Afstan 2008: More mentoring, less combat

That at least is the plan (and hope--OMLTs break fewer Canadian eggs):

1) Canada to focus on mentoring Afghan forces in 2008

As Canada prepares for its sixth year in Afghanistan, there is growing consensus that the mission needs to focus on empowering the Afghan army and government with the tools to achieve independence.

An example of this is a small but growing number of Canadian troops heading to Kandahar next year that will find themselves in a mentoring role instead of on the front lines of combat.

Roughly 200 soldiers, under the umbrella of NATO's Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT), will arrive this February with the goal of helping to develop the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Col. Francois Riffou, the incoming commander of the Canadian forces mentoring program, has been preparing the new batch of soldiers since April 2007.

In an interview with CTV.ca, Riffou said many of the returning soldiers will have an adjustment to make since they are used to working in a combat role.

"Those soldiers now are going to be working with us and -- although we are there to mentor a fighting force and in some cases expected to fight side-by-side with that fighting force -- we really want to allow them to take the lead and my soldiers would stand back a little and coach them."

In mid-2006, about 65 Canadian troops first began mentoring a single Afghan National Army battalion, which consists of approximately 350 people on the ground.

Now, Canada has approximately 180 soldiers mentoring three units.

Last September, the Canadian task force also launched an initiative to bolster the local Afghan police. The project is being done in consultation with the Afghan civilian authorities and the American-led Combined Security Transition Command -- a training outfit.

"We have about 60 soldiers right now deployed with police sub-stations," said Riffou...

2) General predicts fewer battles with Taliban

Over the next year, soldiers will build bridges, get roads paved and better protect Afghan police, according to Canada's top general in Afghanistan. He also expects there will be fewer full-scale battles with the Taliban.

Canadian Forces Brigadier-General Guy Laroche told reporters in a briefing yesterday that he sees reasons for optimism after serving in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province during the past six months. "I've seen progress," he said. The next job, he added, is "to increase the security bubble, if you will."

The inroads made by Canadian Forces, he said, have helped force the Taliban underground. The good news is that insurgents have broken into smaller groups; the bad news is that they are now increasingly seeking to hit non-military targets.

That means the next challenge for the army, Gen. Laroche said, will be to expand outward from military outposts and work to deprive insurgents of any potential targets.

In a separate assessment, the U.S. general in charge of NATO's Afghanistan mission said yesterday that he expects another year of "explosive growth" in the country's poppy fields, a harvest the insurgents will turn into weapons for use against Afghan and NATO troops, the Associated Press reported.

General Dan McNeill said NATO commanders in Europe have told him to step up the counternarcotics fight this year, "and I will."

The past calendar year has been described as the West's worst year in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion [there was no "invasion--see here; but the meme cannot be extirpated], considering the growing levels of overall violence. More than 900 Afghan National Police have been killed since March, according to some estimates.

But there are some grounds for optimism for Canadian Forces controlling Kandahar. The Vandoos regiment that Gen. Laroche leads has suffered relatively few fatalities to date. Seven soldiers have been killed in action since the Vandoos took over most jobs in August, compared with 23 Canadians killed earlier in 2007.

"Seven is way too many," said Gen. Laroche, who is to return with his troops to Canada by March. But he explained that more is being done to protect soldiers.

First, he said, the arrival of the Vandoos coincided with new armoured vehicles specially designed to protect against roadside bombs.

Second, more Afghan National Army soldiers are in the field, leading operations ahead of Canadian Forces members who continue to mentor them.

Third, stepping up foot patrols and redirecting more troops into the villages is helping the Canadians hold ground, meaning the army is less frequently forced to fight to recapture the same patches of land...