Toronto Star's ignorance of "Canada's complex Afghan mission"

[MarkOttawa]

Canada's complex Afghan mission--that's the title of a Star editorial July 28:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1154037038702&call_pageid=970599119419

Which prompted this letter to the editor:

'In your editorial (July 28) you write that "Soon after the 9/11 attacks, former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien deployed a few commandos to help oust the Taliban."  This mis-states the facts in three ways:

1) The Taliban were ousted from power, and most of Afghanistan, by December, 2001.  Most Canadian troops did not arrive at Kandahar until February, 2002.  Their mission ranged from helping US forces hunt down Taliban and al Qaeda remnants to providing airfield security.

2) There were not a "few" Canadian soldiers; there were some 750 of them.

3) They were not "commandos"; most were members of the 3rd Battalion of the regular infantry regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

There were, however, some 40 Canadian special forces soldiers from Joint Task Force Two also serving in the area; but they were only a small part of the overall mission, not all of it as your editorial suggests.  They arrived, also at Kandahar, in December, 2001 after the Taliban had been driven from power--by the Afghan Northern Alliance with air and special forces support from the US and UK, but without any help from Western ground forces.'

References:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,615435,00.html
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=490
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=1938
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1123179692508_118588892

Such ignorance or such trying to cover Chretien's butt.  Must have forgotten about the four dead soldiers in the 2002 "friendly-fire" incident.  Scary that this is Canada's largest-circulation newspaper.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MPIKE]

Toronto Star is historically a terrible paper. This is nothing new. Follow their repeated anti Police articles and you can see the best thing to do is cancel your subscription..

 

[a_majoor]

Since the Star never seems to report on the other two parts of "3D" happening in Kabul and the more pacified areas of Afghanistan, I find their calls that

Ottawa should aim to make a real difference on more than one front.

to be either hysterical, funny or cynical, depending on your point of view.

As for the south, how do those mighty brains at the Star see any part of Diplomacy or Development happening when Taliban fighters are still able to range across the coutryside targetting schools, schoolchildren and teachers, medical clinics and diplomats? This is a rhetorical question, since I rather doubt they have given any thought to how their words are to be converted into action.

 

[Long in the tooth]

It's simply too bad that the writers at the Star aren't smart enough to understand such a 'complex' issue.  But just because they can't figure it out doesn't mean that others can't....

Almost wrote a letter to the editor to that effect, but then said 'why bother?'.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Letter actually printed:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1154123417189&call_pageid=968332189003&col=968350116895

Mark
Ottawa