Great people

Almost more than we deserve. Good on Matthew Fisher for this article in the National Post:

Afghan mission morale still high

Stefano Rellandini, Reuters. A Canadian soldier rests after six hours of night foot patrol during a mission last week in a Taliban stronghold in the Zhari district of Afghanistan.

There have been 19 deaths during the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group's current watch in Afghanistan, including four in two separate explosions in the Kandahari hinterlands on Friday.

Those deaths brought to 116 the number of Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since Colonel Pat Stogran and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry first set foot in Kandahar almost seven years ago.

Despite questions about Canada's Afghan mission growing at home and elsewhere, fed by public comments by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others, as well as ominous international reports on the deteriorating security situation, morale among those who are executing Ottawa's mission in Afghanistan remains remarkably high. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a soldier who speaks against the mission and even rarer among the infantrymen and armoured types who have done the bulk of the fighting.

Some armchair generals and politicians speak in increasingly dire terms about this being a mission in crisis and one that may not or probably cannot be won [to repeat from an earlier post: "reminds me of Doubting Thomas Walkom of the Toronto Star, whose view seems to be spreading fairly fast"]. But that dark opinion is absolutely not shared by those who are serving here.

After each of the deaths, officers have spoken publicly and to their troops about the need to grieve but also to keep focused. This is a sense of purpose that is almost universally shared by the troops.

Why is this so when so many of their comrades have been killed? A partial explanation might be that to say otherwise would be to somehow betray the sacrifice made by the dead. But it is more than that. The young Canadian men and women here have been amazed by this desperately poor country and its people and are sincerely convinced that they are helping them to reach a better tomorrow.

It must also be said that the arrival of Chinook and Griffon helicopters has put a bit of extra spring in the step of those on the frontlines. Their work has become a little easier and safer.

Furthermore, it has brought Canada badly needed respect within the tight military community in southern Afghanistan. Choppers are a shared NATO asset and Canada's commanders no longer have to endure the embarrassment of mooching off the Americans, the British or the Dutch for a lift. Rather, they can help them out.

Yes, it is certainly possible to hear gripes. A few soldiers about to head home were complaining to each other the other day about already having orders or having been told to expect orders to return to this sandbox next year.

But their beef was not so much with having to come back to Afghanistan. Most soldiers like deploying. They did not sign up for a life of comfort but for a life of variety and challenge.

What angers the ranks is the long training cycles that each unit must undertake between rotations to Afghanistan [see this post by Babbling]. It doesn't sound so bad that after serving six months here most soldiers will get at least one full year at home. However, the reality, especially for those in combat arms, is that many months of that time at home is spent in places such as Fort Hood, Tex. [most Texas training is actually at Fort Bliss], and Wainwright, Alta., rather than at their own bases with their families.

Whether soldiers are camped out on a firing range in North America or patrolling poppy fields or clearing mud huts in Kandahar makes little difference to a spouse trying to keep three young kids happy or a young man or woman who almost never sees her partner for several years.

That Afghan tours never really end, whether the troops are here or at home, cuts the heart of the much larger issue of whether Canada can sustain the mission and should, but likely won't encourage discussion about how successive governments have asked so much of the military in the Balkans, Africa and Afghanistan without providing them with sufficient funding to build a sufficiently large, expeditionary force to meet Ottawa's objectives.

Despite this, the mounting casualties and gloomy predictions about NATO and Afghanistan's prospects, Canadians should know that their countrymen walking point in the killing fields of Afghanistan still believe it is important for them to be here.