Baltics doing their bit

A letter in the Globe and Mail (love their snarky and dismissive title--text payers only):

Three Baltic amigos

GINTE DAMUSIS; MARGERS KRAMS; RASMUS LUMI
ambassador, Lithuania; ambassador, Latvia; charge d'affaires, Estonia

April 14, 2008

Ottawa -- In his column We Are The Fourth Baltic Amigo (April 11), Rick Salutin puts the total input of the contribution of our countries to international missions in Afghanistan and Iraq at "nine police trainers." The actual troop numbers are as follows: in Afghanistan, Estonia 120 (140 by the summer), Latvia 100 and Lithuania 260; in Iraq, Estonia 40, Latvia 3 (125 returned to Latvia last year after completing a four-year mission) and Lithuania 49. Our countries also participate in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo with 29, 19 and 32 people, respectively. These numbers do not include advisers, experts and police officers.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have a total population of seven million people. Yet, Estonia is currently fifth in per capita contribution of troops to Afghanistan in volatile Helmand province. The Provincial Reconstruction Team in Meymaneh was recently boosted with more Latvian soldiers and a civilian component. Lithuania leads a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghor province and has special forces in Kandahar.

If acting responsibly and contributing to international security is "pathetic," as Mr. Salutin says, so be it. We are proud to be among those pulling their weight.

Mr Salutin's bilious column (full text payers only) concludes with this bit of mind-boggling "ass-backwardness", to use St. Rick's own word:

...The Soviets were originally invited in, with the usual verbal convolutions. But "we" simply invaded, overthrew a government and installed our own, which then "invited" us in. The least he can do is get his story straight, in the sense of intelligently dishonest.

No wonder Canadians are confused if they read this nonsense in "Canada's National Newspaper". The Soviets were not "invited in", they invaded with armed force and the (Communist) Afghan president was killed; the "verbal convolutions" came afterwards. As for the mythical invasion of Afstan in 2001, see this comment of mine at a progressive blog. Not commonly realized is that the Northern Alliance, which the intervention supported, was the internationally recognized government of Afstan and held its UN seat.

The Torch, I should point out, has repeatedly mentioned the Estonian effort in Afstan.