Afstan: It's all about fatalities for the public

CDS Gen. Hillier outlines the exit strategy--and a major implication

Canada is shifting its Kandahar mission from combat to training to prepare the Afghan army to shoulder more of the fighting, a move expected to reduce Canadian casualties [emphasis added], Gen. Rick Hillier says.

By this fall, as many as five battalions of Afghan troops will be operating in Kandahar province under the mentoring of Canadian troops, a significant infusion of strength that sets the stage for the country's own military to help quell the deadly insurgency.

"The focus goes from us in the lead with very little support until now from them to them in the lead," said Hillier, the chief of defence staff.

He was speaking a week after six Canadians were killed in a bomb blast near Kandahar, raising Canada's toll to 66 soldiers and diplomat Glyn Berry against a backdrop of increasing questions about the country's future role in Afghanistan.

But in an exclusive interview with the Star yesterday afternoon, the general sketched out – literally – the makings of an exit strategy...

There are two Afghan battalions – with upwards of 1,000 soldiers each – now in southern Afghanistan. A third battalion is due to graduate from the training academy in Kabul next Tuesday and is expected to be on the ground by Aug. 1, Hillier said. Two more battalions could arrive this fall.

In addition to the new battalions, the Afghan army is also building up the units required to support troops in the field, such as a brigade headquarters, engineers, artillery and logistics. The Americans have pledged billions of dollars in aid to equip the Afghans with gear like armoured Humvees...

MND O'Connor outlined this exit strategy three months ago but our media have scarcely noticed.

As for the public, how would you expect nice, decent, life-affirming Canadians to respond to this poll? Most sure aren't going to say any significant number of deaths is "acceptable".

OTTAWA (CP) - A new poll suggests Canadians are growing more alarmed about the rising number of soldiers killed and wounded in Afghanistan.

A Canadian Press-Decima Research survey shows 67 per cent of those asked believe the number of casualties suffered by Canadian troops is unacceptably high, even with whatever progress has been made in rebuilding the war-torn country.

That is a five-point rise from a poll taken a little over a month ago.

Only 25 per cent of respondents said the number of killed and wounded was acceptable.

Bruce Anderson, the CEO of Decima Research, says Canadians are clearly becoming more doubtful about whether progress is being made, in light of the deaths of 66 soldiers and one diplomat.

The telephone poll of just over 1,000 people was conducted between July 5 and July 9 - after the most recent Canadian deaths in Afghanistan. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Update: The full CP story. It's effectively over according to the pollster. At least a former NDP supporter can speak the truth.

“Canadians have to decide whether they want to win,” said Desmond Morton, a professor at Montreal's McGill University...

Prof. Morton says Canada has never lost a war and if Mr. Anderson's [CEO of Decima Research] assessment of the public mind is correct, the country is setting itself up “for its first international humiliation of an unquestioned kind.”

Over the last few months, Prof. Morton said, he's often wondered whether the public is talking itself into defeat and if Canadians have the stomach to fight the way our parents and grandparents did during two world wars and the Korean conflict.

“It is sad when (casualties) happen,” the soldier-turned-historian said in a telephone interview.

“It was sad when it happened in 1944, in 1918 or 1917. In fact, in 1918 we suffered our heaviest casualties of the First World War, by far. Did anybody in Canada notice? No, because we were winning. If you pitch this war as a hopeless war we cannot win and every death is a needless sacrifice.”

This morning CBC Newsworld reported that a NATO soldier in southern Afstan had been killed. One could just feel the blood lust, the feral hunger, that the person was, whoopee, Canadian. Sadly, it was just another poor bloody Brit. Back to the death watch.