The West's military problem on the ground

The US lacks the will to be an effective Great Power (see penultimate para), much less a superpower. The rest of the West is equally unwilling.

Consider: the US, along with various other countries, is engaged in two serious fighting wars now, Iraq and Afstan. The US has just reached a population of 300 million; their regular Army and Marine Corps total some 700,000 personnel.

In the early 1900s, at the height of the "insurgent" phase of the Boer War, the UK had a population of around 38 million--about 13% of the US today with the latter's population just having reached 300 million. Yet the British fielded an army of some 500,000 (all volunteer) in South Africa (with some colonial, including Canadian contigents, as part of their "coalition"; by the way Canada then had a tiny population compared to today and still took 267 deaths in stride).

Put another way, if ceteris paribus US troop numbers in Iraq now were equivalent to UK numbers in South Africa then, on a per capita basis the US would have about 3.75 million troops in Iraq. Absurd of course as a basis for comparison of the military effort needed in very different circumstances (there were many fewer Boers than there are Iraqis), but interesting as an indication of relative national effort.

Note also that the Boer War was--for its time--as controversial in the UK as the Iraq war is in the US (or the Afstan war in Canada), with the main British opposition party, the Liberals, against the war.

Compare again the troop strengths raised by the US and UK for carrying out these controversial and difficult wars with their respective population sizes at the time. And also consider, in light of the number of ground troops they either have or are willing to commit to action, the resolution of the rest of the Western world today. We really offer very little in the face of a large--or even relatively small but very determined--number of local foes willing to fight hard for some time. Suicide bombers just make things worse for us in terms of being unable to bring our greater combat power effectively to bear.

Western countries lack both the numbers and the will to prevail it would seem. It may be time for a fortress strategy simply to defend our homelands. Unless in our military endeavours abroad there are natives--used non-perjoratively--able and willing to fight well alongside us as we try to help them. That just may, with time, be the saving grace in Afstan. But...¿Quién sabe? Surely not Iraq though.

And of course once the war was well underway there were no porous borders the Boers (see footnote 21) could use to their significant advantage.

This column in The Daily Telegraph leads obliquely to similar conclusions.

Back at boots on the ground:

Equally troubling is America's manpower deficit. There is undoubtedly something perplexing about the apparent shortage of American combat-effective troops at a time when the American prison population exceeds 2 million: 14 times the number of American troops in Iraq. Those who warned last year that the force assigned to occupy Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein was too small have since been vindicated. Remarkably, the U.S. military presence in Iraq as I write [2004] is almost identical in size to the British presence in 1920. But in those days the population of the country was much smaller. The British had approximately one soldier for every 20 Iraqis; the United States has one for every 160...

Adapted from the new book Colossus: The Price of America's Empire, published by the Penguin Press. © 2004 by Niall Ferguson.

Afghan kids starve whilst our soldiers hang out at Timmies

A rejoinder to this article (the kids are of course "Afghans") is worth reading. At least the Senlis Council wants our troops to stay.

From another story on the same thing:

"Our Military base in Kandahar has a Burger King and a Tim Hortons. And 15 minutes away, there are children dying of starvation," said MacDonald.

Picking the points that fit your narrative

Greg McArthur at the Globe & Mail put together a story on Private Mark Graham, who was killed by fratricide in Afghanistan on September 4th of this year. Pte Graham's death received a good bit of press because he was killed by a USAF A-10 in a horrible, tragic mistake, and because he had run the men's 400m sprint for Canada at the Barcelona Olympics.

Before reading it, I hoped that the G&M would take this opportunity to give ordinary Canadians a glimpse into what makes a soldier tick. No such luck, I'm afraid.

First of all, the story paints a less-than-flattering portrait of Canadian soldiers:

His fellow soldiers were younger men who had given up dead-end jobs in fast-food joints and paper mills to join the lowliest ranks of the military. Pte. Graham had trained alongside men who set world records.

The question is, what was he doing there? [Babbler's highlight]

It goes on to dismiss the idea that service and the intangibles that go along with it could have value to a man who had competed at the highest levels of sport:

When he joined the military, his explanation was that he wanted a new experience. When he died, less than a month after he had been deployed to Afghanistan, the media dutifully repeated that he had wanted to represent his country as more than just an athlete. [Babbler's emphasis]

Apparently Pte Graham, like so many of us, had not led a perfect life.

The facts of that life aren't at issue, but the manner in which they were presented by McArthur is. It's clear to me that he and his editors saw a narrative thread they wanted to pursue, and picked and chose the anecdotes and tidbits that supported that narrative. Here's their thesis:

So when Pte. Graham went to war, he was just doing what he had conditioned himself to do all along: He was running.

Running. The man lays his life down for his country, and McArthur and the Globe & Mail impugn his motives and imply he was a coward - so afraid to deal with civilian life that he joined the military, not as a calling, but as a means of escape.

Fortunately, the folks over at Army.ca - some of whom were injured in the same attack in which Graham was killed - provide a bit of perspective. RHFC_piper was interviewed by McArthur for the article, and wound up a bit troubled by the end result:

I only defend Mr. McArthur because he seemed to be a man of good character. I think this article (and how it has been edited) has done an equal discredit to his character as people perceived it has done to Marks.

But I do agree with your analogy; 'beating a dead horse' works to... But I'd hope that for every negative point about Mark that made it to print, there's atleast one positive that had ended up on the 'cutting room' floor. Like I've said numerouse times; Mark was an outstanding person, no matter what is written or how it is perceived.

Perhaps Piper's right. Perhaps McArthur is a man of good character whose piece was hacked up by editors in order to sell more newsprint. Perhaps I have some oceanfront land in Arizona for sale at a great price.

Kilekaldar put it well:

I'm a soldier. I was in Mark's class in Basic training, and was posted at the same base and I am now in Afghanistan on the same Roto as Mark was. I cannot claim to have known the man well, but I respected him, and thought him to be a fine man and soldier. And that is how I will remember Mark, how I will honor his sacrifice. No amount of cheap, tabloid journalism from the Globe &Mail can tarnish his memory. Yes, he was human and no doubt messed up a great many things, as we all do. But that matters little. For as a soldier I know something that the reporter who wrote this article cannot phantom (sic - fathom?); once you put on the uniform you leave your old life, and start anew, it’s a second chance to do it right. Among soldiers it doesn’t mater what you did as a civilian, what maters is what you do once you signed that doted line. And Mark showed himself to be a great soldier. That this newspaper found it necessary to dig up every dirty little detail of his life and hold it up for the world to see just so they could sell a few more copies, or worse to further some political agenda, is horrendous and makes me sick. There used to be a time when we honored our war dead, now apparently the Globe &Mail disgraces them in public for profit. Shame on you. [Babbler's bold]

But the last word has to go to Mark's family, who have followed the thread on Army.ca:

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments in regards to our son Mark. They have been very healing and very supportive to us. We too thought Mr. McArthur had grasped the issues well and were surprised by some of the comments and underlying beliefs.
yMark was a very well loved son and father. He had his own ways and his own struggles - many not of his own making. He loved his job in the CF and felt he had discovered a niche were he could use his brains and his body in a useful and productive way - something he had never had before - and something that the article did not seem to be able to address.
Again thank you for all your positive comments.

Our blessings to those injured and to their families. To the rest of our new family - the miltitary community - thank you. [Babbler's bold again]

I'm with Blatchford on this: for shame, Globe & Mail. For shame, Greg McArthur. At the very best, you have a shallow understanding of this man and the life he chose in the CF. At the worst, you understand it well enough, but deliberately chose to misrepresent it to your readers. Either way, you've done all of us a disservice by publishing this piece.

For shame.

What aircraft are in the supplementary estimates? More troops

Here is a cryptic sentence in a story about funding for the military:

There will also be funds to acquire aircraft to transport troops and equipment over long distances, short distances and into remote areas and will include the acquisition of helicopters.

Now this could cover C-17s, C-130Js, and CH-47s--but what aircraft are meant by "short distances and into remote areas"? Could they be the long-delayed fixed-wing SAR replacement?

The estimates are here (National Defence starts at p. 230) and for the life of me I can't figure out what the sentence quoted refers to--can anyone help?

One concrete thing; "Funding to increase the Canadian Forces by 5,000 regular force troops and 3,000 reservists".

Afstan and NATO: Will the Alliance hold together?

Will members step up to the plate or will the Alliance eventually strike out?:

The NATO alliance could die if it does not get the troops it needs to fight the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan, former foreign affairs minister John Manley said Monday.

Manley's sober assessment of the transatlantic alliance was echoed by current Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who suggested he is becoming frustrated by his repeated attempts to persuade fellow NATO countries to either send more troops to Afghanistan or remove their restrictions, called caveats, that prevent them from being deployed to the country's war-torn south where Canada and a handful of other nations are bearing the brunt of heavy fighting against the Taliban.

"This mission has created an enormous risk for NATO. Clearly, NATO has to expand out of Europe if it is to remain relevant," Manley said in a speech to a symposium of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute in Ottawa.

"If it proves incapable of rallying forces, willing and able to do the job in Afghanistan, however you define that job, it could easily spell the effective end of the alliance."

Later, in a separate speech to the same gathering, MacKay reiterated the tough talk that he has been taking to European capitals and diplomatic audiences -- that Canada can't go it alone in southern Afghanistan and needs more countries in the 26-member alliance to send troops to the front lines or allow soldiers dispatched to other, less hostile parts of the country to join the fight in the south...

After the speech, MacKay said he expected the issue to be "front and centre" when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NATO's other 25 leaders meet in Latvia next month for their annual summit.

"I think that we're obviously looking at other issues at that time but Afghanistan and an assessment of the mission will occur at Riga. And that will be a time and a place to take stock of the future of NATO as well," MacKay said.

An ocean away, the U.S. ambassador to NATO also told delegates at a separate meeting in Brussels that NATO needs to redefine itself for its new Afghan mission before the alliance's leaders meet next month.

"We want NATO to be able to demonstrate when our heads meet four weeks from now that we have an alliance that is taking on global responsibilities, that it increasingly has the global capabilities to meet those responsibilities, and that it is doing it with global partners," Victoria Nuland, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Monday in a speech to a European foreign policy think-tank...

NOT: CF-18s readied for Afstan if NATO asks

The government appears to be changing its tune about whether CF-18s may go after all.

Just a month after the defence department denied any plans to dispatch CF-18 fighter jets to Afghanistan, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has opened the door to a possible deployment.

With opposition critics accusing the government of a flip-flop, O'Connor told the Commons yesterday: "Recently we made a commitment to NATO that we will have six CF-18s ready for NATO if they require us. That is why the money was spent to fix up these CF-18s."

The Toronto Star revealed last month that Ottawa was making preparations in case its fighter jets were needed in Afghanistan. That included a $1.9 million contract with the U.S. government for "deployment support" for the CF-18s.

But the Star story sparked an angry response from the defence department, with officials taking the unusual step of issuing a statement to deny plans to send the sleek jets abroad...

...under further questioning from NDP MP Dawn Black, [MND] O'Connor confirmed that Canada has committed six CF-18s to NATO for use in operations, if needed. His officials could not be reached to clarify his comments...

Currently, British and American [and Dutch] fighters are providing air support for Canadian troops engaged in bitter battles to clear out insurgents...

Update: In the House Question Period today MND O'Connor said the government had no plans or intention to deploy CF-18s to Afstan. He said that rather they had been committed to the NATO Response Force.

Van Doos off to Afstan

The troops whose deployment to Afstan was announced recently are starting to go.

A contingent of 76 soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Valcartier left Monday evening for a dangerous mission of several months in Kandahar, the scene of violent clashes with insurgent Taliban fighters...

More than 50 of the soldiers will protect rebuilding projects in the dangerous Kandahar region during their nine-month stay...

The remaining 23 soldiers will join the Canadian contingent over four months to help to train the Afghan national army, which needs foreign support to maintain security inside the country...

Another 100 soldiers will leave the end of November for Afghanistan, increasing the number of soldiers from Valcartier, near Quebec City, to 300...

About 2,000 soldiers from the Royal 22nd Regiment, better known as the Van Doos, will head over in the fall of next year...

Which Taliban are where

Bruce Rolston of flit does some nice research and produces a map. Note also the current ISAF "placemat"--which forces are where in Afstan.

Red Friday rally for troops in Edmonton, Nov. 3

Good location for a good turnout.

A sea of red is expected to flood Sir Winston Churchill Square [my emphasis - MC] this week in honour of Canadian soldiers.

The Edmonton Salutes Committee [more details at that link] and the group Married to the Canadian Forces are organizing Red Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday Nov. 3, and are asking people to head to the square in front of city hall wearing red in support of Canadian troops at home and abroad.

The event includes presentations, fun for the kids and entertainment, including B.C. singer Shawn Hlookoff, who wrote the song entitled Soldier for Canadian troops...

Red Fridays have been held across the country for months in an effort to boost the morale of troops in what is becoming an increasingly dangerous war zone...

In addition to Red Fridays, Married to the Canadian Forces has launched an adopt-a-soldier campaign, sending each of Canada's military men and women a shoebox care package to wherever they are stationed at Christmas.

For more information on Red Friday in Edmonton, call 496-8200.

Update: "Organizers of a rally in support of the military are expecting up to 3,000 Edmontonians clad in red to jam Sir Winston Churchill Square Friday." I wonder how much coverage the national media will give.

More than a pat on the back

In my haste to post about the Canadian valour decorations, I neglected to draw attention to additional recognitions bestowed upon Canadian Forces members for exemplary service.

Twenty-four Canadian soldiers received Mentions in Dispatches:

The Mention in Dispatches was created to recognize members of the Canadian Forces on active service and other individuals working with or in conjunction with the Canadian Forces for valiant conduct, devotion to duty or other distinguished service. Recipients are entitled to wear a bronze oak leaf on the appropriate campaign or service medal ribbon.

Of particular significance is the posthumous award of a Mention in Dispatches to Private Kevin Dallaire, may he rest in peace.

The Governor General also awarded six Meritorious Service Crosses and twenty-one Meritorious Service Medals:

The Meritorious Service Decorations include a Military Division and a Civil Division, with two levels each: a medal and a cross. The Military Division recognizes individuals for their outstanding professionalism and for bringing honour to the Canadian Forces and to Canada.

Of special note is the posthumous award of a Meritorious Service Medal to Capt Nichola Goddard, may she also rest in peace.

These distinctions offered to grieving family and friends in memory of their loved ones will not replace the dead, but hopefully they will serve as a reminder to all that such selfless sacrifice was not in vain. Both the living and deceased awardees serve as an example to others, which is one of the primary reasons military decorations exists in the first place.

Special congratulations must also go from this corner to a couple of old classmates: Maj Kirk Gallinger, M.S.M, C.D., and Maj Nick Grimshaw, M.S.M, C.D. Well done, gents.

Leadership

"If you're a soldier and you're in a battle and you get wounded, and you can get back to the battle, I think you have a duty to do so," he said.

- Maj Matthew Sprague, 1RCR (ht:JD)

Afstan: The enemies within

The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford eviscerates her own paper (via Norman's Spectator--text not online even using Google News, title is "Losing the PR war at home and abroad"):

If the Taliban are clobbering the Canadian Forces in the Afghan public relations war, as some fear, then bloody hell if the same thing isn't happening here at home.

Over the weekend, modestly attended and utterly banal peace marches held in cities across the country led Saturday radio and TV newscasts and print websites (including The Globe and Mail's) and Sunday newspapers, but barely a scintilla of attention was paid to the awarding of prestigious Canadian military decorations and honours.

The awards were announced midafternoon on Friday -- in plenty of time for newspaper deadlines -- but rated only a mention in some major Saturday papers, including The Globe (which ran only a brief, as we call minuscule stories, and then in only some editions) and the National Post. In Toronto, for instance, the only daily to run a proper story on Saturday was the Sun….

In a world where the word "hero" has all but lost its meaning -- attached as it is to almost anyone who endures a mild trauma without mental collapse or meets the now low threshold of nominal good citizenship -- about 40 gallant Canadian soldiers went almost entirely unrecognized by the press, and thus by their countrymen.

It is little short of disgraceful, and I have to say, when I saw my own newspaper on Saturday -- we managed to run four other Canadian Forces-related stories that day, including one which suggested that soldiers are low-achieving losers [full text not officially online] in flight from dead-end jobs -- I was ashamed.

A good post on the medals is here.

Wear red on Fridays and remember the rallies for our troops in Ottawa, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Update: The full text of the story is here (read the rant at the end). These paragraphs in particular bear quoting:

Two of the awards -- for Captain Nichola Goddard, a 26-year-old from the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Shilo, Man., who was given the Meritorious Service Medal, and 22-year-old Private Kevin Dallaire, who was mentioned in dispatches -- were made posthumously. Capt. Goddard and Pte. Dallaire were both killed in action, respectively, on May 17 and Aug. 3...

Well, the boys are back home now, minus their friends and mates killed in action or accident, and not all of the living have their limbs or their eyes, and all are changed. There are many days when they must wonder if somehow, they aren't still in the presence of some enemy even less readily identifiable than the Taliban.

Upperdate: This story from Kingston of course got only local coverage:

Drizzle that threatened to turn into a downpour was not enough to keep hundreds of people from saluting Canadian soldiers during Saturday's Freedom of the City parade.

Spectators clogged the sidewalks in front of City Hall to get a glimpse of the historic parade, in which around 1,500 military men and women took part.

As requested by the military, many of those who came to watch wore red articles of clothing to show support for the soldiers. Some wore red shirts, others red gloves and still others protected themselves from the rain with red umbrellas.

Whatever the colour, it was clear they were there to show solidarity...

In keeping with tradition, Mayor Harvey Rosen inspected Hazleton's honour guard and then proclaimed the force worthy of entering the city.

"Whereas the mayor and city council, together with all Kingstonians, acknowledge and appreciate the contributions that the more than 30 units that make up the Kingston Garrison have made and continue to make to the Kingston community," Rosen said, "Therefore be it resolved that freedom of the city be exercised on October 28, 2006." With that, Hazleton's honour guard fixed bayonettes in unison and raised the Canadian flag and the flag of the Canadian Forces as the national anthem played...

Hercs in tactical action in Afstan/New naval choppers to carry troops

Some serious combat flying:

Tension builds as the big Canadian Hercules is forced to loiter in the air, announcing its presence, wheeling around, waiting, waiting, while a pair of helicopters clear the drop zone at a remote base where fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Taliban this weekend killed 70 insurgents.

On board are 10 tonnes of food, water and humanitarian aid supplies.

But instead of the planned quick surprise dash, dropping low into the valley and letting the heavy pallets of much-needed supplies rumble out the back of the Hercules to parachute to the embattled base, the four-engine transport plane is in a holding pattern.

Every minute uses fuel, which is now low. Every minute betrays, to the Taliban, the return of the big target that made an identical drop in the same place a day earlier.

Shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rockets are a danger. At the low, slow, drop heights, so are AK-47s. Hercs come back from missions like these with holes in them. A few bullets in the wrong places and they don't come back...

Tactical flying -- hauling big aircraft around at low levels, hugging the terrain, dropping down into valleys, just clearing ragged ridges, takeoffs that throw the big plane into tight turns or stomach-churning steep dives that end in deliberately hard landings -- is all part of the little-known role Canada's Hercules play in Afghanistan...

After the drop, the Canadian Hercules threads its way up a long, narrow canyon, its wingtips seemingly touching the rugged walls tipped red in the fading sunlight, before making a quick dash back to Kandahar...

The Hercules crews, the pilots and navigators and flight engineers, the loadmasters who handle the cargo, and the maintenance crews and ground support personnel all work a gruelling 56-day rotation. Two-thirds of that time is spent flying between Camp Mirage [our "secret" base in the Gulf] and Afghanistan, delivering everything from mail to spare parts to munitions to keep Canada's 2,300 soldiers supplied. One-third of the time, they are based in Afghanistan flying the sort of difficult, dangerous missions like yesterday's air drop. "Everyone who comes here likes those 18 days, it's what we train for," Capt. Moore said. "The runs from Camp Mirage are still important but it's routine."..

In Afghanistan, where Canada has no helicopters, its Hercs and the crews willing to fly them into tough spots to air-drop supplies in remote and dangerous locations have won it a reputation. Air sickness bags get handed out a lot...

Speaking of helicopters:

Ottawa has quietly amended its contract with the maker of the navy’s [actually they will be Air Force - MC] new Cyclone helicopters to ensure that the choppers will not only be able to hunt submarines, but also carry troops.

The design change, expected to add roughly $5 million to the overall price tag, would allow the air force to assign the choppers to a wide variety of roles — including potential air support for the army in Afghanistan.

The Defence Department, however, denies that it’s making the move with the Afghan mission specifically in mind.

Col. Dave Burt, director of air requirements for the department, acknowledged that being able to strip the H-92 quickly of its sonar and radar gear, and strap in troop seats, was not part of the initial design for the Cyclones, replacements for the decades-old Sea Kings.

The change "will provide us with far better flexibility and capability," said Burt.

As it stands, Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan must hitch chopper rides into battle with other NATO countries...

But the decision to order the Cyclone change was not directly driven by the need for air support among Canada’s 2,500 troops in Kandahar, said Burt.

Nor has there been a decision to send the choppers to Afghanistan after they begin rolling off the assembly line in 2008, he said...

[CDS] Hillier wants to see the navy purchase or build an amphibious landing transport — or "Big Honkin’ Ship," as he calls it — to rapidly deploy soldiers to global hot spots. Troop-carrying helicopters are a must for that kind of warship.

The air force is already preparing for its new role by training existing Sea King pilots on the finer points of picking up and dropping off troops...

"Cuckoo" in Afstan

More sobering thoughts about the NATO mission. And if the UK has equipment shortfalls...

Tony Blair's most trusted military commander yesterday branded as 'cuckoo' the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan.

The remarkable rebuke by General the Lord Guthrie came in an Observer interview, his first since quitting as Chief of the Defence Staff five years ago, in which he made an impassioned plea for more troops, new equipment and more funds for a 'very, very' over-committed army...

...'Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan - anyone who had read any history, anyone who knew the Afghans, or had seen the terrain, anyone who had thought about the Taliban resurgence, anyone who understood what was going on across the border in Baluchistan and Waziristan [should have known] - to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we're still going on in Iraq is cuckoo,' Guthrie said.

In a unprecedented show of scepticism towards Blair, he said the Prime Minister's promise to give the army 'anything it wants' was unrealistic. 'I'm sure he meant what he said. He is not dishonest. But there is no way you can magic up trained Royal Air Force crews, or trained soldiers, quickly. You can't magic up helicopters [my emphasis - MC], because there aren't any helicopters,' said Guthrie, promoted from chief of army staff to become overall head of the military for Blair's first term of office.

Guthrie said Britain was 'reaping the whirlwind' for assuming too great a 'peace dividend' [my emphasis - MC] after the Cold War and risks being ill-equipped for a whole new set of dangers...

Meanwhile, with the US Army in southern Afstan. If the NY Times Magazine account is representative, things will indeed be difficult (a follow-up to the article at this guest-post at Daimnation! a week ago).

And the Dutch are taking over command from Canadians in ISAF Regional Command (South) on Nov. 1. Good map of distribution of NATO forces at last link.

For Valour

For the first time since their creation in 1993, our homegrown decorations for valour have been awarded to CF members for service in Afghanistan (ht:sda):

Sergeant Patrick Tower, S.M.V., C.D.
Edmonton, Alberta, and Victoria, British Columbia
Star of Military Valour

Sergeant Tower is recognized for valiant actions taken on August 3, 2006, in the Pashmul region of Afghanistan. Following an enemy strike against an outlying friendly position that resulted in numerous casualties, Sergeant Tower assembled the platoon medic and a third soldier and led them across 150 metres of open terrain, under heavy enemy fire, to render assistance. On learning that the acting platoon commander had perished, Sergeant Tower assumed command and led the successful extraction of the force under continuous small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Sergeant Tower’s courage and selfless devotion to duty contributed directly to the survival of the remaining platoon members.

***


Sergeant Michael Thomas Victor Denine, M.M.V., C.D.
Edmonton, Alberta
Medal of Military Valour

Sergeant Denine deployed with 8 Platoon, C Company, 1 PPCLI during Operation ARCHER in Afghanistan. On May 17, 2006, while sustaining concentrated rocket-propelled grenade, machine gun and small arms fire, the main cannon and the machine gun on his light armoured vehicle malfunctioned. Under intense enemy fire, he recognized the immediate need to suppress the enemy fire and exited the air sentry hatch to man the pintle-mounted machine gun. Completely exposed to enemy fire, he laid down a high volume of suppressive fire, forcing the enemy to withdraw. Sergeant Denine’s valiant action ensured mission success and likely saved the lives of his crew.

***


Master Corporal Collin Ryan Fitzgerald, M.M.V.
Shilo, Manitoba, and Morrisburg, Ontario
Medal of Military Valour

Master Corporal Fitzgerald deployed with 5 Platoon, B Company, 1 PPCLI Battle Group in Afghanistan. He is recognized for outstanding selfless and valiant actions carried out on May 24, 2006, during an ongoing enemy ambush involving intense, accurate enemy fire. Master Corporal Fitzgerald repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free. Master Corporal Fitzgerald’s courageous and completely selfless actions were instrumental to his platoon’s successful egress and undoubtedly contributed to saving the lives of his fellow platoon members.

***


Private* Jason Lamont, M.M.V.
Edmonton, Alberta, and Greenwood, Nova Scotia
Medal of Military Valour

Private* Lamont deployed with the Health Support Services Company, 1 PPCLI Battle Group during Operation ARCHER. On July 13, 2006, an element of the reconnaissance platoon came under heavy enemy fire from a compound located in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, and was isolated from the rest of the platoon. During the firefight, another soldier was shot while attempting to withdraw back to the firing line and was unable to continue. Without regard for his personal safety, Private Lamont, under concentrated enemy fire and with no organized suppression by friendly forces, sprinted through open terrain to administer first aid. Private Lamont's actions demonstrated tremendous courage, selflessness and devotion to duty.

*Lamont has since been promoted to Cpl

This is not to say that CF members haven't been decorated for bravery in the past. In case any readers aren't aware, valour has a specific meaning distinct from bravery when it comes to decorations: it refers to courage in the presence of the enemy.

To Sgt Tower, Sgt Denine, MCpl Fitzgerald, and Cpl Lamont, BZ gents. And especially to Lamont: way to score the best official photo!

Update: The CDS is likewise impressed:

You need only to read the citations for these soldiers to understand the meaning of true heroism: running across open terrain under heavy enemy fire to give aid to wounded and stranded comrades; clearing burning vehicles from a roadway under fire to allow others to get to safety; taking exceptional and resourceful measures under the worst possible pressure to suppress enemy fire and save the lives of fellow soldiers.

For more backstory on the delay getting medals through the process, see this thread at Army.ca, and the jubilant and congratulatory reaction here.

CAS in Afstan: Pity we don't have our own

Without CAS--from the US, UK and Netherlands--our troops job would probably be impossible.

Close air support, or CAS, doesn't sound nearly as deadly, nor as crucial, nor as rapid-reacting as it is. But allied warplanes wheeling above or laying down withering fire on Taliban fighters — sometimes only tens of metres from embattled Canadian troops — make a daily life-or-death difference in Afghanistan.

“Our guys sleep better at night when they hear those jets,” said Captain Tim Spears, the senior forward air controller for the Canadian battle group.

Just the sound of the warplanes, or even the drone of an unmanned aerial vehicle, can thwart an attack, sending Taliban fighters scurrying for cover. “They know the sound; they know we can see them and hurt them,” Capt. Spears said...

Bombings or missile strikes by NATO's combat aircraft in Afghanistan, mostly American but also British and Dutch, rarely make news, except when things go wrong...

What would one expect, given our media? Thank goodness for this story.

Without the warplanes, casualties would be far higher among allied ground troops and it would take far more of them to battle the Taliban...

British Harriers, Dutch F-16s, U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts and a variety of attack helicopters [including Dutch Apaches] provide a mix of always-available air support...

Canada is the only country with a large number of ground troops fighting in the south that hasn't deployed combat aircraft. Capt. Spears would like to see some CF-18s in the skies but knows the government has decided not to send any. Like the Royal Navy pilots, Capt Spears said nationality doesn't matter when it comes to providing close air support, especially when there are troops in contact.

Nevertheless, he said, “we are users, not providers” of close air support and “there are times when we, the Canadians, are not the priority” for British and Dutch and U.S. combat aircraft.

Dishonesty in Journalism, Graduate School Division

Canadian "gotcha" journalism at its worst: David Akin of CTV typifies Canadian "reporters" by putting political spin on a defence story whilst not mentioning facts crucial to the matter (and at least some of which he full well knows).

As a key checkpoint approaches for a multi-billion dollar contract to buy new military planes, new questions are being raised about the suitability of the Canadian defence department's preferred choice to win that contract, the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules...

Now, some of Lockheed's competitors are trying to knock holes in the C-130Js suitability...

There is in fact only one conceivable competitor, the Airbus A400M which will not even fly, at the unlikely earliest, for over another year and is several years away from entering service. Writing "some of Lockheed's competitors" misleadingly makes the average reader think there are several possible alternatives to the C-130J--which is simply untrue--and so to infer that something really funny must be going on.

They [competitors] note, for example, that the C-130J was recently dropped from a competition the U.S. military has underway for a new purchase of short-haul cargo planes.

"It seems incredible to me that we're looking at planes that other nations, like the Americans, have rejected," said Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic.

The U.S. army dropped the 130J from its latest competition citing concerns that it did not meet certain technical specifications the U.S. Army required. The U.S. Air Force has several C-130Js in active service, including on combat missions. Lockheed Martin has filed an official protest with the U.S. government and wants back in the Army competition...

This is a competition for the "Joint Cargo Aircraft" that the US Army wants for fairly short-range missions with smaller loads in intra-theatre lift (e.g. within Iraq or Afstan). The aircraft are to be bought for both the Army and the Air National Guard. Lockheed Martin pitched the C-130J but the Army recently ruled it out of the competition, for two real reasons: it is too big for the Army's needs, and the Army feared that C-130Js would be used by the Air Force for its purposes, not the Army's.

Mr Akin writes "The U.S. Air Force has several C-130Js in active service...", implying limited interest in the aircraft. That is far from the whole truth, and for some odd reason non-US customers of the plane are not noted.

Over 180 C-130J and C-130J-30 aircraft have been ordered and over 121 delivered. Orders are: US Air Force, Air National Guard, Marine Corps and Coastguard (89 x C-130J and C-130J-30, 20 x KC-130J tankers), UK (ten x C-130J, 15 x C-130J-30, all delivered), Italian Air Force (12 x C-130J, ten x C-130J-30 all delivered), Royal Australian Air Force (12 x C-130J), Kuwaiti Air Force (four x C-130J-30) and Danish Air Force (three x C-130J-30, all delivered, plus one ordered in July 2004).

In April 2004, the US Marine Corps formally accepted the first KC-130J tanker / transport into service. The aircraft was first deployed in combat in April 2005 in Iraq.

And quoting Dipper Dawn on technical defence matters with a straight keyboard would be hilarious if it were not so duplicitous. Moreover, given the figures listed just above, surely a real reporter would have clarified Ms Black's assertion that "...we're looking at planes that other nations, like the Americans, have rejected..." But a little bit of economy with the truth can go a long way in spinning a story.

Back at Airbus:

Airbus says it would still be able to deliver new planes to Canada just as fast as Lockheed will deliver new C-130Js [and I have some nice land cheap in Florida for you - MC]. The Canadian contract stipulates that the first plane must be delivered within three years of the contract being signed.

Industry and government officials expect the contract to be signed sometime in the fall of 2007, which means the new planes will go into service some time in 2010.

"We hope the Canadian government will consider our plane as well," said Anne Healey of EADS Canada. "Let there be a competition. Let the best plane win."..

Mr Akin fails to mention that, given all the turmoil at Airbus, there is every reason to think the A400M will not meet [see Update at link] its production, testing and delivery schedules (especially as it will have an all-new engine and as Airbus has never built a turboprop military transport before). Which would leave the Canadian Air Force almost right out of tactical tranports since much of our existing Herc fleet will be in no shape to continue flying by the time the A400M actually could be delivered. Utterly dishonest journalism; Mr Akin is well aware of the A400M's problems as I messaged him about them.

Mr Akin, having failed to report objectively on the C-130J/A400M question then starts slinging his mud:

...before he became Canada's top soldier, Hillier was on the staff of General Patrick O'Donnell. O'Donnell retired to head up a consultancy, CFN Consultants, and is now the registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin. The firm Hill and Knowlton is the registered lobbyist for Airbus. It's chief executive is Michael Coates, who worked on the last two Conservative election campaigns, including coaching Prime Minister Harper for the leaders' debates. Gordon O'Connor, before entering politics, worked as a lobbyist at Hill and Knowlton and one of his clients was Airbus...

Oh my God! More skullduggery from lobbyists! Quel scandale possible! This in not a political story, it is a story about military requirements and the ability of two manufacturers to meet them. But that simple reality does not suit Mr Akins' sensational purposes.

For some real lobbying, see the first part of this post, already linked to above; a story that Mr Akin has not explored, why I cannot imagine.

By the way, the version on CTV news was even worse. The J sure is a good-looking plane though. And I loved the shot of an A400M fuselage under construction.

A final point: last fall the Liberals were planning to fast-track the purchase of C-130Js--the aircraft the Air Force wants--and the Conservative opposition were stupidly calling "foul" then. Why did Mr Aikin not bring that up in his piece? There simply is no real story here, other than what one can concoct.

Update: A Cannonball Press report, "New planes for Air Force: Critics take aim at media and politicians".

Afstan: A pessimistic assessment by a good Canadian blogger

Celestial Junk (who also runs the excellent MediaRight.ca site, "Canadians and NATO in the Afghan Conflict : Daily News and Op-ed") posts a very good assessment of how thing are going in Afghanistan.

I generally agree but think (hope?) the conclusion--"The Afghan mission will fail"--may be premature. Let's see what the next few months (tipping point?) bring, and if pressure can get the non-Dutch and non-former Warsaw Pact Euros (esp. Germany, France, Italy and Spain) to do a bit more. Striking that Romania and Poland are up to it but not...

I especially like the analysis of the Canadian scene; Craig Oliver et al. make me hurl.

Is 'firsthand' good enough for ya?

Boondocksaint and a couple of others over at the essential Army.ca are leading a discussion on lessons learned in Afghanistan - for anyone looking for a section commander's perspective, this is fantastic reading. A sampling:

yelling 'hey you' should not be used to initiate contact....

...

With a few fights under your belt you can sometimes get cocky, and think you can do more then you really should. In Hyderabad I was rounding a corner at the front of our stack figuring we'd cleared lots of compounds this one is no different---where there shoulda been 1 room and a hall, there were about 8 rooms and fire everywhere coming in. BACK DA FOOK UP, have a kit kat moment and evaluate things. It is a very liberating experience not having safety staff behind you monitoring every move.

...

...our W.O., he was fond of grabbing the C-6 from the poor gunner who humped it (sangin video) and fired it--you could hear them bickering and swearing at each other in the middle of a fight:

gunner-' feck you i humped it im shooting it'
WO-' dude come on just let me shoot it a little'
gunner-' did you carry it?'
WO-' i'll carry it next time i promise'
gunner-'you said that last time

For my money, though, the best line has to be yelling to the bad guys in the middle of a firefight - oops, a TIC (Troops In Contact), apparently 'firefight' is soooo 90's - "Where do you want your well?"

Priceless. Not just the humour, but the experience behind it that will undoubtedly make for better-prepared soldiers in the future.

Fundamentals

All this talk of 're-roling' has been interesting to me. Like many observers when the idea first hit the papers and newscasts - inaccurately, as it turns out...surprise, surprise - I thought the idea of taking a shipboard cook and handing him a rifle and sending him out into the weeds in Panjawii was a decidedly bad idea. Of course, that was never the CF's plan, as has been clarified subsequently.

But this idea has merit:

As well, Hillier is thinking of having new recruits first serve a stint in the infantry before they move on. "We're looking at how we share the burden completely across the Canadian Forces so that no one man or woman has to carry an inordinate amount on their shoulders," he said. [Babbler's emphasis]

Infantry is the cornerstone of the military. Period. That's not to say every other classification isn't important - heck, I wore the light blue suit myself, not the brown and green or the deep blue (one might almost say black). It's just an acknowledgement that Infantry is the basic building block. Before humans sailed or flew, we fought on land. And before we invented armour or artillery, we beat and strangled and stabbed each other face-to-face.

This reality is recognized in the CF's Basic Training. Everyone humps a ruck. Everyone learns to fire a rifle. Everyone learns some basic fieldcraft, lives out of a hooch, and is organized into companies, platoons and sections.

Extending this concept would have some benefits, and some drawbacks.

On the negative side, the CF would have to make sure it wasn't shooting itself in the foot by adhering rigidly to the principle. A dental officer shouldn't be expected to lead a platoon patrolling a village on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - it's a waste of his very specialized and expensive training, and it's likely he won't join right out of dental school in the first place if he knows he's spending a year or two as a grunt before he gets to touch his dental instruments again.

Physical requirements, and psychological makeup to some degree, are quite different for the Infantry than most other CF occupations, and the qualities that make a good supply tech might not be ideal for a rifleman. If he's not fit enough or good enough under fire, should he be allowed - forced - to endanger himself and his mates? If his talents are organizational, shouldn't he be slotted into a position that makes best use of those talents to the betterment of the CF as a whole?

Women - for the most part, although not without exceptions - would be less likely to join if they knew they were going to be deployed as an Infanteer to Afghanistan before getting to specialize in another trade.

These are all serious concerns, requiring sober consideration and either clear-headed and realistic solutions or open and honest acceptance as an unavoidable cost of the plan.

But on the positive side, the CF would get a steady stream of Infanteers to ease some of the most pressing manpower stresses in the entire military. Op tempo in the CF is extremely high, and personnel issues are more pressing than most realize. How do we retain our best people without dealing with quality-of-life issues? The age-old army philosophy that "If you dinnay like shite, then you shouldnay have bothered f*****g joining" simply doesn't cut it in an all-volunteer military recruiting from a prosperous and free society. Having a front-line soldier rotate overseas for six months of every eighteen - or more frequently if he or she signs a waiver - is unsustainable for most people over the course of a twenty-year career.

More than that though, having an entire military with a first-hand appreciation of the most basic martial skills is of inherent value. If the pilot who provides CAS or evac to front-line troops understands what it's like to be a front-line troop, that's of value. If the sailor enforcing a blockade understands in a visceral way the ground-force consequences of having the enemy penetrate that blockade, that's of value. If a supply clerk understands why it's important to facilitate equipment request rather than bar the door, because he's been one of the soldiers who needed the equipment faster than the paper could flow, that's of value.

Having a military that's focused on supporting the pointy-end, because they've been at the pointy-end requiring support, is of substantial value.

Which is why, if they can overcome the real difficulties that come part-and-parcel with this idea, the mandarins at the Puzzle Palace should implement it.

CF re-roling is getting confusing

Maybe recruits (all services) for infantry combat, Air Force/Navy personnel to serve in Afstan (more than now) but not as infantry. Meanwhile recruiting up, fitness standards deep-sixed, and lots of soldiers testing positive for drugs but given more chances. What a barrage of stories in one day (actually all basically the same story, based on testimony to the House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development by MND O'Connor and CDS Gen. Hillier, with differing spins).

Plus pay raises.

Update: The CDS writes a letter to the papers.

Poster Girl

Fantastic song from Australian Country and Western singer Beccy Cole.

Beccy visited the Middle East over Christmas, to entertain the troops kept from their families and the trip was truly inspirational. However, her performances attracted some stinging criticism from a former fan, and she decided to respond the best way she knows how - through her music. The result is an honest, touching and thought provoking song titled 'Poster Girl' which has received an outstanding response since she first performed it at her sell out show in Tamworth.

A truly class act!



Maybe this will inspire a Canadian artist to record a similiar tune in support of our troops. Michelle Wright maybe?

H/T Right Crazy

Afstan: Where the fighting is/Helping the government

An excellent analysis with maps by Bruce Rolston--taking on Jeffrey Simpson in the Globe today (full text not officially online, Mr Simpson does make some good points).

And a good article decribing what our military are doing to help the central Afghan government (though the headline, "Canadians go undercover in Afghanistan", is all-too-typical of the sensationalism of the Globe's headlines these days and does not reflect the story at all).

Embedded deep inside key ministries of the Afghan government, a handful of senior Canadian officers -- all volunteers -- are stretching the definition of military assistance...

But measured by long-term impact, the no-strings-attached expertise, strategic advice and basic organization the group is bringing to Afghanistan's sometimes chaotic ministries may have an effect as far reaching as the combat campaign being waged far to the south in Kandahar by a Canadian battle group of more than 2,300 soldiers.

The high-powered, low-key and ambiguously named Strategic Advisory Team is the brainchild of General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff. Gen. Hillier, an outgoing military man who commanded North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan in 2004, built a set of personal relationships while he was in Kabul that included President Hamid Karzai...

The officers all bring experience of managing major projects but even more important is what they are not.

"We're not a bunch of drive-by MBAs," Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Aubin, the group's chief of staff, said derisively of the steady stream of highly paid, short-term consultants that infest Kabul.

Gen. Hillier's experiment remains unique -- a new foray for the Canadian military and the Afghan government, which can tap a proven management resource.

"Hillier saw a need for consistent application of assistance and expertise to Afghan ministries," all of which were struggling with complex problems usually with limited staff, often with little background or experience in running big organization, Col. Dixon said.

"Our job is to work ourselves out of a job."..

Predate: See this excellent earlier post by Babbling.

Service is...*ahem*...VOLUNTARY

If your knickers knot so tightly over the fact that Canada is a constitutional monarchy sharing a Head of State with Great Britain, then the Canadian Forces should not be your employer of choice:

An officer in the Canadian Forces is suing Canada's top soldier over a "degrading" policy that requires members of the military to toast the Queen and salute during the anthem, God Save the Queen.

Capt. Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, an associate professor of physics at the Royal Military College in Kingston, wants a court to overturn the requirement for members of the Canadian Forces to publicly display their loyalty to the monarchy.

Note the "Royal" in "Royal Military College." Positively scandalous to Capt Chainnigh, I'm sure. How he looks himself in the mirror before going to work each morning, I don't know. But wait, there's more:

"You might, as a military officer, wish to express your unity with those who served Canada during a particular war, but have the obligation to recognize a foreign monarch as having a situation of authority over the Canadian armed forces."

He also objects to the fact officers are required to show respect to the Union Jack.

He argues in his claim that the requirement to publicly express allegiance contrary to one's belief is degrading to an individual.

Capt. Mac Giolla Chainnigh -- who legally changed his name from Harold Kenny to its Irish spelling -- says he signed up for the Canadian Forces to serve Canada, not a "foreign monarch." He was 16 years old when he enlisted and begrudgingly swore loyalty to the Queen. [Babbler's emphasis]

He changed his name? *jaw dropping*

Well, that's the real issue here, isn't it? The man's obviously a zealot.

Let's be clear here. He's required to show special respect to ERII because she's Canada's Head of State, not because she's England's. He's required to show respect to the Union Jack because it's a national flag, not because it's Great Britain's national flag - he has to salute the Chinese flag, the South African flag, the U.S. Stars & Bars the same as the Union Flag.

This is part and parcel of serving in the CF, Captain. You've pulled a paycheck from the Crown twice a month for almost thirty years now. Suck it up or file your voluntary release papers and start collecting a pension - from the Crown. And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Military Co-ops

There was a recent attempt in Windsor to accomplish the same thing discussed in this Sun editorial - banning military co-ops from public schools. While the motion was roundly defeated, in large part due to an outcry from the community, the campaign has not ended by any means. The issue was posed at a recent all-candidates forum. To be honest, the mumbling and hedging I heard going on didn't reassure me very much.

EDITORIAL: A sneak attack on our military

This will apparently come as a shock to some school trustees, teachers and other "anti-war" types in Ontario, but joining the military is a legitimate career choice for young people.

It's as valid as pursuing a career in medicine, law or engineering.

In that context, we find it deeply disturbing, that, as reported by Sun education columnist Moira MacDonald this week, some school trustees, teachers and other critics within our publicly-funded education system want to ban high school co-op programs with the Canadian military.

How dare they? We can't imagine these folks ever making a similar argument against, say, co-op programs to train future social workers.

So what is it about providing young people with a taste of the skills they will need to join Canada's reserves -- and perhaps a full-time military career after that -- that so upsets them?

Whatever happened to the days where a military stint, or saints perserve us, an actual life-long career in the military, was considered an honourable pursuit?

H/T Jack's Newswatch

CF Combat Camera now on YouTube

Via Army.ca:

Subject: Combat Camera Video

Bonjour,

Afin que le plus grand nombre de gens possible puissent avoir accès aux photos et aux vidéos de la Caméra de combat du SMA(AP), celle-ci, en plus de mettre à la disposition des internautes sa banque d’images des FC (www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca), diffuse ses vidéos au moyen du site Web www.youtube.com et de la baladodiffusion iTunes.

Dear colleagues,

In an effort to reach as many audiences as possible in addition to the CF Image Gallery (www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca ) ADM(PA) Combat Camera is now distributing its videos through www.youtube.com and iTunes video podcasting.

Our direct address is here.

Users can use Apple's itunes
And find us under; Podcasts, Government & Organization, National.

Apple's direct link to our list is [here]

Please distribute this message widely.

Cheers,

K.Penney
LCdr
ADM(PA) Combat Camera
(613) 996-0261
fax (613) 945-0782

Pigeonholes are for birdbrains

Some people have called General Rick Hillier a "cowboy" and denigrated the ability of trained military personnel to do much more than kill people and blow things up (read the comments to the linked post if you have the stomach for it - or Google "General Hillier cowboy" and watch the roaches scurry as you overturn their rock). Well, Gen Hillier certainly has the audacity of a cowboy, and the CF is undisputably good at killing people and blowing things up, but further to my comments yesterday, that's not all they do.

Hillier commanded the ISAF mission - concentrated in and around Kabul at that time - for six month in 2004. During that time, he not only performed traditional military duties, he also responded to a need within the civil administration of Afghanistan for strategic planning with military personnel (pdf file, ht:DA).

During his tenure in command of ISAF, General Hillier identified that Afghanistan had visionary leadership but that, at the same time, the machinery of government and the human capacity of the civil service had been decimated by three decades of conflict. To partially fill this critical gap, he provided military planners to the Afghan Minister of Finance to assist in the development of a both a long-term framework for development and the first post-Taliban national budget. This highly successful experiment was dropped by his more conventional successors in command and only rejuvenated after the now CDS visited Afghanistan and President Karzai in the Spring of 2005. During that visit, General Hillier committed to provide a small team for a year.

That was the genesis of Strategic Advisory Team - Afghanistan (SAT-A) deployed under Operation Argus. As I recall the story being told, Hillier tasked Col Mike Capstick, author of the piece above, in the drive-through line at a Timmy's, to set up a "Strategic Advisory Team" to assist the Afghan government (my details on the story might be faulty, but there's no doubt a Tim Horton's drive-through was integral).

Colonel Capstick set up and commanded SAT-A for its first year, which has now been extended into a second term under a bilateral agreement with the Afghans themselves (the mission doesn't fall under either the NATO-commanded ISAF mission or the American-led Op Enduring Freedom). How does SAT-A function?

Our basic concept of operations is to embed planners with Afghan staff with a view to passing on our basic military staff planning skills. The team made an important contribution to the 2006 London Conference on the Future of Afghanistan by assisting the Afghan led team charged with the development of a comprehensive five-year strategy that covers every aspect of the reconstruction effort. To be clear, we are the “mechanics” who help put together the substantive ideas of the Afghan leadership and the international experts. We used the same approach to assist with the strategy for Public Administrative Reform and with the Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development. In addition, the team’s integral strategic communications specialist helped develop communications strategies for all of these activities.

Col Capstick also takes issue with those who say military personnel should stick to killing people and blowing things up, since that's all they're really qualified to do anyhow.

Although the team does include a senior Defence Scientist as our analyst and a capacity development expert contracted by CIDA, it is essentially staffed by the Canadian Forces. Some have questioned the legitimacy of using military planners in this role, and there have been suggestions that other agencies would be better suited to the task. Although this concern is understandable, there are practical advantages to using the CF as the basis of the SAT. In addition to the obvious education, training and experience in disciplined and rigorous strategic planning techniques that military officers bring to the table, the CF is really the only arm of the Canadian government that can quickly and continually generate the requisite numbers of people with the training and will to work in an austere and, at times, unstable environment. Most importantly, the SAT-A initiative is explicit recognition that the character of armed conflict has undergone a major transformation since the end of the Cold War and that traditional concepts for the use of armed force are insufficient to establish a lasting peace.

The team includes both military and civilian personnel. The CF members on this rotation were a mix of Regulars and Reservists from all three components. The planning team members brought a very wide range of training, education and experience to the operation and quickly demonstrated the intellectual agility and adaptability demanded by today’s operations.

While higher education as an ideal has lagged within the CF until recently, strategic planning is a fairly specific skill set, and one which the military takes great pains to develop in a staff officer. Not only do many of the senior officers (and I mean that precisely: Major through Colonel and their naval equivalents) I know personally have post-grad degrees, they have real-life experience applying the academic to the practical in some of the most rigourous circumstances imaginable. They don't set up shop in the ivory towers of academia, they learn for the express purpose of applying their knowledge.

Obviously, this expertise is needed in Afghanistan, as evidenced by the success of and enthusiasm for SAT-A by the Afghan national government. From a Canadian standpoint, not only is SAT-A moving our nation's strategic interests forward by helping the nascent Afghan government stand up, it is also providing a detailed, in-depth, and first-hand perspective to Canadian decision-makers into the political, military, and administrative climate in the country.

A number of commentators and critics in Canada clearly misunderstand the objectives of the “whole of government” mission in Afghanistan. They have erroneously concluded that operations in Kandahar represent a shift in strategy away from nation building towards a purely military counterinsurgency role. This conclusion can only result from a fundamentally flawed understanding of the insurgency itself.

...

The Taliban’s objective is not mere territorial control or political power – it is control of the population and the re-establishment of the perverse feudal theocracy that ruled until late 2001. Alliances of convenience between the Taliban and the opium “mafias” have been formed with one simple objective – deny the extension of Government authority, an authority that threatens their unfettered ability to make huge amounts of money on the backs of some of the worlds poorest farmers. To that end, they seek to erode the population’s confidence in the Government and the international community by attacking vulnerable development projects and those working on them. In short, development without security is impossible, and those that argue that the presence of international military forces impedes development are, at best, naïve.

...

Two elections and extensive social science research provide ample evidence that the majority of Afghans categorically reject the insurgents’ world-view. Recognizing the true nature of the insurgency, the UN Security Council endorsement of the Compact (including the Security Pillar) represents explicit approval of both the ongoing American-led counter-insurgency operations and the ISAF transition concept. In short, the international community has deliberately chosen to support the Afghan government and eliminated any question of neutrality in respect to the battle that continues to put the future of the country in jeopardy. This is a serious commitment that is viewed very seriously by the Afghan population and it must now be adequately resourced.

The central issue in respect to the perceived lack of progress in Afghanistan is not insurgency, nor is it opium, corruption or the weakness of the Government. Although these are huge impediments to progress, the central issue is the parsimony of the international community. In the early days of the Bosnian intervention the per capita aid expenditure was $649 USD while in Afghanistan, left in a far worse post-conflict situation, it is $57 USD per capita. At the same time, troop levels in Afghanistan – a larger landmass than Bosnia, with a far more complex security problem – are only about one-third of those in Bosnia immediately after the Dayton Accord was implemented. These resources are clearly inadequate.

So much for the myth of the unlettered grunt.

As a former commanding officer of 3RCHA, Col Capstick is obviously capable of killing people and blowing things up. General Hillier can do the same. So can the entire cadre of uniformed CF personnel. But to assume that this capability somehow disqualifies them from more cerebral tasks says more about the bias of the person working from the wrong premises than it does about the abilities of the men and women of the Canadian Forces.

Afstan: No re-roling or extended tours after all

According to MND O'Connor:

The government will not deploy sailors or Air Force personnel to Afghanistan and has no intention to extend the duration of active postings to that country, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor told Parliament Monday...

See comment by Babbling Brooks pointing out that Air Force and Navy personnel are already in theatre.

The other two D's of the 3D strategy

From Combat Camera:

19 October 2006
Camp Nathan Smith, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Master Cpl. Richard Leray, a vehicle technician with the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction team based at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City, and two Afghan mechanics hired for the Afghan National Police vehicle Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul program tear down an ANP truck engine for rebuilding, 19 Oct 06, Camp Nathan Smith, Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

The PRT reinforces the authority of the Afghan government in Kandahar Province by assisting in the stabilization and development of the region. The PRT brings together elements from the CF, RCMP, Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Canadian Forces photo by Capt Dave Muralt.

The pointy-end guys trading fire with insurgents out in the vineyards and pot-fields get all the press, which is understandable, I guess.

But don't forget what folks like MCpl Leray and his comrades are doing with the PRT. Don't forget about Op Archer and Op Argus.

CF troops are killing bad guys, no doubt. But that's not all they're doing, not by a long shot.

Afstan: Problems with getting reconstruction to the people

Our aid personnel have a hard time going anywhere, except with heavy army protection.

Canadian diplomats and aid organizers in southern Afghanistan have been under tight, government-imposed travel restrictions ever since diplomat Glyn Berry was killed in a roadside bomb attack in January — and the constraints appear to be hampering reconstruction efforts.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has acknowledged the limits and is trying to get them eased.

“We are working as effectively and efficiently as possible to free up any restrictions that stand in the way of development, that stand in the way of the progress being made,” Mr. MacKay said following a recent speech to diplomats...

The question of how much reconstruction is taking place in southern Afghanistan, and how effective those efforts have been, are among the main political lines of attack by opponents of the war. Critics complain the mission has been all fighting and no aid.

Last week, the Senate committee on security and defence heard how the army has been trolling Ottawa, attempting to get already-approved Canadian reconstruction money spent on projects that are sitting in limbo...

But officials charged with delivering millions of dollars in Canadian aid are rarely allowed to venture beyond the heavily fortified compounds of the Kandahar airfield and the nearby provincial reconstruction team (PRT) base, which is located within Kandahar city itself.

Instead, local Afghan officials are often required to present themselves at the PRT to discuss projects.

When officials do get outside the base, it's usually as part of heavily-armed military convoys that Canadian contractors who are working on reconstruction say offer little opportunity for interaction with locals...

International Cooperation Minister Josee Verner is, no coincidence I am sure, paying a surprise visit to Afstan.

Afstan: Longer tours? More on re-roling

There must be real problems finding the troops.

The Canadian military wants to increase the time served by its troops in Afghanistan to nine months, up from six, a general told soldiers gathered in Edmonton on Saturday.

Brig.-Gen Mark Skidmore spoke after a change of command ceremony that put him in charge of army forces in Western Canada.

The career soldier from London, Ont., took over the job from Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, who will become commander of Task Force Afghanistan for six months.

"If you're a member of the Canadian military, particularly a soldier with a skill set that's required in Afghanistan, and you haven't been yet, I think chances are very good that the opportunity is going to be there to serve," Skidmore told the assembled troops at the Jefferson Armouries.

On Wednesday, Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, said the Armed Forces will be looking outside combat units to find troops.

"We will re-role people that are in the training system right now but who are designed to be something else," he told the Commons defence committee...

CBC News has since learned that no branch of the military would be exempt from serving in Afghanistan, and that any decision on the matter would be made by generals, not politicians...

And a quote from Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, chief of land staff, at the same ceremony:

Every Canadian soldier can expect a tour, Leslie added. "If you're serving in the army and you haven't been to Afghanistan -- you're going."..

Afstan: Dutch reinforcing/French may keep special forces

When the going gets tough...

The Dutch cabinet agreed the deployment of a further 130 ground troops to southern Afghanistan to bring total strength there to 1,530, during the weekly cabinet meeting in The Hague Friday.

Defence Minister Henk Kamp described the decision as 'fine tuning' and said there was no need for parliamentary approval...

From November 1, when the Dutch take over the lead role in southern Afghanistan from the Canadians, a further 200 Dutch troops are to be deployed.

The defence ministry also announced that the six Dutch Apache helicopters [my emphasis - MC] in Afghanistan had been moved Friday from Kandahar airfield to the Dutch headquarters at Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province.

The eight Dutch F-16s [my emphasis - MC] currently based at Kabul are to be moved to Kandahar in mid-November with the aim that they will be able to react more quickly to requests for support in southern Afghanistan.

The French, for their part, may not remove their special forces from Afstan after all.

"Our special forces have always continued to combat terrorism side by side, for example, in Afghanistan," she [Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie] said, though recently there has been some question as to whether France will pull its special forces out of the country.

Alliot-Marie told the AP that France is in the midst of discussions regarding the continued presence of French special forces, which are under separate command from the NATO troops [actually under US Operation Enduring Freedom - MC], in Afghanistan...

Van Doos to Afstan too/2 RCR from Feb. to Aug. 2007

Dedicated to protecting our PRT.

The Canadian Forces will pack a bigger punch in Afghanistan next month and will be able to put more resources into the hunt for Taliban insurgents, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said yesterday.

Speaking to the House of Commons defence committee, Mr. O'Connor said the arrival of 125 troops from the Royal 22nd Regiment, nicknamed the Vandoos, based in Valcartier, Que., will free up other troops for offensive operations. Along with the newly arrived tanks, he said, the Canadian Forces will be able to deal with the increased violence in the province of Kandahar.

Currently, he said, many troops are protecting the Canadian Forces provincial reconstruction team (PRT), which is offering development and aid in the area.

"When the Vandoos company gets there and goes into Kandahar to protect the PRT, they will be dedicated to protect the PRT. That will allow the battle group and the tank squadron that is streaming in the same time to deal with the insurgency," Mr. O'Connor said.

The minister said the additional protection for the reconstruction team will allow for increased development aid to Kandahar...

The Royal 22nd is scheduled to form the main part of our battle group in Kanadahar for six months from August, 2007. From February to August The Royal Canadian Regiment (2 RCR) from CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick, will form the battle group.

Canadians Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) to Afstan/Re-roling for infantry

This unit has been stood up really fast. I wonder what the reaction will be to putting people in the infantry for Afstan who signed up for something else.

Members of the newly formed special forces regiment based in Petawawa are heading to Afghanistan as Canada continues to bolster its commitment to the war in that southwest Asian country.

The regiment, formed in August, will send an undisclosed number of troops to join members of the Ottawa-based Joint Task Force 2 special forces unit already operating in the Kandahar area.

It is the first mission for the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, which at this point has about 300 members, including headquarters and supply staff, as well as a training cadre. The unit is expected to expand to around 700 by 2010...

Canadian Forces spokesman Maj. Doug Allison said the military will not discuss how many members of the special operations regiment are being sent to Afghanistan or when they will leave.

"We anticipate in the near term that the regiment will make a contribution to the Canadian SOF (special operations force) efforts within Afghanistan," said Maj. Allison. "They will take part in the full spectrum of special operations contributing to the overall efforts in Afghanistan."

The regiment can be used for a variety of roles, including training foreign soldiers, special reconnaissance operations or direct-action missions, military parlance for attacking enemy targets or individuals.

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment began recruiting earlier this year from other units. After months of training and candidate selection, it reached its "interim operational" capability on Sept. 1 and is now ready for missions...

The Canadian Forces is also looking for more infantry to send to Afghanistan, so soldiers who have already served there don't continually get sent back to the war zone. On Wednesday Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, told a Commons committee that some soldiers who signed up for specific jobs in the military will now be "re-roled" as infantry.

"We'll re-role people that are in the training system right now, but who are designed to be something else," the general explained. "We'll say, 'For the next two or three years, you'll be infantry, and then go back to your primary role.'"..

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment is part of a significant expansion in the military of such capabilities. Earlier this year, the military created the country's first special operations command to oversee such units. That command is responsible for JTF2, the special operations regiment, a special operations aviation squadron and an expanded nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological response unit. Eventually, the command will have around 2,300 personnel under its control...

Update: Re-roling, e.g., sailors too?

Canadian defence spending compared to certain NATO members

These members spent more on defence per capita in 2004 than Canada ($US, Canada just under $300, figures extrapolated from chart):

Italy $320
Belgium $400
Luxembourg (!?!) $500
Netherlands $510
Denmark $560
Norway $850!!!

Read 'em and weep. At least in 1990 we beat Luxembourg. We've been "cheapskates" for quite a long time.

But not according to Stephen Staples of the Polaris Institute (see second page at this link)--one of the TV networks' favourite "defence experts".

Afstan: Time to get things done

Now that the "tipping point" has been reached.

1) NATO ISAF commander:

Military successes over the Taliban in recent months have opened a crucial six-month “window of opportunity” to prove to Afghans in the south that long-promised reconstruction and security can be delivered, NATO's commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday...

2) Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff:

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, is leading Canada's charge in trying to persuade countries in the 26-nation alliance -- particularly France, Italy, Spain and Germany -- to cough up more soldiers for dangerous duty in Afghanistan's south, or grant permission to the troops they already have stationed in country to serve in the hazardous region...

Gen. Hillier's lobbying flows from the unsuccessful attempts by NATO's defence ministers to find an additional 2,500 troops among their members' countries at a meeting in Slovenia late last month.

Only Poland, a newer NATO member, offered troops -- 1,000 in total -- with no caveats...