.”

Canada’s Mental Health Association reckons 10% of Canadians endure some degree of PTSD. During their lifetime, 90% of Canadians will suffer some form traumatic stress.

The editorial’s view that “upwards of 40%” of soldiers returning from Afghanistan suffer varying degrees of PTSD, seems a stretch. If that were so, it doesn’t leave too many unaffected soldiers to “macho off” PTSD as “mere weakness.”
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GG in combat fatigues for first foreign visit
Article Link

By Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada's new governor general completed his transformation into commander-in-chief with a simple but symbolic sartorial act.

The 69-year-old former academic distanced himself from his old life as he donned combat fatigues for the first time to tour Canada' war zone in Afghanistan.

It was something David Johnston had said he was unlikely to do. But then much changes when you become a symbol of the country.

"This is the first time I've had the uniform on, and I must say I'm very proud to wear it," he said Thursday as he wrapped up a whirlwind tour of the Canadian mission in the southern province of Kandahar.

"We've got remarkable leaders and remarkably able people here, so it gives me a great pleasure to don these clothes and be part of that group for a day at least."

It marks the first foreign visit for Johnston since he was sworn as the Queen's Representative in Canada last month.

As troops gathered at Kandahar Airfield to hear from their new commander-in-chief, Johnston said he made one demand upon accepting the position: "To get to Afghanistan as soon as possible."
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[MarkOttawa]

Blitzkrieg in Kunduz
Defense Technology "Ares" blog, Nov. 4
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ab10b437f-bb6e-4f4d-b1a7-1523a1c87b76

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have been conducting joint Operation Halmazag (lightning in Dari) in the Chahar Darreh district of Kunduz province since 31 October, the Bundeswehr announced today. The aim of the operation is to protect the population and improve the security situation south of the town of Kunduz for civil reconstruction projects and to put pressure on the Taliban to increase the freedom of movement of ISAF and the local population. This involves gaining control of territory along LOC Little Pluto, a road running southwards, and establishing outposts along the route and in Quatliam, some six kilometres west of the German-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Kunduz.

Photo: Bundeswehr/Von Söhnen

German infantry, panzer grenadiers (mechanized infantry), reconnaissance units and engineers from the German training and protection battalion in Kunduz are participating in the operation, alongside US forces and ANSF. Fighting already broke out on 31 October as the German battalion was deploying, with firefights with insurgents equipped with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars continuing over the last four days.

German Panzerhaubitze 2000 155 mm armoured artillery has been providing fire support from the Kunduz PRT since 31 October, engaging insurgent mortar positions and firing illumination rounds at night. Close air support has been called in and there have been aerial shows of force. The Bundeswehr reports that the fighting has been so intense that damage assessment could only be conducted by KZO unmanned aerial vehicles.

During the fighting, two German Marder armoured infantry fighting vehicles were damaged by improvised explosive devices and three German soldiers were slightly wounded, two of whom could continue their mission after first aid on the battlefield. The insurgent death toll is eight.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 6, 2010

Afghanistan: Sorry about the mess…
by Andrew Potter on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 4:47pm - 21 Comments
Article Link

Last week, I was in Ottawa appearing on a panel discussion at UofO that was  about Canada’s future role in Afghanistan. Also speaking were Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada Jawed Ludin, former ambassador to Afghanistan (and current Conservative candidate) Chris Alexander, and Wahid Waissi, director of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy.  My brief was supposed to be on the “security situation”, but given that pretty much everyone in the room was more qualified to talk about it than I was, I used up my allotted ten minutes to say, in various ways, that “it’s complicated and uncertain”.

I was gratified then when, during the discussion, a Canadian colonel with extensive experience in RC South stood up to say that the reason it the security situation seems complicated and uncertain is precisely because it is complicated and uncertain. The surge was only completed in early September, the crucial operations in Kandahar have only been underway for about six weeks, and it simply is not clear yet how things are going to turn out. There are plenty of negative signs, a few positive signs, and it won’t be clear which way the wind is really blowing until the “fighting season” resumes in early spring. Which is why Canada’s decision to cease combat operations next July 1 is increasingly turning into a big headache for our allies.

In private, American and British military officers have never hidden their disdain for the way Canada is handling this pullout. In February, a British general I was speaking with in Kabul called it “bad campaign work, and bad coalition work”. When I was back there in late September, I asked an American two-star general working at the IJC what they were going to do when Canada left. He sighed, then shrugged his shoulders. After a bit, he pointed at the map of Kandahar that was laid out in front of us, put his finger on Canada’s area of operations, and said that current thinking is the Canadians will be replaced with an Afghan kandak, assuming one can be found that can operate independently. The look on his face made it clear that he didn’t think that was plausible.
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US wants New Zealand troops to stay in Afghanistan
Article Link
Fri Nov 5, 3:53 AM

By Matthew Lee, The Associated Press

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that she hopes New Zealand will extend the mission of its special forces soldiers in Afghanistan. She also said she wants to leverage enhanced U.S.-New Zealand ties to promote human rights, democracy and environmental issues across the Asia-Pacific.

Visiting the South Island city of Christchurch, Clinton praised the work of New Zealand's 40 Special Air Service elite combat troops in Afghanistan and said she would like them to stay beyond the end of their current tour of duty early next year. But, she said the decision would be up to the government.

"They are very highly regarded," she told TV New Zealand in an interview. "They work extremely professionally."

"We have a high regard for New Zealand and the troops that you deploy there, of course we would like them to stay as long as you have them stay," Clinton said.
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Afghan broadcaster says militants smell victory
Article Link
The Canadian Press Date: Friday Nov. 5, 2010 9:05 PM ET

HALIFAX — Militants smell victory in Afghanistan because the West is gradually turning its back on the war-torn nation, one of the country's most influential broadcasters told a Canadian-hosted security conference Friday.

Saad Mohseni, director of Moby Media Group, offered the sober assessment at the opening the Halifax International Security Forum.

Mohseni said divisions within NATO, the international community and the United States are making Afghans nervous about the future of their country.

Afghanistan, along with neighbouring Pakistan, remains a major security threat to the rest of the world, he said.

"Fine words will be spoken at these forums but we have a clear example in Afghanistan today, and the world is unwilling to commit longer term," said Mohseni, who founded Tolo TV, Afghanistan's most popular television channel.

"We see that the world is going to turn its back toward our region. And to an extent, what's transpiring with debates here and also in Washington, in some way it's giving confidence to the radicals. They seem to feel and smell victory. So for them it's the beginning of the end."
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Wounded Canadians find a piece of home at German hospital
Article Link
Published On Fri Nov 05 2010

RAMSTEIN AIR FORCE BASE, GERMANY—Standing in the bitterly cold wind blowing across the airstrip, Master Cpl. Karen Dickie waits for the giant C-17 aircraft to open its jaws.

After a few abortive tries, the mouth of the massive U.S. air ambulance opens and a whoosh of cool German air hits the faces of soldiers, acclimatized to the desert heat, as they lie on their stretchers.

Dickie, a Canadian Forces medic, walks up the metal ramp and scans the stretchers laid out in front of her in search of Toronto Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrew Tiffin. The naval diver was flown out of Kandahar eight hours earlier, after a bomb blew up in his hands.

Dickie is stationed at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the casualty hub for NATO troops airlifted from combat. She is one of eight specially trained Canadian soldiers whose sole purpose is to move our wounded from the battleground to this German safe haven before being flown home for further care.
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[GAP]

Articles found November 9, 2010

Hillier: Afghan withdrawal 'at exactly the wrong time'
  Article Link
By Jack Knox, Times Colonist November 9, 2010

Canadians can be forgiven for wanting out of Afghanistan, says retired general Rick Hillier.

When all they hear about are deaths, IEDs and corruption in the Afghan government, it's no wonder the polls show most Canadians want our troops to fly home.

What they don't hear, he says, is that most of the country is relatively peaceful, that the population is gaining confidence, that the "surge" of American troops is having an effect and that the Taliban are under pressure, many of their leaders in Afghanistan dead and those in Pakistan feeling the heat from an Islamabad government that has grown to see them as a threat. "We've reached a tipping point in Afghanistan," he says.

Hillier, who commanded the international effort in Afghanistan in 2004 and then served as Canada's chief of defence staff until his retirement in 2008, was at Royal Roads University on the weekend for a dinner to benefit Boomer's Legacy, the charity set up in memory of Courtenay's Andrew "Boomer" Eykelenboom, a 23-year-old army medic killed by a suicide bomber in 2006.

Hillier isn't happy about the July deadline for Canada to pull out of Afghanistan. "We will be leaving at exactly the wrong time." Canada's hard-won international credibility will be lost. We should be staying to help train Afghanistan's army and police to take over, he says.

The assumption, therefore, is that Hillier will be encouraged by yesterday's news that Canada is considering leaving several hundred soldiers behind for that purpose.
More on link

Abbott & Costello go to war
by Aaron Wherry on Monday, November 8, 2010
Article Link

Three years ago, despite having said a year earlier that “we can’t set arbitrary deadlines and wish for the best,” the Prime Minister said, of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, “you have to put an end date on these things.”

In January, the Prime Minister’s insisted that the mission for Canada after 2011 would be “strictly civilian.” In June, the Prime Minister noted “with some interest” the comments of Liberal critic Bob Rae after Mr. Rae mused of troops remaining in Afghanistan, but maintained that the mission would transition to a “civilian and development mission at the end of 2011″ as set out in a parliamentary motion, even though that motion referred to Kandahar and the Liberal proposal referred to Kabul. Three weeks later, the Defence Minister expressed “great interest” in the Liberal proposal, but again pointed to the motion of parliament as binding. Either way, a day later, the Foreign Affairs Minister dismissed any suggestion that troops might remain past 2011, observing that “Peter might be open to the idea, but this doesn’t mean that the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada is open to the idea.”

And so it is now that a “senior government official” tells the Star that the idea of troops remaining in a training role is being considered, a revelation seemingly confirmed publicly by the Defence Minister.
end

Afghanistan is 'winnable'
Article Link

Pamela Wallin, National Post · Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010

The man who has twice commanded Canadian troops in Afghanistan says the war is "winnable." He should know -- he's recently back from the heat of combat where he saw the combined effect of the NATO-U. S. troop surge and a more able Afghan Army.

In testimony at the Senate defence committee, Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance pointed out, "The insurgency is finding it increasingly difficult to do anything that would really challenge the seat of government, anyone in government, or their security forces.... As a result, our casualty rates are falling." At the same time, Taliban leaders are being taken out at an unprecedented rate.

General Vance's optimism echoes that of Canada's current commander on the ground in Afghanistan, Brigadier-General Dean Milner, and General David Petraeus, the top NATO commander there, who has said that operations are proceeding "more rapidly than was anticipated." The Canadian Forces' unique combination of warrior and humanitarian skills is also bringing -- and keeping -- Afghans onside. General Vance says that as a population becomes hopeful, it has a "galvanizing effect."

For example, 26 schools have recently opened in the Dand district of Kandahar, and now that they are operating, villagers are beginning to feel more confident and the situation for them becomes more "normal." Schools and education are a big part of the good news out of Afghanistan. We know that school enrolment rose from 900,000 in 2002 to 7.3 million in 2009 -- and now nearly 40% of the students are girls.
More on link

Afghanistan shuts down 150 aid groups
By Jonathon Burch, Reuters
Article Link

Afghanistan has ordered around 150 aid groups, including four foreign organisations, to shut down for failing to submit reports on their projects and finances, a government official said on Tuesday.

The ruling by a government-backed commission which monitors aid groups includes 145 domestic organisations and has immediate effect, said a spokesman for the Economy Ministry, which heads the commission.

The commission was established as part of an anti-corruption drive by President Hamid Karzai, who has long been critical of foreign organisations in Afghanistan and says they have been involved in widespread graft.

“The commission has decided the organisations should be dissolved because they have not submitted reports to the Ministry of Economy for the past two years,” ministry spokesman Sediq Amarkhil said.

Amarkhil said he did not know why the NGOs had failed to submit reports, but suggested it may be because they were not registered with the government.

According to Afghan law, non-government organisations (NGOs) must submit reports every six months to the ministry, disclosing details about their funding and activities, Amarkhil said.

WARNING LETTERS

None of the NGOs ordered to close had submitted those reports despite warning letters from the ministry, Amarkhil said, adding government institutions and other donors had been informed not to provide any funding to the groups.
More on link

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 10, 2010

The perfect Canadian compromise
  Article Link
keeping some of our troops in Afghanistan in a non-combat role would allow us to continue to do our part
By L. IAN MACDONALD, The Gazette November 10, 2010

Well, of course Canada is going to stay on in Afghanistan in a training rather than combat role. It's the perfect Canadian compromise that our NATO partners have found for us -we can do our part in terms of burden sharing, having done more than our share in a mission that has cost 150 Canadian lives.

In relocating to Kabul from Kandahar, the Canadian contingent will downsize from 2,500 to about 1,000, including 700 trainers. While they won't be completely out of harm's way, they will be behind the wire and out the combat zone in the south. And their role, training Afghan forces, fits in with Canadians' perception of our military as the nice guys in the neighbourhood, peace keepers rather than war fighters. We haven't been in that business for quite some time, but the legend lives on.
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Where's the national monument for Canada's Afghan vets?
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 By Robert Smol, special to CBC News
Article Link

At the start of November, the final rotation of Canadian troops began their deployment to Afghanistan.

Come June 2011, when this last rotation returns, our current combat mission to that country will be over.

With that end in sight, it seems appropriate now to ponder what the legacy of this conflict will be.

By legacy, I mean our collective historical memory of the thousands of Canadian Forces who have served in this nine-year conflict, including the more than 150 Canadian men and women who gave their lives in the cause.
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Is Defence Minister out of loop on Afghan plans?
Jane Taber Globe and Mail Update Posted on Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Article Link

1. More cracks in cabinet. For the second time in as many months, it appears Defence Minister Peter MacKay is being marginalized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper – this time over the debate about Canada’s role in Afghanistan after 2011.

The main spokesman on the file is not the Defence Minister, who you would think is the most likely person to be stick-handling questions and decisions over what happens to Canadian troops after the combat mission ends next July.

Rather, the main players are the Prime Minister’s unelected director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, who made the rounds of media on Sunday and Monday, and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.

Indeed, it was Mr. Cannon who reached out to the Liberals. On Friday, he telephoned Bob Rae, the Liberal foreign affairs critic, to talk about “some idea about trainers,” according to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

“We don’t know what they’re talking about. We don’t know how many trainers. This isn’t the kind of thing you want to do some secret deal with the Liberals about,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters Monday.
More on link

'Inside-the-wire' Afghan plan has soldiers talking
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News November 9, 2010

Reports that Canada is seriously considering taking on a NATO training mission in Afghanistan after current combat operations end next summer have given a jolt of adrenalin to many troops now serving in Kandahar.

"If the second training rotation begins early in 2012, which seems likely, that would be perfect for me," speculated a sergeant now on his fourth Afghan tour. The combat engineer added that another rotation, this time "inside the wire" as a trainer, would be the perfect way for him to end his long military career.

Word of the possibility of a new military role for Canada in Afghanistan spread quickly among soldiers as they woke up across Kandahar on Monday morning.
More on link

Remaining in Afghanistan the right choice
Article Link
Remaining in Afghanistan the right choice
By MICHAEL DEN TANDT, QMI Agency Last Updated: November 8, 2010

What took the Harper government so long? Why all the strenuous denials, month after month, that such an outcome was even possible?

Because it was always likely, if not inevitable, given the situation on the ground and Canada’s alliances, that we would keep an armed force of some kind in Afghanistan beyond July, 2011.

This is also, it so happens, the right thing to do.

The New Democrats will accuse the Conservatives of rank hypocrisy. They’ll repeat their long-standing assertion that the only responsible option for Canada is to pull every last soldier out of Afghanistan, pronto, and never mind the consequences.

The NDP may be well-intentioned. But when it comes to Afghanistan, they don’t have a clue. They speak from a position of ill-conceived anti-militarism that could not be less humanitarian, if translated into reality on the ground.

It’s true that a majority of Canadians favour an absolute pullout now. That’s the Harper government’s fault: They have never managed to articulate the subtleties of the mission or make it plain why we’re there.

We’re over there, it is worth reminding ourselves, because on Sept. 11, 2001, Islamist guerrillas attacked the United States, killing 3,000 innocent people — including 24 Canadians.
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

White House moves away from 2011 Afghanistan withdrawal timeline
The Obama administration is walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the Afghanistan war in an effort to de-emphasize the president’s pledge that he would begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011.
McClatchy Newspapers, Nov. 9
http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013389298_afghanplan10.html

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided to walk away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the Afghanistan war in an effort to de-emphasize the president’s pledge that he would begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials said Tuesday.

The new policy will be on display next week during a NATO conference in Lisbon, Portugal, where the administration hopes to introduce a timeline that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014, according to three senior officials and others speaking anonymously as a matter of policy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said Afghan troops could provide their security by then.

The Pentagon also has decided not to announce specific dates for handing security responsibility for several Afghan provinces to local officials and instead intends to work out a more vague definition of transition when it meets with its NATO allies, the officials said.

What a year ago had been touted as an extensive December review of the strategy now will be less expansive and will offer no major changes in strategy, the officials said. U.S. Central Command, the military division that oversees Afghanistan operations, hasn’t submitted a withdrawal order for forces for the July deadline [emphasis added], two of those officials said.

The shift, begun privately, came in part because U.S. officials realized that conditions in Afghanistan were unlikely to allow a speedy withdrawal…

The calculations of COIN: Don't forget the other surge -- of Afghans
Best Defense, Nov. 9
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/09/the_calculations_of_coin_dont_forget_the_other_surge_of_afghans

    …
    Total ANSF growth, starting from November 2009 to present increased from 191,969 to 255,506, an increase of 63,537 (33 percent). The Afghan army has grown from 97,011 to 136,164, an increase of 39,153 (40 percent) and the national police from 94,958 to 117,342, an increase of 22,384 (24 percent).

    In November 2009, only 35 percent of all soldiers met the minimum qualification standards with their personal weapon. There was an unworkable 1:79 trainers to troop ratio at the firing ranges where Afghan soldiers were attempting to learn. Ten months later, the average unit has a 97 percent qualification rate at the range and the instructor to troop ratio has decreased to 1:29, thanks to increasing support from coalition partners.

    The quality of the troops may in some way be reflected through public trust. The Afghan Minister of Defense, Abdul Rahim Wardak, mentioned that the Afghan National Police (ANA) is perceived as the most trusted public institution in Afghanistan during a Rehearsal of Concept drill in Kabul in October. According to the results of an Afghan nation-wide survey (sample 6,700), 71 percent of Afghans feel a favorable impression toward the Afghan National Police (ANP) and 74 percent feel favorably towards the ANA. (By comparison, only 23 percent of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll this month felt favorably towards the U.S. Congress.)

    Last fall, the daily ISAF training capacity for the ANA was 6,000 seats, resulting in a backlog of the Afghan troops in the pipeline. Today, the ANA daily training capacity has increased to 20,000 seats (up 233 percent) and the ANP training capacity has increased 38 percent, from 7,740 to 10,661 seats. In 2009, there were zero Afghan trainers. Today, there are 1,800 Afghan trainers in the ANA and 800 in the ANP, and those numbers are growing. A critical assumption here is the continued support of coalition trainers [emphasis added]…

    Education of this force is also critical to professionalization, but it takes time as we can see in western professional development pipelines for NCOs and officers. NTM-A
http://www.ntm-a.com/
has developed a “backbone” of NCOs, from 1,950 to 9,300, an increase of 7,350 (376 percent). The National Military Academy of Afghanistan had 300 applicants in 2005 for 120 spaces, and 3600 applicants this year for 600 spaces…

    Hopefully, the upcoming Lisbon Summit will allow some time for COIN math homework. While they’re balancing equations on the chalkboard, attendees there should be sure to note that while the surge of ISAF forces are on the offensive in Kandahar, there is also another important silent surge occurring in the country. Attendees will also hopefully realize that coalition forces must meet their promised trainer contributions [emphasis added] for the conditions-based transition process to work and the ANSF to ultimately receive a passing grade on its report card.

    Paula Broadwell is a Research Associate at the Harvard University Center for Public Leadership. She is the author of the forthcoming book, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus (Penguin Press, 2011).

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 11, 2010

Families of fallen soldiers make trip to Kandahar for Nov. 11 ceremony
Article Link
By: Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press Posted: 11/11/2010

When Rene Allard was a boy cutting grass in a local cemetery he never thought much of the monuments to the soldiers who fought in the First World War.

"Nov. 11 wasn't a day I used to find special," he said.

But Remembrance Day was given new significance when he learned his son, Sapper Matthieu Allard of Val D'Or, Que., had been killed by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar's Zhari district last year.

"It changed my thinking a lot," Allard said, choking back tears.

He was among the families of eight fallen soldiers who made the trip to Kandahar Airfield to take part in what will likely be the last Remembrance Day ceremony with Canadian soldiers in combat in Afghanistan.

The families joined more than 200 soldiers and dignitaries to honour the 152 members of the Canadian Forces who have died as part of the Afghan mission since 2002.

Canada will begin withdrawing troops next year, and while Ottawa has signalled it will extend the mission, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday soldiers won't be fighting insurgents in their new role.

During Thursday's ceremony, the commander of the Canadian mission in Kandahar told the crowd it is worth recalling that soldiers died here for the "common cause of freedom and human decency."

"It is important that we take the time to mark this day, especially here in Afghanistan," Milner said.

"(It is) a place which is so close to the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who fought in this theatre."
More on link

Finding peace in a war zone
  Article Link
A Vancouver teacher returns to Afghanistan to help rebuild the country he loves
By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun November 10, 2010

When Bashir Jamalzadah reflects on his time in Kandahar, it’s his friends he recalls and their many late-night gatherings telling jokes and drinking tea.

There are disturbing memories, too — of gunfire and blood and the chilling whoosh of homemade bombs erupting from the earth.

In the early days of his assignment as a language cultural adviser to Canadian troops in Afghanistan, Jamalzadah travelled 11,000 kilometres across sand and broken road in the back of a light armoured vehicle.

Once, a suicide bomber got too close to the convoy. The force of the explosion tore one arm clean off a soldier as he stood guard at the rear of the vehicle.

“It’s terrible,” Jamalzadah said of sounds of war.

“But when you hear it, if you hear it, it means you are alive.”

At 61, Jamalzadah is a long way from where most people want to be at his age.

The Vancouver resident traded in a lifelong teaching career, and the comfort of home with his wife and children, to take a job with the Canadian military in his native Afghanistan in 2006.

Fluent in Dari, Pashto and English, his role was part interpreter, part diplomat in a bid to help Canadian soldiers negotiate the support of the Afghan people over a deep-seated insurgency.

It meant a lot of travel across some of the world’s most hostile territory, accompanying battle group commanders to far-flung villages and remote police and army outposts where the reception was unpredictable.
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2010 death toll in Afghanistan is the lowest since 2005
  Article Link
Postmedia News November 11, 2010

It was a regular August day in Nakhony -- as regular, that is, as days ever are in the Talibaninfested village southwest of Kandahar City -- when Canadian Forces Cpl. Brian Pinksen went down.

Pinksen, a 21-year-old from Corner Brook, N.L., was on patrol with a fellow Newfoundlander, Cpl. Grant Miller, when they rounded a corner.

Without warning, an improvised explosive device planted by insurgents detonated, seriously injuring both.

Miller survived. Pinksen died eight days later, on Aug. 30, at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

He was the last Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan this year. At 73 days and counting, the interregnum between Canadian deaths is the longest in nearly two years.

Canadians are still dying in Afghanistan, but 2010 has so far been the least lethal year since 2005.

So far this year, 14 Canadians have died in Afghanistan. By comparison, 30 or more Canadians died every year from 2006 -- when our troops first deployed to perilous Kandahar province -- to 2009.

There are several explanations, experts say.
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 12

Bombs Away: Afghan Air War Peaks With 1,000 Strikes in October
Wired, Nov. 10
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/bombs-away-afghan-air-war-peaks-with-1000-strikes-in-october/

The U.S. and its allies have unleashed a massive air campaign in Afghanistan, launching missiles and bombs from the sky at a rate rarely seen since the war’s earliest days. In October alone, NATO planes fired their weapons on 1,000 separate missions, U.S. Air Force statistics provided to Danger Room show.
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2010/11/31-October-2010-Airpower-Stats.pdf
Since Gen. David Petraeus took command of the war effort in late June, coalition aircraft have flown 2,600 attack sorties. That’s 50% more than they did during the same period in 2009. Not surprisingly, civilian casualties are on the rise, as well.

NATO officials say the increase in air attacks is simply a natural outgrowth of a more aggressive campaign to push militants out of their strongholds in southern Afghanistan. “Simply put, our air strikes have increased because our operations have increased. We’ve made a concentrated effort in the south to clear out the insurgency and therefore have increased our number of troops on the ground and aircraft to support them in this effort,” Lt. Nicole Schwegman, a NATO spokesperson, tells Danger Room.

On the other hand, some outside observers believe the strikes are part of an attempt to soften up the insurgency before negotiations with them begin in earnest. But one thing is clear: it’s a strategy Petraeus has used before. Once he took over the Iraq war effort, air strikes jumped nearly sevenfold...
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/10/in-december-the/

First women's cricket team for Afghanistan
AFP, Nov. 11
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hggxgX3DXpIIlABoUQtfKyblQkgg?docId=CNG.725519d0a8e414c790293b772e140526.121

KABUL — Afghanistan is to get its first national women's cricket team, the sport's governing body in the country said on Thursday, announcing plans for it to compete in an international tournament next year.

"This development is so exciting for our young women cricketers and their families and supporters," said Diana, women's cricket development officer at the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), in a statement.

"We love our country and hope to support it through our sport. Seeing a women's cricket team in the Asian Cup will do so much to raise the hopes of many women here," added Diana, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Women's participation in sport in Afghanistan has increased since the 2001 fall of the hardline Islamist Taliban, who banned education for girls and forced women to retreat behind the all-enveloping burqa.

Sprinter-turned-lawmaker Robina Jalali made it to the Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008, competing in a hijab or traditional Muslim headscarf.

Football and basketball teams have sprung up in some urban areas, but women's full involvement in sports is still lacking -- as in other areas of society -- and in many rural areas women rarely leave their homes.

The ACB said the team's participation in next February's short-format Twenty20 tournament in Kuwait would be the first time Afghan women will have taken part in cricket matches abroad.

More than 100 young women currently play the game in the capital Kabul and three have recently attended umpire training courses. The ACB has also set up coaching sessions to attract more girls and young women to the sport...

Cricket in Afghanistan is taking off after the men's national side qualified for the Twenty20 World Cup held in the West Indies earlier this year.

The team is currently preparing to play in the Asian Games from Saturday...

Many Afghan cricketers learned the sport in neighbouring Pakistan after fleeing the violence as refugees [emphasis added]...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 13, 2010

Afghan training stepped up
Article Link
Trainers at Camp Eggers work to build strong foundation for Afghan forces
By Mercedes Stephenson, QMI Agency November 12, 2010

The emphasis has shifted from quantity to quality in the training of Afghan national security forces at the command where Canada will likely head to provide support through 2014.

Located in Kabul, not far from the Canadian Embassy and the presidential palace, Camp Eggers is home to NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A). Here, Afghans work, train and live with NATO soldiers who provide them with basic but essential skills including marksmanship, literacy and ethics.

The priority for the command is to build a strong foundation for the Afghan forces - including the Afghan National Police - so security responsibilities in the war-torn country can be transitioned from Western to Afghan hands.

But NATO is experiencing a significant shortfall, which is limiting the number and quality of Afghan forces produced. The appeal for Canadian trainers is clear.

NATO’s priority is no longer on Operational Mentor Liaison Teams (OMLTs), which is the kind of training Canada has provided in the past, requiring mentors to go into combat with their mentees.

NTM-A is instead focusing on “institutional” training, which the command believes will have a greater strategic impact. Emphasis is being placed on reforming and expanding the Afghan police force where 85% of the officers were initially fielded with no training.
More on link

Immigration minister says program to bring Afghan translators could be extended
Article Link
By: Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press  12/11/2010

Ottawa may extend its fast-track immigration policy for Afghan translators who help the Canadian Armed Forces and aid workers in Kandahar if troops remain in Afghanistan beyond 2011.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Friday it would make sense to continue the program for as long as such translators work with Canadians.

"The basic principle is any Afghan whose life is at risk because they've assisted Canadian Forces or aid workers we're going to give them fair consideration for expedited immigration to Canada," Kenney said Friday.

"If there is some kind of extension of a non-combat mission, I'm sure we'll extend the same principle in the future."

It was Kenney who originally announced the program to help Afghans who face what he called "extraordinary personal risk'' by working with Canadians in Kandahar.

The program was scheduled to end in 2011 when Canada was originally scheduled to end combat operations in Afghanistan. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Thursday that Canadian troops will stay in Afghanistan to train the country's military in a non-combat role after the combat mission ends next July.

Kenney said his priority right now is to deal with the current batch of applicants seeking to come to Canada. He said extending the program is not out of the question.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We have applications in the queue we're reviewing right now. We'll focus on those first."

The application process has been slow and cumbersome.

There have been about 250 applications so far. Each has to be approved by a committee made up of officials from the departments of National Defence, Foreign Affairs, International Development and Immigration and Citizenship.
More on link

In Afghanistan, a 16-year-old girl dares to learn
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—An Afghan girl must be strong to reach for a book instead of a broom.

She will suffer for wanting to learn.

Dare to walk to school here in the Taliban heartland and a girl must endure the cruel taunts of neighbours. Not wild-eyed terrorists, just ordinary folk who think a young lady's proper place is hidden in the home.

They question her morals, call her venomous names, do all they can to make life difficult for the whole family.

When the Talibs punish aspiring females, the pain is much worse. Sometimes insurgents throw acid to burn schoolgirls' faces. They poison classes with noxious gas. Gunmen shoot students and their teachers in cold blood.

In one of their latest attacks on education, insurgents murdered Kandahar province's deputy director for literacy, Ustad Abdullah, with a burst of AK-47 fire as he walked to the mosque for morning prayers on Nov. 4.
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

Dutch government to investigate possibility of new Afghanistan mission
CP (AP), Nov. 12
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j-ikh1S10vILAS5qsmJlCBani9cg?docId=5113104

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The new Dutch government is sending a team to Afghanistan to explore the possibility of returning to the international alliance fighting the Taliban insurgency, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday.

The decision is a tentative step toward re-engaging in the international effort in Afghanistan just months after the last coalition government collapsed in a dispute over whether or not to prolong a military mission there.

"I am positive (about a new mission) because I think it is in the interest of maintaining what we have done there earlier and because stability in that region is in our national interest," Rutte told reporters in The Hague after his weekly Cabinet meeting.

Rutte said the team will look at the work of NATO forces and of a European Union police training mission, but gave no other details. He also declined to say how he envisioned any new Dutch mission.

Rutte needs the support of parliament to send troops back to Afghanistan even in an auxiliary function [emphasis added]. It is unlikely a majority of lawmakers would back a new combat role. The prime minister is in closed-door talks with opposition parties to seek support for a mission.

"We're going to look at it all and then you have to see if you can put together a package that ... can win support from enough other parties to form a majority," Rutte said.

No decision on Afghanistan can be reached in time to announce it at next week's NATO summit in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon...

Afghan, NATO troops thwart Taliban attack on Jalalabad air base
AFP, Nov. 13
http://www.france24.com/en/20101113-afghan-nato-troops-thwart-taliban-attack-jalalabad-airport

Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack on a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, triggering a firefight with foreign and Afghan forces that left eight militants dead.
 
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its troops and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers stationed at Jalalabad airport came under attack, but that none of their forces were killed.
 
"The forward operating base received small arms fire from an unknown number of insurgents and after gaining positive identification of insurgent fighting positions an ANA and ISAF quick reaction force was sent to the area," it added.
 
"Initial reports indicate no ANA or ISAF servicemembers were killed."
 
One of the attackers was wearing a suicide vest, ISAF said.
 
Nangarhar provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzoi also said eight attackers were killed.
 
The Taliban, which often exaggerates details of its attacks, including foreign casualties, said that 14 suicide bombers were involved...

Jalalabad has more than 2,500 military and civilian personnel and is one of NATO's largest bases in Afghanistan after Kandahar in the south and Bagram, north of Kabul.
 
Kandahar and Bagram have also been targets for Taliban attacks in the past.
 
Saturday's incident came after a failed suicide attack in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, which was aimed at a convoy of foreign and local troops near a military base.
 
Kabul has suffered relatively lightly in recent months [emphasis added]...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Afghan minorities dusting off weapons, fearing peace talks will return Taliban to power

By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press
Article Link
Posted 13/11/2010 12:39 PM

PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai's moves to make peace with the Taliban are scaring Afghanistan's ethnic minorities into taking their weapons out of mothballs and preparing for a fight.

Mindful that Karzai's overtures come with NATO's blessing, and that U.S. and NATO forces will eventually leave, they worry that power will shift back into the hands of the forces they helped to overthrow in 2001.

Such a peace deal won't be easy in a country with a complex ethnic makeup and a tradition of vendetta killings. With ethnic and tribal differences having sharpened during the violence of the last 30 years, there's little indication that Karzai's overtures are gaining much traction.

Still, some mujahedeen — commanders of the Northern Alliance of minority groups that fought the Taliban — are taking no chances. They speak openly of the weaponry they have kept despite a U.N. disarmament drive.

In the Panjshir Valley, heartland of the Northern Alliance, Mohammed Zaman says that when the U.N. came looking for weapons, "the mujahedeen gave one and hid the other 19."

"We have plenty of weapons, rocket launchers and small arms and we can get any kind of weapons we need from the gun mafias that exist in our neighbouring countries," he said. "All the former mujahedeen from commander to soldier, they have made preparations if they (the Taliban) come into the government."

Zaman was speaking to The Associated Press at the grave of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Tajik leader who commanded the Northern Alliance and died in an al-Qaida suicide bombing two days before the Sept. 11 attacks that provoked the U.S. invasion.

Somah Ibrahim, a U.N. spokesman, said 94,262 small arms and 12,248 heavy weapons were collected by the time the disarmament program ended in 2005. But fewer than half of them were destroyed; some went to the army and police, which many of the militiamen joined.

The Hazara, a mainly Shiite ethnic group, are also worried.

"We have lots of weapons but they are not modern weapons. They are simple weapons," said Abbas Noian, a Hazara legislator.

"It is very bad, America announcing they will leave Afghanistan. It has given more power to the militants, more energy. Already we minorities are afraid. We want peace but we are afraid of a strong Taliban," he said.

In late 2009, President Barack Obama spoke of starting a gradual pullout in July 2011 if conditions allowed, but then clarified that he was not envisaging a mass exodus at that time. Lately, attention has lately shifted to 2014, when Karzai expects his forces to be ready to take the lead in securing Afghanistan.
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[GAP]

Articles found November 14, 2010

Karzai wants US to cut back Afghan military operations
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Last Updated: November 14, 2010 12:01am

WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the U.S. military to scale back the visibility and intensity of its operations in Afghanistan and end night raids that he said incited people to join the Taliban insurgency, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

"The time has come to reduce military operations," Karzai told the Post in an interview. "The time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in Afghanistan ... to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life."

The Post said his comments put him at odds with U.S. General David Petraeus, who has made "capture-and-kill" missions a central part of counterinsurgency strategy.

In the past three months, such night raids of Afghan homes by U.S. Special Operations forces had killed or captured 368 insurgency leaders, the Post said.

Karzai was quoted as saying his comments were not meant as criticism of Washington, adding that candor could improve what he termed a "grudging" relationship between the two countries.

A senior Afghan official was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Karzai had repeatedly criticized the night raids in meetings with Petraeus and was seeking veto power over the operations.

"The raids are a problem always. They were a problem then, they are a problem now. They have to go away," Karzai said in in the interview.

"The Afghan people don't like these raids, if there is any raid it has to be done by the Afghan government within the Afghan laws. This is a continuing disagreement between us," he said.
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Canadian soldiers won't let amputations slow them down
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Derek Miller, W5 Date: Sat. Nov. 13 2010 6:56 PM ET

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m., Newfoundland Time. I add that it was Newfoundland time because I live in Toronto and that means my internal clock was telling me (irritatedly), that it was just 4 a.m. and I had only gotten about four hours of sleep after a 15-hour long day.

There was no way I was going to complain about this though, because of the two people who I was actually following in Newfoundland: Andrew Knisley and Jody Mitic. They too were up at 5:30 a.m., having already shaved and dressed. And they too were groggy after a 15-hour day.

The difference between them and me was that they had driven a car 350 kilometres the day before, at an average speed of about 150 km/h, through downtown streets, beside cliffs and through the rain. They were competing in the Targa Newfoundland -- a huge road rally -- against experienced race drivers. They themselves had only been racing a car for about three months. And they weren't complaining.

Oh, and one more thing: Jody is missing both legs below the knee and Andrew is missing his entire right leg and part use of his right arm.
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Empowering Afghans through education
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By Mindelle Jacobs November 14, 2010

If education and social development are as crucial as military capability to the future of Afghanistan, a Calgary-based group is helping modernize the war-torn nation one teacher at a time.

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan) has just finished a two-year project that upgraded the skills of 1,500 Afghan teachers.

It was a daunting task, says Lauryn Oates, CW4WAfghan’s project manager. “We had math teachers who were trying to teach Grade 8 students and they didn’t understand how to do long division.”

Some of the science teachers had never seen a microscope. At best, the Afghan teachers had a high school education. But their thirst for knowledge was enormous.

CW4WAfghan was supposed to train only 500 teachers but the demand for the eight-week upgrading sessions was so huge that they trained three times as many. The group now hopes to get renewed funding from the Canadian International Development Agency to continue the salaries of the core group of Afghan teacher-trainers so they, alongside international volunteers, can train other Afghan educators.

Canadians and Afghans have more similarities than differences, maintains Oates, who just returned from three weeks in Afghanistan.

“They want their daughters and their sons to go to school. They want to have jobs. They want to have food on the table,” she explains. “They want to be able to walk on the streets without bullets and bombs overhead.”

She understands Canadians’ weariness with our combat role there and is relieved that the federal government has decided to focus on a training mission after our combat troops withdraw next summer.
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Insurgents infiltrate Kandahar city despite security
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The Canadian Press  Saturday Nov. 13, 2010 12:59 PM ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A security cordon set up around Kandahar city has failed to keep out insurgents, who are filtering back in as coalition forces escalate operations in the province's rural areas.

The cordon was erected under the command of the Canadian military as part of the initial phase of the ongoing offensive to stabilize Kandahar, and consisted of a series of checkpoints around the city.

It passed to U.S. command in recent months, and American military officials now acknowledge it has not provided the desired level of security inside the city.

"We recognize it is not where we would like it to be in terms of the conditions setting," said Lt.-Col. Vic Garcia, deputy commander of the American task force responsible for Kandahar city. "We're taking measure to adjust."

Both American and Canadian military commanders have trumpeted recent success against the Taliban in many of Kandahar's rural areas. But violence in the city itself has failed to abate.
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Abducted Afghan diplomat freed after two years
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By Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters November 14, 2010 4:51am

KABUL - A senior Afghan diplomat in Pakistan, kidnapped two years ago by gunmen, has been freed, the Afghan government said on Sunday.

Abdul Khaliq Farahi, the Afghan consul general in Pakistan, was seized after gunmen ambushed his car and killed his driver in September 2008 in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

"I can confirm that he was freed yesterday and he is in Afghanistan," said Siyamak Herawi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

"The government of Pakistan has apparently said that he was freed in an operation," he replied when asked whether any deal had been struck to secure Farahi's release.

Pakistani officials, however, denied any operation had been undertaken.

"What we know is it was not the outcome of any operation," a senior government official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

At the time of his abduction, Farahi was Kabul's nominee to become ambassador to Pakistan.
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Afghan mujahedeen prepare to fight as Karzai attempts peace with Taliban they helped overthrow
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By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press Posted: 13/11/2010

PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai's moves to make peace with the Taliban are scaring Afghanistan's ethnic minorities into taking their weapons out of mothballs and preparing for a fight.

Mindful that Karzai's overtures come with NATO's blessing, and that U.S. and NATO forces will eventually leave, they worry that power will shift back into the hands of the forces they helped to overthrow in 2001.

Such a peace deal won't be easy in a country with a complex ethnic makeup and a tradition of vendetta killings. With ethnic and tribal differences having sharpened during the violence of the last 30 years, there's little indication that Karzai's overtures are gaining much traction.

Still, some mujahedeen — commanders of the Northern Alliance of minority groups that fought the Taliban — are taking no chances. They speak openly of the weaponry they have kept despite a U.N. disarmament drive.

In the Panjshir Valley, heartland of the Northern Alliance, Mohammed Zaman says that when the U.N. came looking for weapons, "the mujahedeen gave one and hid the other 19."

"We have plenty of weapons, rocket launchers and small arms and we can get any kind of weapons we need from the gun mafias that exist in our neighbouring countries," he said. "All the former mujahedeen from commander to soldier, they have made preparations if they (the Taliban) come into the government."

Zaman was speaking to The Associated Press at the grave of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Tajik leader who commanded the Northern Alliance and died in an al-Qaida suicide bombing two days before the Sept. 11 attacks that provoked the U.S. invasion.
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