U.S.: Helloooooo Cdn Peacekeeping Force? Where Are You?

[lenaitch]

Too many citizens have a nostalgic view of Pearsonian peacekeeping; a blue beret force between two belligerent states who at least begrudgingly agree to the presence. Where does that exist now? Peacemaking is messier and the government isn't up for it.

Not only is the government, and possibly military leadership, bad at communications, they actively suppress it. How much coverage was given to Bosnia when things got messy?

 

[Journeyman]

The Canadian Press via CBC.ca The Liberal government has been criticized for failing to match past promises and rhetoric...

Slow news day.

 

[KevinB]

Peacekeeping or Peacemaking in Africa is always loose loose.
Blackside SOF missions work fine as long as they stay black, but any overt force by a Western Nation - even for the best of intentions goes sideways quickly.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Africa needs to fix Africa. there I said it.

Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan, Mali, Somalia, Ethopia and Eritrea... We've seen our "Presence" there, but its not well received by any stretch of the imagination. Its Neo-Colonial in the eyes of the people we're trying to help.

Want to see our contributions actually take effect? Set up a CTAT in Kenya (or somewhere) and train African Union or UN folks from that neck of the woods into being more than just another criminal element involved in the conflict.

 

[KevinB]

Africa needs to fix Africa. there I said it.

Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan, Mali, Somalia, Ethopia and Eritrea... We've seen our "Presence" there, but its not well received by any stretch of the imagination. Its Neo-Colonial in the eyes of the people we're trying to help.

Yup

Want to see our contributions actually take effect? Set up a CTAT in Kenya (or somewhere) and train African Union or UN folks from that neck of the woods into being more than just another criminal element involved in the conflict.

Result --> a well trained criminal element involved in the conflict...

Targeted Killings are needed as well on leaders of criminal enterprises and brutal warlords.
Make it so if you run child soldiers, you disappear in the night.

Then in combination with selective removals - you can train forces that won't be just better thugs

 

[daftandbarmy]

Peacekeeping or Peacemaking in Africa is always loose loose.
Blackside SOF missions work fine as long as they stay black, but any overt force by a Western Nation - even for the best of intentions goes sideways quickly.

"Out of Africa always something new."

Scipio Africanus

 

[dimsum]

We can do even better than sending troops and instead send trainer's who will teach developing nations how to reimagine thenselves into a more inclusive force. We can also inpart why women in the military are so important and use our treatment of women as the gold standard.

Bingo.

But then some will complain that "women are getting deployments because they're women."

The Reddit thread on Mali devolved pretty quickly into a bunch of folks getting pissed off that they weren't getting deployments, but women did (because the UN mandated X% of the force to be women).

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

No thanks, keep us as far away as possible.

 

[OldSolduer]

Africa needs to fix Africa. there I said it.

Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan, Mali, Somalia, Ethopia and Eritrea... We've seen our "Presence" there, but its not well received by any stretch of the imagination. Its Neo-Colonial in the eyes of the people we're trying to help.

Want to see our contributions actually take effect? Set up a CTAT in Kenya (or somewhere) and train African Union or UN folks from that neck of the woods into being more than just another criminal element involved in the conflict.

Stay. Out. Of. Africa.

Period. Let them sort themselves out.

 

[CBH99]

Regardless of whatever UN mission they may potentially end up on, I personally don’t think it’s worth the hassle in the end.

The UN needs to streamline it’s operations, and have an end goal in mind. It can’t just drag itself along, while wrapping more and more layers of tape around itself. (The hoops our crews had to jump through in Mali is a good example.)


I agree with the posters who suggested using those 200 members as trainers, since that seems to be our thing right now anyway. With Iraq and Ukraine well underway with several roto’s each this far, a small 200 person mission doing something similar wouldn’t be hard to do.


It could help with retaining personnel, it’s another overseas adventure for people to go on, had huge PR potential, etc - if done correctly.

 

[brihard]

Regardless of whatever UN mission they may potentially end up on, I personally don’t think it’s worth the hassle in the end.

The UN needs to streamline it’s operations, and have an end goal in mind. It can’t just drag itself along, while wrapping more and more layers of tape around itself. (The hoops our crews had to jump through in Mali is a good example.)


I agree with the posters who suggested using those 200 members as trainers, since that seems to be our thing right now anyway. With Iraq and Ukraine well underway with several roto’s each this far, a small 200 person mission doing something similar wouldn’t be hard to do.


It could help with retaining personnel, it’s another overseas adventure for people to go on, had huge PR potential, etc - if done correctly.

Food for thought- missions that are primarily training are disproportionately heavy in their demand on NCOs that don’t suck. I’m out now, but the impression I get is that the field force is already thin on leadership, and there’s a significant training deficit to make up for post-pandemic. Caution is called for, lest too many training missions exacerbate the vicious deployments/schools cycle that pulls people away from family constantly and burns them out to the point of releasing.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Food for thought- missions that are primarily training are disproportionately heavy in their demand on NCOs that don’t suck. I’m out now, but the impression I get is that the field force is already thin on leadership, and there’s a significant training deficit to make up for post-pandemic. Caution is called for, lest too many training missions exacerbate the vicious deployments/schools cycle that pulls people away from family constantly and burns them out to the point of releasing.

Part of the issue might be that we are trying to train third world troops to first world standards.

Perfect might indeed be the enemy of good enough.

 

[FJAG]

Part of the issue might be that we are trying to train third world troops to first world standards.

Perfect might indeed be the enemy of good enough.

I think that's the key point. Standards should vary depending on the audience. The Americans were having more success training the Afghan militias when the SF were initially doing foreign internal defence training then TF Phoenix had afterwards when they were trying to turn illiterate boys from small villages into a national army. I think the SF knew their audience and what they were capable of.

I'm not sure if I came across this article through a link from this website or in my own wanderings but I think it is particulalry apt in this debate and what our role in the future should be:

Nixon's Thumbprint » Wavell Room

The roots of the West's defeat start with President Nixon and his strategy in Vietnam. It's time to consider Nixon'x thumbprint.

wavellroom.com

 

[KevinB]

I think that's the key point. Standards should vary depending on the audience. The Americans were having more success training the Afghan militias when the SF were initially doing foreign internal defence training then TF Phoenix had afterwards when they were trying to turn illiterate boys from small villages into a national army. I think the SF knew their audience and what they were capable of.

I'm not sure if I came across this article through a link from this website or in my own wanderings but I think it is particulalry apt in this debate and what our role in the future should be:

I think that in some ways conventional forces can do a decent job at teaching indigenous forces.
The main issue that always come up - is that it can start well - but always seems to get mission creep - when it branches out from training small unit work - that the Army wants to make them a larger cohesive western force - despite the logic of that being foolish.

My theory is if you want to build an effective force you leave it to SOF -- if you want to make a force that your Army can come back and smash - then let the Army train them

 

[daftandbarmy]

I think that in some ways conventional forces can do a decent job at teaching indigenous forces.
The main issue that always come up - is that it can start well - but always seems to get mission creep - when it branches out from training small unit work - that the Army wants to make them a larger cohesive western force - despite the logic of that being foolish.

My theory is if you want to build an effective force you leave it to SOF -- if you want to make a force that your Army can come back and smash - then let the Army train them

Didn't SOF help 'build the Taliban' back in the days of Soviet occupation?

 

[Kilted]

He's like the Taylor Swift of international relations, can't figure out that maybe he's the problem.

Taylor Swift is not the problem.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Didn't SOF help 'build the Taliban' back in the days of Soviet occupation?

Not SOF, Intelligence Agencies. CIA, IS, et al made a few grievous errors that came back to bite us in the ass.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

We can do even better than sending troops and instead send trainer's who will teach developing nations how to reimagine thenselves into a more inclusive force. We can also inpart why women in the military are so important and use our treatment of women as the gold standard.

The new MND may have some input on that.

 

[KevinB]

Didn't SOF help 'build the Taliban' back in the days of Soviet occupation?

Not SOF, Intelligence Agencies. CIA, IS, et al made a few grievous errors that came back to bite us in the ass.

There was some SOF assisting SAD GB folks - but by and large "our guys" where not the problem, as it was predominately the Norther Alliance that was assisted by the West, and it was in the South the Pakistani ISI that created the Taliban - but we did fund and give stuff to the ISI.


While sometimes they guys you want to fight an enemy, aren't folks you want around when the enemy is gone, the biggest issue was that the West did an about face when the Russians left - and the ISI didn't.

 

[MilEME09]

Host South Korea expects 'ambitious' peacekeeping pledges from Canada at upcoming summit

The Liberal government has been criticized for failing to match past peacekeeping promises and rhetoric supporting the UN with commitment and action

nationalpost.com

The South Koreans apparently know something