Afstan: Why we're losing the war...
...at home. READ THIS. And, as has often been raised at this blog, reflect on the role of our media. There is reason to examine the mission critically. But do so intelligently and with some knowledge--which is what our media are almost completely incapable of doing. Rather the death watch. Read the first paragraph in the quote here; and see the last para at this link. All that need be said. Damn it.
Update: These CP and Reuters stories of a successful joint Canadian/Afghan Army engagement with the Taliban are now available online; I wonder how much play they will get in print tomorrow:
1) CP:
2) Reuters:
Upperdate: The Ottawa Citizen carried the Reuters story and the Sun the CP one; The Toronto Star also runs the CP story. Good on them.
As for the Globe, this is what one finds on the entry page for the online edition today:
Update: These CP and Reuters stories of a successful joint Canadian/Afghan Army engagement with the Taliban are now available online; I wonder how much play they will get in print tomorrow:
1) CP:
Canadian, Afghan forces find weapons cache after bloody firefightNote it's only in body of the story that it is made clear there were no Canadian or Afghan casualties (only mentioned in the seventh paragraph); all the blood was on one side, not the impression the Globe and Mail headline might give.
As many as 20 Taliban fighters killed in hour-long battle Saturday
2) Reuters:
Canadian, Afghan troops kill at least 15 TalibanThe story reports this interesting piece of tactical cooperation:
Canadian troops drove Taliban insurgents into an Afghan army ambush on Saturday...Remember all the times the media quote Taliban sources? This is what they said about the engagement:
The Canadian troops opened fire at first light, with Afghan army units waiting in ambush for the group of around 60 Taliban insurgents along their predicted line of retreat...
A Taliban spokesman said 27 Afghan and NATO soldiers were killed in fighting in the same district, but a Reuters correspondent with Canadian troops on the operation said there were no casualties among the soldiers...Note that the source for our lack of casualties is the Reuters correspondent himself. Perhaps one should take what Taliban sources say with rather a lot of salt.
Upperdate: The Ottawa Citizen carried the Reuters story and the Sun the CP one; The Toronto Star also runs the CP story. Good on them.
As for the Globe, this is what one finds on the entry page for the online edition today:
Report says American pilot responsible for Canadian soldier's deathNothing about the firefight with the Taliban in the WORLD section of the first page either. You have to go to that section itself under "South Asia" to find the CP story. The "Comments", as usual, are rather a mixed bag.
Private Mark Anthony Graham was killed after a U.S. pilot mistakenly strafed a Canadian battle group 14/07/07 10:39 PM
* Related: DND documents on the case
* Related: Friendly fire claims former Olympic athlete
* Related: U.S. error kills Canadian, stalls attack on Taliban
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 10:12 p.m.
3 Comments:
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run - Web Reconnaissance for 07/14/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the day…so check back often. This is a weekend edition so updates are as time and family permits.
Very clear that the government and DND has done a very poor job of explaining what this mission is all about. The vacuum has been filled by the well organized Peace at any Cost crowd, lead by politicians like Layton and mouthpieces like Staples & Byers and our very liberalized/socialized media.
The Army conducts a Lessons Learned session after operations, patrols etc. They should conduct one on how they lost the message war on the Home Front.
Our mission in Afghanistan is a noble act. The media et al distorted and lied that into "fighting George Bush's wars".
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Canadian Government, acting on an Order of the Security Council of the United Nations, at the request of the government of Afghanistan, in partnership with our long standing NATO allies was asked to provide an interim military force to provide stability so Afghanistan can re-construct itself after the brutal Taliban regime.
Because there are still heavily armed Taliban in the region, our Forces must be prepared to use combat power to provide the preconditions and to buy the time needed to allow schools to be built, basic infrastructure and services to be established and for Afghan Army and national Police Force to be trained, equipped and fielded.
Our mission is to buy time.
Time to allow Afghanistan to succeed, to shake off the tragedy and trauma of the mass murdering former government of Taliban terrorists.
The lives of tens of thousands of Afghani women and children depend on our ability to help, to provide the required security so the Taliban cannot return to blow up their schools and hospitals and conduct their weekly mass executions of women, Gays and anyone else the Taliban hate in the local soccer stadiums.
Every CF member who dies in Afghanistan is making the greatest sacrifice in a noble cause. Our efforts in Afghanistan are no different than what we did in Europe to defeat a brutal political cause known as Nazism. We sadly accepted the cost then.
Are Europeans worth more to us, to our values, to our international duties and obligations, than Afghanis ?
I think not.
david m: Thanks. General URL for "The Thunder Run"
http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/
Mark
Ottawa
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