A Canadian general getting out the message from Kabul

More on our wide-ranging mission (but note the rather depressing bit at the end of this post):

Afghan people must 'see a difference' in their lives, general says
Canadian on campaign to show mission is about more than fighting

Brig.-Gen. Richard Blanchette was taken aback by the initial interactions he had with Afghans when he arrived in Kabul last summer as NATO's point man in the information war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

"I had some expectations as to what were going to be the questions that I was asked and ... they came with questions that were much more along the lines of conspiracy theories," the former Van Doo battalion commander said.

"Things like, 'General Blanchette, you are not going to tell us that the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany all together are not able to get rid of a bunch of guys hiding in caves? You have to have another reason why you want to stay here so long.'

"'Why don't you bomb them? You know where they are exactly, you have the cameras and satellites, so why don't you get rid of them?'"

The questions, which came during a radio show, surprised NATO's chief spokesman in Afghanistan so much that he looked at the host, expecting him to move on to a caller with a more serious question.

"But then I realized that perhaps our message was not being understood the way it should have been," Blanchette said.

With the help of his Canadian assistant, Maj. Holly Apostoliuk, Blanchette has embarked on a campaign to reach out to Afghans through radio and television appearances and talks at universities and with focus groups.

"Some of these gatherings were very small, but somebody with the media told me that some of them were reaching four million people and that is not insignificant," said Blanchette, who was raised in the Saguenay with 13 siblings.

When meeting Afghans, the general -- who has served previously in Germany, France, Cyprus, Haiti, the Middle East, Rwanda and Florida -- now works closely with Gen. David McKiernan, the American who runs the war in Afghanistan.

He said that while it might sound strange in the Afghan context, NATO is in the business of "service delivery."

"There is no word that is too strong to explain that the Afghan has to see a difference in his life," he said. "If they see a difference, if this is the end of it, there has to be something that tastes better after 30 years of war."

To win the war, NATO had to do much more than just fight. It had to carefully synchronize what was happening on the battlefield with improved governance and reconstruction, Blanchette said [here's an interview with our recent senior civilian at Kandahar on such things].

"We know it is not just about killing the last of Taliban," he said.

"This is not a war of attrition. It has got to be people-centric with the people saying 'bas,' or 'enough,'" as a group of Dari-speaking women had told him at a recent meeting in Kabul.

Although dozens of countries are part of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan [note the "Multimedia" at right here], and there has been a lot of jockeying for the top staff jobs in Kabul, Blanchette's successor as ISAF's chief spokesman this summer is to be another Canadian general [emphasis added].

"Most of us are bilingual," Blanchette said as he began to explain why Canadians appeared to have a lock on this key position as NATO's public face in Afghanistan.

Other factors included "the fact that we are not American or British, that, if you look at the size of our population, we have a lot of soldiers deployed, and that ... Canada had accepted a challenging area. This combination has made a Canadian ... a pretty good candidate to speak on behalf of (the) ISAF.

And see this post from October 2008:

Psyops at Kandahar

Meanwhile both NATO (see Natochannel.tv) and the Canadian government ("Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan") are now making a real effort to use the Internet to connect with wider publics. Perhaps a bit late when a leading Canadian journalist is writing this:

Afghanistan mission at tipping point
As the number of days for Canadian troops in Afghanistan dwindles, so does public support for an increasingly troubled mission...


A Canadian soldier from 1st battalion Royal 22nd Regiment C company 7th platoon of the NATO-led coalition patrols in the stronghold of Panjwaii in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, on Friday. The recent uproar over societal trends in Afghanistan that clash disturbingly with modern values makes Canadians increasingly squeamish about defending them with the lives of our soldiers.
Photograph by: Stefano Rellandini, Reuters, Canwest News Service

...while the fight to help Afghans help themselves rages on under extreme circumstances, it now appears the battle for Canadian hearts and minds supporting the mission has been lost.