"Canada's Arctic sovereignty undisputed, not threatened"

Another letter of mine, this one in The Hill Times (Ottawa's inside baseball paper). Plus the conclusion of a rather lengthier one by someone else in Vanguard magazine:

A question of security, not sovereignty

...

Simplistically, Canada’s sovereignty is challenged in two ways. First, Canada believes that its national laws are applicable to all vessels navigating northern waters. Under the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it is unclear whether foreign vessels are legally entitled to a maritime right of passage when navigating through Canada’s northern waters. If they were entitled to such a right, Canada’s jurisdiction over transient vessels would be severely restricted. Second, the location of Canada’s maritime boundaries remains disputed. Again this mostly refers to UNCLOS, where countries refute Canada’s methodology for delimiting maritime boundaries, but there also exists three bilateral disputes that Canada manages with its polar neighbours. Also, Canada has yet to delimit the extent of its continental shelf, and must do so by 2013 if it wants access to the billions of barrels of oil believed to be underneath the Arctic sea floor.

Importantly, there is a theme to Canada’s current sovereignty woes. They are maritime in nature and have little to do with the occupation of territory. Even in the case of Hans Island, the dispute is based upon Canada and Denmark not agreeing to the maritime border around the island from joint survey work that was conducted in 1972.

Ms. Teeple’s article reflects general misconceptions about Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. Yes, there is unquestionably a need to enhance Canada’s present ability to monitor and react to events in the Arctic. Her article is correct in implying this.

However, not every foreign action in the Arctic threatens our sovereignty. A foreign unwanted presence upon Canadian soil would be a matter of national security, and that, remains indisputable.

Marshall S. Horne
Masters of Strategic Studies Candidate
Centre for Military and Strategic Studies
University of Calgary

More here:

"Arctic sovereignty", or, "The cold truth"

Update: Beware the Viking scourge, Prime Minister Harper et al.

What the Afghan war demonstrates about Canada

The, to me pitiful, fact that a wealthy nation of 33 million people cannot keep some 1,000 troops in combat--with around 30-40 fatalities a year--for more than five years. Reasons: political controversy, public ambivalence, and a very limited military capacity.

Earlier:

Canada and Afstan: I cringe for my country

Embedding with the Afghans

Something to continue after 2011?

Canadians teaching Afghans how to fight are following an honourable tradition, says Canada's top Operational Mentor and Liaison Team adviser to forces in Kandahar, and it's a mission widely expected to expand after 2011...

The widespread opinion of Canadian troops deployed in Kandahar is that when the current combat mission ends in 2011 [see this post], the OMLT unit, which helps train the Afghan army, will not only continue but expand...

There was widespread praise among Canadians about the Afghans' fighting skills. There was also agreement that of all the disciplines, logistics was the Afghan National Army's weakest.

For Maj. Lawrence Methot, who mentors the Afghan logistics battalion in Kandahar, the problems include a reluctance among Afghan officers to hold staff meetings, a legacy from the Afghan officers' training in the rigid Soviet system -- where all orders come from the top down [see last part of this post].

Hall called this assignment the most gratifying job he has had in a long career in the military...

More on OMLTs here. On the other hand, BruceR sees a problem should, as seems almost certain, the US replace our battle group.

Meanwhile, an embedded US Marine trainer whose tour has just ended is...

...hearing rumors that the embedded training concept is going away. I’m not sure if this means the ANA are going to partner directly with the adjacent Coalition unit in the area without the benefit of an ETT to facilitate, or if this means the ANA is just going to operate independently. Either way, I’d hate to see the concept go away as I’m certain ETTs are huge force multipliers...

More from the Marine about the ANA at another post:

[It] makes it hard for me when I can’t get my ANA to do more than four or five patrols in a week. When I see the US Army here going out every day, and often more than once a day, while my Afghans play volleyball, it makes it a little hard to feel proud of the job I’m doing with them. At times I’m almost ashamed at the scheduling meetings when I tell the Army guys that the ANA are taking another day off for “religious classes." When questioned about this issue, I laugh it off and say the ANA are in it for the long haul.



We do what we can here to get them to work more, but overcoming the attitude of the culture in general towards work is tough, and overcoming the Afghan military cultural problems that stand in our way is even tougher...

Afghan military culture doesn’t help our cause either. Many Afghan officers don’t lead by example. Most do not go out regularly on patrols. When the Afghan officers aren’t often sharing the dangers of their men, the men aren’t going to feel that risk is fairly distributed, and thus will be less likely to believe in the mission and do a serviceable job.

Additionally, Afghan officers are afraid of making any type of non-conforming decision that might get them into trouble...

The bright spot is that the younger officers I’ve worked with are much better than the older guys. Afghan Army officers basically come in three varieties: the older officers who were Russian-trained or influenced; the former mujahideen fighters/commanders; and the new, younger, American-trained generation. The former mujahideen fighters make pretty good officers and are revered by their men, but don’t have the education or formal schooling and don’t listen to advice. The older officers, in the words of my best interpreter, a former ANA 1stSgt, “don’t ever want to leave the base” and have an excuse why they can’t do anything about their problems or act on our suggestions. The new generation of officers is much more willing to do operations, listen to our advice, and make some changes on the fly if need be, although they’re still somewhat afraid to make mistakes. Unfortunately, for now the power lies with that older group of officers. Hopefully, once the younger, American-trained generation comes of age, things will start changing rapidly for the better.

Update: From BruceR at Flit:

...
"K" from the Konar ETT says farewell. I was struck throughout his reporting how interchangeable "his" Afghans and "my" Afghans seemed to be, offering reassurance that the challenges we experienced as military mentors were not confined to Regional Command South...

Read on for some interesting observations on Brits mentoring Arabs, and Germans Turks, in World War I ("Lawrence vs. Liman").

Dr Goebbels on the line

A letter in the Globe and Mail:

Talking to the Taliban

Eric Morse [Director, Communications]
Toronto

Your Saturday line story reflects an amazing naiveté about what goes on in wartime (Taliban claim victory over vote - front page, Aug. 29).

Everyone proclaims victory in war, that is a given. But can you imagine The Globe and Mail in 1944 indulging such ineffable credulity as to grant the same front-page play to Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels as it now has to an 'unnamed Taliban spokesman' - let alone conducting an interview with him by telephone?

It is widely discussed in the Western media that the Taliban are skilled in exploiting the Western media. But do the Western media really have to help them out quite so enthusiastically?

Earlier posts:

"We Didn't Really MEAN We'd Hurt, Maim and Kill Voters"

"News From Afghanistan: Understatement-ad-Absurdum, Snake Oil and Propaganda"

Real propaganda

"Harper speaking to Canada's dark side?", and Canadian defence policy in the past, and Canadian nukes

A wonderfully wandering topic thread at Milnet.ca.

The Canadian War Museum: "An extraordinary story" (videos)

Two excellent videos by John Robson of the Ottawa Citizen. There is a strong message in the second one about our politicians'--and pundits'--ignorance of military things (more here on that, "indirect fire" anyone?):

First:

Second:

The Museum. The hall Mr Robson is in is truly worth visiting. More than once.

Insensitive Blog Post About Recent CF Injury

Remember this incident last week?

The Crooked in Canada web log has this to say about it:

"....A Canadian soldier who was maybe looking to getting out of serving in Afghanistan has managed to shoot his or herself and according to the limited reports coming out of Kandahar, the self-inflicted gunshot wound was accidental. Hmm…

Maybe it was one of those deliberate kinds of accidents. You know the kind of accident I am talking about, the one that helps get somebody out of a jam, or away from a place he or she just doesn’t want to be in, like a war zone for example.

Having said that, I wonder how many Canadian soldiers have thought about shooting themselves to avoid having to serve out their tour of duty. Surely there are a few soldiers who have thought of that as an easy way out, right.

I wonder if the wounded soldier was aware that the so-called “fighting season” in Afghanistan is over now. I’m thinking if he did know [that] he might not have accidentally shot himself."

Notwithstanding the fact we don't know what happened yet, how would this blogger feel if he read this sort of post about a member of his/her family being injured, or even attempting suicide?

A tiny bit more here.

US administration worries about Afstan

Further to this post,

US military realism/pessimism about Afstan

two major stories:

1) LA Times:

U.S. fears clock ticking on Afghanistan
As public support wanes, the Obama administration feels it needs to deliver speedy progress in Afghanistan so that it can gain time and backing for its long-term military strategy.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Washington - The Obama administration is racing to demonstrate visible headway in the faltering war in Afghanistan, convinced it has only until next summer to slow a hemorrhage in U.S. support and win more time for the military and diplomatic strategy it hopes can rescue the 8-year-old effort.

But the challenge in Afghanistan is becoming more difficult in the face of gains by the Taliban, rising U.S. casualties, a weak Afghan government widely viewed as corrupt, and a sense among U.S. commanders that they must start the military effort largely from scratch nearly eight years after it began.

A turnaround is crucial because military strategists believe they will not be able to get the additional troops they feel they need in coming months if they fail to show that their new approach is working [emphasis added], U.S. officials and advisors say.

"Over the next 12 to 15 months, among the things you absolutely, positively have to do is persuade a skeptical American public that this can work, that you have a plan and a strategy that is feasible," said Stephen Biddle, a military expert who advises the U.S.-led command in Afghanistan...

Besides reversing Taliban advances and strengthening the central government, U.S. officials will strive to hold the NATO alliance intact while reshuffling deployments to consolidate gains, especially in the eastern part of the country, near the Pakistani border [emphasis added, see para 5 on here--LA Times seems to only paper noticing the east much]]...

Diplomatically, U.S. officials have begun a push to persuade NATO countries to send more forces to Afghanistan. And they are also trying to stave off departures by key allies.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with its 38,000 troops, is considered important both to combat efforts and to the international credibility of the war.

But Canada, which now oversees the southern regional command, is scheduled to pull out its combat troops in 2011, and the Dutch are scheduled to leave next year [emphasis added--MND MacKay is standing firm, good luck getting much more out of the Euros]. A German opposition party, the Free Democrats, this month called for the removal of Germany's 4,500 troops. And in Britain, public support for the war is flagging.

Any departures mean more work for U.S. forces, but are also likely to raise questions at home about why Americans are shouldering so much of the burden of the conflict.

"We cannot afford to re-Americanize the war [emphasis added]," said a senior administration official...

But I'm afraid they already have; see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

2) Washington Post:

U.S. Sets Metrics to Assess War Success

The White House has assembled a list of about 50 measurements to gauge progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan as it tries to calm rising public and congressional anxiety about its war strategy.

Administration officials are conducting what one called a "test run" of the metrics, comparing current numbers in a range of categories -- including newly trained Afghan army recruits, Pakistani counterinsurgency missions and on-time delivery of promised U.S. resources -- with baselines set earlier in the year. The results will be used to fine-tune the list before it is presented to Congress by Sept. 24.

Lawmakers set that deadline in the spring as a condition for approving additional war funding, holding President Obama to his promise of "clear benchmarks" and no "blank check."

Since then, skepticism about the war in Afghanistan has intensified along with the rising U.S. and NATO casualty rates, now at the highest level of the eight-year-old conflict. An upcoming assessment by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the new military commander in Afghanistan, is expected to lay the groundwork for requests for additional U.S. troop deployments in 2010 [emphasis added].

The administration's concern about waning public support and the war's direction has been compounded by strains in the U.S. relationship with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Facing their own public opinion problems, both appear increasingly resentful of U.S. demands for improved performance in the face of what they see as insufficient American support...

I've never had much faith in "metrics". It's what Afghans themselves decide that will be decisive. And, I must admit, reductions in this metric should help

Otherwise:

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pays surprise visit to troops in southern Afghanistan [I don't think you'll see Prime Minister Harper in field anytime soon]

Taliban's growth in Afghanistan's north threatens to expand war [more here and here on Germans and Kunduz]

Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 Builds One of the Largest Marine Corps Airfields [more here and here]

Bundeswehr update: Brits not the only major military with big problems:

Snafu in Afghanistan
German Troops Bemoan 'Criticial' Deficits in Training and Equipment

MPs in the field...

...at exercises--and on board ship. Seems like a good program to me since only nine MPs (out of 308) have Canadian military experience (this one, defeated at the last election, served with the Pakistan Air Force):

MPs in training
Parliamentarians embed with the Forces

Fifteen MPs ditched their suits for military garb this summer and embedded themselves with the Canadian Forces.

They joined existing training exercises of the navy and army. They were shot at, while others learned to shoot. They patrolled mock Afghan villages and simulated ambushes against suspected "Taliban" hideouts.

"The mock battles (were) so realistic, you just can't imagine -- and it is not a game, it is taken so seriously," Liberal MP Frank Valeriote said.

Valeriote and seven other MPs recently returned from four days at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright, Alta., where the army has tried to replicate life in Afghanistan and at the Kandahar Airfield [good stuff here (with video at end) and here--better than I could find on any CF webpage].

Afghan-Canadians have even been hired to play local Afghans, police officers and Taliban insurgents.

It may feel real, but there is no live ammunition -- when IEDs explode, it's baby powder, Maj. Dale MacEachern said.

MPs and soldiers were outfitted with a weapons effect simulation vest, implanted with sensors that allow the wearer to know where they have been injured or if they have been "fatally" shot by lasers on enemy weapons...

The goal of the Canadian Forces Parliamentary Program is to provide the country's decision makers with a "clearer " understanding of the issues facing the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, said its DND organizer, Alexandra Hernandez.

So far this summer, 15 MPs have joined; by the end of September, 38 parliamentarians are expected to participate.

Some programs are more popular than others. "There is a waiting list for the air force, Hernandez said, adding numbers are restricted because "it's really hard to bring more than two people in a CF-18."

NDP leader Jack Layton, who spent 24 hours on board HMCS Halifax in early August, had to climb a swinging rope to board the ship. "Your first exposure is very real -- it's a 50- or 60-foot fall if you were to let go," he said...

JUSTIN TRUDEAU RECOUNTS HIS FIRST OVERNIGHT MISSION [read on]...

Photos of Mr Layton and Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber:

Le chef du NPD Jack Layton a passé 24 heures à bord de la frégate HMCS Halifax et le député conservateur Brent Rathgeber a appris à se servir d'une mitrailleuse.
© Agence QMI

More on exercises training for Afstan here, here and here.

"We Didn't Really MEAN We'd Hurt, Maim and Kill Voters"

My two favourite quotes from folks alleging to be Taliban commanders, speaking to the Globe & Mail about how they essentially "won" the election in Afghanistan:

"He said his fighters never intended to follow through on threats outlined in “night letters” – leaflets warning death and dismemberment to would-be voters."

Uh, I guess that memo didn't make it to all the branch offices, right?

“We are not targeting Afghan civilians. We are targeting foreign fighters.”

Lots of “foreign fighters” hit in Kandahar last week, then? Oh, wait, the Taliban didn't do it.....

A bit more here.

"Arctic sovereignty", or, "The cold truth"

I've been hammering about the government's strident, scarifying ("use it or lose it"), jingoist, and mainly meaningless, "policy" of affirming Canadian sovereignty in the north. Which has taken in most of the major media (but they do seem to be slowly waking up, e.g. here and, a year ago, here--fustest). And taken in the populace too. Now the conclusion of an article by Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

...a lot of what the Harper government is doing in the North is beneficial. Op Nanook teaches soldiers and civilian agencies to pool resources and expertise and to improvise creatively under pressure, which can only be to the good in any future environmental disaster or search-and-rescue crisis. Harper has belatedly turned his attention to another fundamental challenge, programs that could enhance the quality of life for the Inuit and other Arctic residents. There is nothing wrong with more concerted government activity in the North.

All that’s wrong is the justification, the false fears and hopes it engenders. At the top of the world, just like anywhere else, we deserve more straight talk from our leaders.

Mr Wells is too kind. And this perfervid patriotism based on false premises is seriously distorting the government's naval policy. See:

Arctic/Offshore patrol ships: More never never land
Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships: Neverer land still

More Afghan pipeline nonsense

Rounding up the usual conspiracy theories--letter in the Toronto Star:

Pipeline a long-standing plan TheStar.com - Opinion - Pipeline a long-standing plan

August 28, 2009

Re:Enough of the Afghanistan war `racket,'

Letter, Aug. 27

Letter writer Graeme Gardiner refers to "... the TAPI pipeline planned to go directly through Kandahar, and American wishes to have NATO guard pipelines in the future" and implies that pipeline is a major reason for the Canadian presence in Afghanistan. Nonsense.

There is indeed a long-standing plan to transport natural gas produced in Turkmenistan by pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan and maybe India (the TAPI countries). But that is hardly a vital national security or capitalist interest for the U.S. or for other NATO members. Moreover, the participating countries will own the pipeline. And, given current conditions, such a pipeline is not likely to be built for quite a while.

Mark Collins, Ottawa

References sent with original:
http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/06/18/Progress-on-TAPI-pipeline-in-doubt/UPI-29261245335324/
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\14\story_14-5-2009_pg7_16
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/gail-to-lay-tapi-pipeline/302755/ (see para 2)

Remember the New "Tactical Directive"....

.... issued early in July? This one (.pdf)? The one aimed at reducing accidental civilian casualties by NATO?

After all the MSM coverage of the directive highlighting civilian casualties attributed to NATO, so far, only CanWest's Matthew Fisher says it appears to be working.

Well done.

(A little bit more here.)

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times says the same thing - well done to them, too.

Afstan: The right commander for the job gives "Guidance"

Further to Terry Glavin's remarks at this post, I think he is quite right. Here again is the "Guidance" to the troops from ISAF commander General McChrystal. Read it and read it again, and hope the forces under his command take it to heart and act consequently. Don't cut down fruit trees, for a start.

The paper is superb. Well written. Short sentences. Purpose, strategy and tactics covered in seven pages. I spent around 30 years as a federal Canadian government bureaucrat and never saw such a document. Note also that General McChrystal never uses the words "terrorist" or "terrorism".

And note also the two people who sign the "Guidance" at p. 6.

Amnesty International's Double Standard in Afghanistan

Amnesty International says one side in the Afghan fight must look into and avoid any seizure of medical facilities from enemy hands, while calling for no investigation of or sanctions against the other side for doing the same.

Guess who Amnesty is calling on to do which?

Correct!

"Afghanistan: protecting the people is the mission"

Excerpts from Conference of Defence Association's media round-up:

...
Afghanistan
...
Stratfor has an informative podcast on the recent presidential election in Afghanistan.
http://www.stratfor.com/podcast/20090826_bombs_and_ballot_box_afghanistan

Frederick Kagan for the Weekly Standard criticizes the comparison between the Soviet and current international troops’ presence in Afghanistan.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/854qadbb.asp

The Council on Foreign Relations provides an interactive timeline of the war in Afghanistan since 2001.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/20018/

The Guardian has published a series of diary entries of a British soldier who served in Helmand province in July.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/23/afghanistan-soldier-diary-helmand-ta...

Rory Stewart, in a radio interview and in an article in the London Review of Books, critiques current Western Afghan strategy.
http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/08/rory-stewart-the-impossible-afghan-mission
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n13/stew01_.html

Dexter Filkins for the New York Times Magazine writes on the education of girls in Kandahar province.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23school-t.html

...

Recommended reading

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has released the August edition of the CTC Sentinel, which covers topics such as counter-insurgency in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq, and homegrown terror in the United States.
http://www.ctc.usma.edu/sentinel/CTCSentinel-Vol2Iss8.pdf

Robert Kagan in the Washington Post criticizes the “neat distinction” between wars of “choice” and “necessity” used by the Obama administration [more at Update thoughts here].
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR20090821029...

Damian Brooks for The Torch blog criticizes the propagation of Taliban viewpoints in the international media [emphasis added].
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2009/08/real-propaganda.html...

Related:

COMISAF COIN GUIDANCE

COMISAF COIN GUIDANCE

General McChrystal's marching orders to his troops--including Canadians. The title [text also here]:

ISAF Commander's Counterinsurgency Guidance
Protecting the people is the mission.
The conflict will be won by persuading the population, not by destroying the enemy.
ISAF will succeed when GIRoA earns the support of the people.

Via Terry Glavin, who has some choice words on the matter (links added):

I am finally convinced that the Americans are serious about winning [but much still rests on President Obama], and I am convinced that with the Americans at the helm in the south now [see, e.g, here, here and here], we will win. There is a major change in the US approach. McChrystal is a true special-ops intellectual. His counter-insurgency guidance is brilliant in its simplicity and political sophistication.

"Embrace the people. . . earn their trust. . .seek out the underprivileged, the disenfranchised, the disaffected. . .work with the children and students. . .shield the people from harm. . .live and train together. . .plan and operate together. . .be a positive force in the community. . .confront corrupt officials. . .listen and learn from our Afghan colleagues. . .improve daily [see Update here for Canadians]."

It is "an argument," McChrystal says, between the Taliban and ISAF. "Win the argument," is his instruction. I sometimes make jokes about how ISAF should learn from Mao's guerilla war strategy. I am not joking now. The reasons the People's Liberation Army won are the reasons why we will win if McChrystal's strategy is carried to its fullest. Here's the PLA standard version, 1947:

"Obey orders in all your actions. Do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses. Turn in everything captured. Speak politely. Pay fairly for what you buy. Return everything you borrow. Pay for anything you damage. Do not hit or swear at people. Do not damage crops. Do not take liberties with women. Do not ill-treat captives."

It's not rocket science. It's popular armed struggle.

As for that struggle, Mr Glavin took the PLA quote above from the end of this:

Lin Biao
Long Live the Victory of People’s War!
Build a People’s Army of a New Type

HMCS Ville de Québec to Seaway and Great Lakes

Official news release:

Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Ville De Québec sailing to Québec and Ontario on Recruiting Mission
Maritime Forces Atlantic/Forces maritimes de l'Atlantique 56/09 - August 26, 2009

HALIFAX – HMCS Ville De Québec departed Halifax today, kicking off a six-week Canadian tour to include eleven port visits along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.

[Photo added:]

Known as the Great Lakes Deployment (GLD), the main purpose of the trip is to raise awareness among Canadians of their Navy and the many career opportunities available for technicians. “Our goal is to bring the Navy to Canadians who might not otherwise know of its valuable contribution both at home and abroad,” said Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden, Chief of Maritime Staff. “We want Canadians to see one of their ships and meet its sailors firsthand. We also have a team of recruiters onboard, and they will provide information about the fantastic jobs we have available for those interested in serving their country at sea.” [News story: "Canadian Navy seeks to overcome recruiting problem with PR blitz".]

Through its Special Education Program for Non-Commissioned Members, the Canadian Forces are currently offering those who qualify as potential naval technicians an opportunity to receive a subsidized college education in their occupation of choice while also receiving an income. They get paid to learn. The qualifying occupations include that of marine engineering mechanic, naval electronics technician (communications), naval electronics technicians (sonar), naval electronics technician (radar), and naval weapons technician.

“The Navy is committed to being a world-class employer and a compelling career option for Canadians coast to coast to coast,” Commander Luc Cassivi, Commanding Officer of HMCS Ville De Québec, said today. “The Great Lakes Deployment is the best way we have to bring the Navy to central Canada”.

Ville De Québec’s first port will be Gaspé, Québec from August 28th to the 31st. This stopover will feature a reenactment of the arrival of Jacques Cartier to commemorate the 475th anniversary of his first landing on the East Coast. As with all the port visits, the ship will fire its ceremonial gun upon entering the port, perform sunset ceremonies as well as other naval rituals, and conduct public tours. In addition, the Navy recruiting bus and recruiting displays will be set up. Following Gaspé, the ship will visit Toronto, where Ville de Québec will take part in the Canadian National Exhibition. The ship will then travel to Sarnia, Windsor, Oshawa, Montréal, Trois-Rivières, Québec, La Malbaie and Saguenay. The final port will be Matane on October 5th and 6th. A complete port schedule is available at www.forces.ca/experience/en/index.aspx.

- 30 -

NOTE TO EDITORS:

For more information on this deployment, please contact the Navy Public Affairs Office in Halifax at (902) 427-3766. The Public Affairs Officer accompanying the ship is Lieutenant (Navy) Alain Blondin. Contact him by email at alain.blondin@forces.gc.ca . For further information on the subsidized education program for non-commissioned members please go to http://www.forces.ca/html/entryplans_en.aspx . For HMCS Ville de Québec’s website, go to http://www.navy.dnd.ca/villedequebec/0/0-s_eng.asp.

HMCS Charlottetown make a similar voyage in 2008, as did HMCS Halifax in 2007. A year ago the Ville de Québec was protecting from pirates off Somalia. The Charlottetown also had an eventual cruise in 2007-8.

Kandahar: RCMP working with US Army MPs

Obviously related to the situation described in this post. One wonders how often the RCMP has operated with a foreign army:

U.S. [military] police to bolster Canadian cop ranks in Afghanistan

Canadian police mentors in Kandahar City are going to get help soon from the U.S. army.

"These are not just any Americans. It is a company of military police," assistant commissioner Graham Muir of the RCMP said in an interview on Wednesday.

...
Photo Credit: Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service

"What is about to unfold," the senior Canadian police officer in Afghanistan said, is that Canadian mentors based in the country's second largest city are going to be "a little more robust in the field" because the U.S. military police that they will soon work with "have fighting skills."

The more than 100 newcomers from the U.S. are to work directly for Brig-Gen. Jon Vance, the Canadian who runs Task Force Kandahar [as part of Joint Task Force Afghanistan]. A battalion of U.S. army infantry already reports to Vance [see end of this post], whose command will soon number more than 4,000 troops, including 2,800 Canadians .

The move to add the U.S. military police officers was planned weeks before a truck bomb killed 43 Afghans and injured scores of others Tuesday night in Kandahar. But that attack underscored why bringing more security to the notorious Taliban bastion in the country is a key priority of NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal...

The U.S. MPs are to live alongside Canadian police mentors at a Canadian base in Kandahar. Their presence should allow the mentors to have greater mobility which in turn should permit them to spend more time with Afghan police from nine or 10 sub-stations in the city, Muir said.

"It is a force multiplier for us to be in the presence of the ANP with considerably more frequency," he said, adding "as much as humanly possible, coaching and training needs to be done in the field."

The goal was for Afghan police to be able to move at will, own the night and know their neighbourhoods better, said Muir, a veteran of previous tours on behalf of the RCMP in the Balkans and Haiti.

"If the police can move freely, the corollary is that there is less space for the bad guys," Muir said. "To own the night is self-explanatory. Knowing your public means knowing who belongs (in an area) and who doesn't."

But such an approach is an uneasy fit with Afghanistan's existing police culture.

"The police here are mostly static at checkpoints, guarding buildings or waiting in their stations to be called," he said, referring to this as "a garrison mentality [emphasis added]."

"There is an operational imperative that attaches to the process. It must be pragmatic and clear. That is to enable the Afghan police who as part of the Afghan National Security Forces have a responsibility for counter-insurgency.

"This is a country at war. These are not normal policing circumstances [quite--see end of this post from July 2008]."

The risk to foreign police assisting Afghan police was made plain nearly two weeks ago when a Taliban car bomber blew himself up near NATO headquarters in Kabul. Sgt. Brian Kelly of the RCMP was badly injured in the attack and is now recovering at a hospital in Ottawa. That incident was a stark warning about the dangers that the 42 Canadian police officers currently posted here [emphasis added--not all Mounties] face every day...

...whether they are on mounted patrols or on foot with Afghan colleagues, Canadian police in Kandahar only go out in the field with support from Canadian infantry who create "a sufficiently permissive environment," Muir said. The same "force protection" principles would be followed when Canadian police go out with the U.S. military police.

Unlike Canada's mentors who spend much of their time walking the beat with Afghan police, hundreds of police mentors from Europe here mainly assist at the strategic level and seldom venture "outside the wire [emphasis added--see Uppestdate here]."

"[N]ot normal policing circumstances." For the Mounties too. And a post from this June:

The US and training Afghan police in Regional Command South

CF abandoning their war artist?

Things seem to have developed unfavourably for Karen Bailey since she was mentioned in this January 2009 post:

"A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan"

Earl McRae of the Ottawa Sun is outraged:

Artist's Afghan works get the brush off
Military refuses to promote paintings they helped fund, of our troops in Afghanistan

A hurtful, cruel snub, but so bloody typical in this no-rate country symbolized by The Canadian Disease: Small, dull, dreary, half-dead minds shrivelled by a crippling apathy, inertia, and disinclination to dislodge oneself from life’s comfortable sit-but-do-nothing crapper.

Karen Bailey, war artist, has had to resort to self-exhibiting her magnificent paintings in the corridor outside her small studio in an old former school on Crichton St. because she can’t get Canada to give a damn about her work, including, most inexcusably, the Canadian military that flew her to Afghanistan because it was supposedly proud of the men and women doctors and nurses in our armed forces who’ve been attending sick, wounded, and dying soldiers and Afghan civilians at the Kandahar base hospital.

Artist Karen Bailey shows off her paintings of Canadian troops from her trip to Kandahar. DND paid for the trip but wants nothing to do with the paintings. TONY CALDWELL/Sun Media

But are you ready for this? The Americans, the Americans heard of Karen Bailey’s paintings of our brave Canadian doctors, nurses, and medical technicians at work, and the Americans will be proudly exhibiting her acrylic images for an entire month next year at the University of New Orleans’ prestigious St. Claude Gallery, part of the largest museum devoted to Second World War artifacts in the United States.

“We are very much looking forward to this show,” said A. Lawrence Jenkins, professor and chair of the UNO department of fine arts, in a letter this week to Karen Bailey. And any and all costs, including Karen Bailey’s flights, meals, and accommodation, will be looked after by the gallery.

God bless you, America.

Shame on you, Canada.

If, however, you are not one of the apathetic, inert, Canadian dullards, you can show your caring, your pride in our soldiers, by showing up for Karen Bailey’s exhibit from the 28th of September to the 9th of October between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (closed Sunday) at 200 Crichton St.

“I hope people don’t mind that all I will be serving is water,” she says in her small, cramped, rented studio on the top floor of the old school, “but I’m putting it on myself and it’s all I can afford.”...

When Bailey got home she immersed herself totally in her war theatre paintings, 20 canvasses, and just recently finished the two-year project. But it wasn’t just recently that, disturbingly, she became aware of an appalling disinterest in her on-going work by the same military hierarchy that approved her trip. She was hoping it might have a desire to proudly show her work of its Canadian doctors and nurses, to proudly show Canadians, to help her in that initiative. Wrong.

“I thought the DND people would like to come and see my work, but there was no interest.”..

More in the Ottawa Citizen (different painting from one at story):

Ottawa artist Karen Bailey says the Defence Department is giving the cold shoulder to her attempts, in paintings and a book, to honour the work of Canadian medical personnel serving in a military hospital in Afghanistan.

"They're just not interested," Bailey says of the Canadian Forces leadership.

The issue does not appear to be the quality or content of Bailey's paintings showing Canadian military doctors, nurses and others working in the Kandahar hospital called Role 3 but the very attempt by Bailey to single out the medical crew for praise and recognition in a planned book about her paintings.

An email recently sent to Bailey from a senior military officer, purportedly quoting the views of Brigadier General Hilary Jaeger, the outgoing surgeon general and senior Canadian Forces medical officer, says headquarters does not see the work of the medical personnel in Afghanistan as "extraordinary" and consequently "efforts to showcase or immortalize the efforts of personnel in Afghanistan will likely not resonate with the CF leadership."...

"Mohammed and the X ray Tech" by Ottawa artist Karen Bailey.
Photograph by: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen

More Images »

One really does not know what to think that might make this look not so bad.

Canadian soldier killed in Logar province

He was serving with the US army:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Darby T. Morin, 25, of Victoria, Canada, died Aug. 22 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. [information on the BCT's operations here, here and here]

More from the Globe and Mail:

A fallen soldier from Saskatchewan's Big River First Nation will be remembered as a brave role model and loving father.

United States Army Sergeant Darby Morin, 25, died early Saturday morning when the driver of the vehicle he was travelling in lost control, causing a rollover near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border...

Sgt. Morin's decision to enlist in the U.S. Army immediately after graduating from Big River First Nation High School came from an admiration for its advanced technology, according to his uncle.

Sgt. Morin spent four years stationed at Fort Eustis, Va., before being transferred to Fort Drum, N.Y., in April, 2008.

In December he was deployed to the Charkh District in Logar Province, Afghanistan.

"He wanted to be a role model; he wanted to show kids they could be much more than being in a gang or whatever," Mr. Whitefish said...

There is also a sad coincidence:

A small First Nation reserve in northern Saskatchewan is grieving over an unlikely double tragedy — two soldiers from the Cree community who died in vehicle rollovers on the same day — 10,000 kilometres apart.

On Saturday, U.S. army Sgt. Darby Morin, 25, of Big River First Nation was killed when his vehicle rolled over while he was serving in Afghanistan.

Also on Saturday, Kyle Whitehead, 23, died when a car he was driving on the Saskatchewan reserve went into a ditch and rolled five to six times. Whitehead, a private in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry of the Canadian Forces, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

The deaths have hit reserve residents hard. The community of about 2,200 is 190 kilometres north of Saskatoon...

"News From Afghanistan: Understatement-ad-Absurdum, Snake Oil and Propaganda"

Terry Glavin zeroes in:

After 15 years toiling for daily newspapers and several more years writing books and working as a freelance writer, I confess to harbouring some occasional cynicism about the journalism trade. When it comes to Afghanistan, in my darker moments I've sometimes wondered whether the Karzai regime would get better press in the rich countries of the world with a simple public relations strategy, along, say, these lines:

1. Incorporate references to the Protocols of Zion in the Afghan constitution. 2. Arrange to have the Afghan parliament sponsor the launching of a few hundred missiles into civilian neighbourhoods in Israel. 3. Sign an oil deal with Hugo Chavez.

Not that Karzai deserves good press, particularly in light of the way his government has so badly banjaxed the country's first Afghan-run presidential elections. But in the news business, the big picture we get about faraway places is made up of stories, and stories are made up of sentences, and my cynicism wasn't exactly tempered today when I read this sentence:

The Taliban had urged citizens to boycott the election.

So that's how we're describing it. In its vicious campaign of violence and intimidation aimed at disrupting Afghanistan's presidential elections, the Taliban threatened Afghans with death and dismemberment if they merely intended to show up at polling stations to cast ballots. In the Christian Science Monitor, this savage terror is reduced to: The Taliban had urged citizens to boycott the election...

ADDENDUM: A dependable journalist, Rosie DiManno, knows bullshit when she sees it:

"So appalling was the destruction from simultaneous bombings in Kandahar city on Tuesday evening that even the Taliban – who, of course, are always to be taken at their disingenuous word, at least by deranged purveyors of moral equivalency in the West – hastened to deny responsibility.

"Who else, then? Aliens? Or perhaps it was a diabolical CIA plot, as the mutton-headed conspiracy theorists will no doubt assert in blogo-land. . ."

In the rest of the post--take a look--Mr Glavin also notes these Torch posts:

Egregious Eric Margolis and Afghan pipeline nonsense
Real propaganda

Real propaganda

About a month ago, ISAF released a "Code of Taliban Conduct" (officially "Afghanistan Islamic Emirate Rules and Regulations for Mujahidin" as translated from the Pashto original). At the time, it was rightly censured by spokesman BGen Eric Tremblay as propaganda:

A new Taliban code of military conduct that tells fighters to limit suicide attacks and avoid killing civilians is a sham that doesn't reflect the true nature of the insurgents, NATO and Afghan officials said.

The code, entitled "Taliban 2009 Rules and Regulations Booklet," is believed to have been published in May and distributed to fighters. Copies have been seized in operations throughout the country, NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said Wednesday.

It appeared the code was designed to affirm the authority of Taliban leader Mullah Omar and to present the movement as a credible military force based on ideals and not as a loose collection of criminal bands as portrayed by the government.

"It seems to be a form of propaganda to try to show there is a central control over the insurrection," Tremblay said.

The requirement for Taliban fighters to respect the rules of war contradicts the reality on the ground, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said, noting that Taliban fighters captured and beheaded an Afghan soldier this week in the eastern Paktika region.

Tremblay said insurgents have conducted at least 90 suicide bombings this year, and at least 40 percent of the victims were civilians. He also said that insurgents traffic children to use them as unknowing suicide bombers, and have destroyed at least 40 schools this year.

Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

When it comes to suicide bombings, the relevant passage is Section 7, Paragraph 41 of the supposed code:



Well, surprise, surprise: yesterday's VBIED attack in the city of Kandahar killed at least 41, and wounded over 80 more people. All of them were civilians. Every single one.

And yet still, in the AP piece above, you read the phrase "Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment..." What if these lying sacks of shit had been available for comment, folks? Would we have been reading their misinformation in black and white, juxtaposed credibly against BGen Tremblay's words in a pathetic bow to "balanced reporting" - like somehow both should be weighed equally? You bet we would.

I'm tired of it. I'm sick and tired of our media giving them a soapbox from which to proclaim what is clearly, plainly, and obviously pure propaganda designed to attack our will as part of a well planned and executed information operations campaign. I'm tired of our journalists willfully ignoring the fact that they're not just observing the war, they're affecting it with their reporting. I'm bone-tired of them refusing to take steps to ensure their powerful voice isn't used against the very system of government that allows them such unfettered speech in the first place.

The Chief of the Land Staff's Counter-Insurgency Operations manual recognizes the use of western media as a weapon against domestic public will:

Specifically, insurgents will try to capitalize on the role public opinion plays in democracies, and will deliberately stage events and coordinate operations to undermine the will of domestic audiences of campaigning nations in order to cease their participation in the campaign.

...

Domestic public opinion can and will be targeted a number of ways, including media releases and interviews with Western media outlets, attacks timed and coordinated to coincide with specific events in coalition countries, and strategies aimed at causing rates of attrition unacceptable to coalition members.

As a guy who invests a lot of time and energy into watching both the war and the media's portrayal of it, that sounds pretty much spot on to me.

Do we, the Canadian public, need to have some understanding of what motivates the insurgents to behave they way they do? Certainly. But for our own media to allow themselves to be so blatantly manipulated frustrates me to no end.

Now, they'll argue they can't take sides and that they can't give one point of view more weight than another. Bullshit. That's like having a broken leg and giving equal credence to the opinions of your doctor and your six year old daughter on the matter: one is credible on the subject, and one isn't.

And for God's sake, don't tell me our own government is just as bad putting out propaganda. Don't even start.

Yes, they're going to tell us about the successes. Yes, they're going to articulate an argument that puts Canadian efforts in the best possible light. In a democracy like ours, government policy eventually has to answer to the public at the polling booth, and that means public support is a vital component of public policy. Which makes building it fair game for government communications.

But unlike the Taliban, our government isn't going to flat-out lie to us. The Canadian Forces has a code of conduct as well, but we actually live by ours:

Semrau was in Helmand province when the alleged incident occurred, as one of several military mentors there while a violent three-day defence of Lashkar Gah was carried out.

During the battle, a group of Afghan and Canadian soldiers were ambushed by Taliban in Helmand province.

Before the alleged shooting, the group had called in air support, which included a U.S. Apache helicopter, court heard on Tuesday.

After the chopper completed the air strike, the Canadian and Afghan soldiers found one dead insurgent and another who appeared to be severely-wounded.

According to court documents, the wounded insurgent had a rifle, which was taken from him, and that it was determined his injuries were untreatable.

Witnesses quoted in court documents say that Semrau was seen near the injured insurgent before two shots were fired.

Crown prosecutor Maj. Marylene Trudel accused Semrau of firing both shots.

So to all those journalists reading this: stop blithely propagating Taliban lies as though there were no consequences to those actions. Stop telling us what the Taliban are saying without putting those lies in context and reminding your audience of their trustworthiness. Stop facilitating the enemy's purposeful info op campaign to undermine Canadian public support for the mission.

You want to inform us? Then publicly call out the one side in this fight that's deliberately lying to manipulate public opinion. That's the sort of information we need.

Canadians, Americans and Kandahar city

Not exactly encouraging:

U.S., Allies Plan to Bolster Kandahar Force

Associated Press

An Afghan policeman at the site of Tuesday's multiple car bombing in Kandahar that killed at least 41 people.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The U.S. and its allies are planning to reinforce Afghan police and army units guarding Kandahar with American and Canadian troops, a move that acknowledges the deteriorating condition of the south's largest city.

According to senior military officials, U.S. and Canadian soldiers will for the first time deploy to bases on the outskirts of the city. The local Afghan forces will be bolstered by an expanded number of embedded American trainers.

The plan represents a high-stakes wager that the Afghans have the ability to keep Kandahar safe, a mission they and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces have so far largely been unable to accomplish. It is also a tacit admission that the U.S. and its NATO allies erred by sending troops to sparsely inhabited parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan instead of to major population centers, such as Kandahar.

NATO has grown increasingly concerned about Taliban encroachment into Kandahar, the militant group's spiritual birthplace. Nearly 4,000 Marines are embroiled in a major offensive in neighboring Helmand province and military officials say the Taliban appear to have taken advantage of the fighting to infiltrate the city with significant numbers of operatives.

(Regional Violence

Follow events in Pakistan and Afghanistan, day by day.

View Interactive

• 
  

In a sign of the escalating violence that has accompanied election season, Kandahar was rocked Tuesday by five simultaneous car bombs that killed at least 41 people and wounded at least 66, the Associated Press reported, citing local officials. The blast, which flattened several buildings, appeared to target a Japanese construction company that employs mostly Pakistani engineers. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said a bomb blast killed four soldiers in southern Afghanistan, pushing this year's death toll of foreign soldiers to 295, more than the number who died in all of last year...

"It's vulnerable," said Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, who commands the 2,800 Canadian troops in Kandahar province. "I don't see it as precarious; but if we don't address it more thoroughly we could be in deep trouble [emphasis added]."..

Under the plan, the U.S. would send hundreds of the new troops into Kandahar to train and live with Afghan security forces. The Afghan police and army will retain primary responsibility for protecting the city and reversing the recent Taliban encroachment [seems there was some over-optimism about that this spring], Gen. Nicholson ["Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan"] said.

He said the bulk of the American reinforcements will be deployed to new bases on the main approaches into the city, population centers in their own right. Additional forces will be sent to the Arghandab River Valley, a fertile region of the province that also houses a significant share of the area's population, he said [more here and here]...

Looks like we're needing substantial US help even within and near Kandahar city itself--supposed to be the CF's main resposibility now with the arrival of the US Army's 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. From a post just under two weeks ago (in which Brig.-Gen. Vance also expresses realism about the situation):

...
"The Americans are taking over what is a large but sparsely populated area of the province in the west and northern regions," Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of [Joint] Task Force Afghanistan, explained to the Star in an interview from Kandahar Airfield last night.

"That means we are able to concentrate our forces in the approaches to Kandahar city, where 85 per cent of the population lives."

Canadian control of that crucial perimeter should – if all goes according to plan, and they're still in the transitional phase – convince the skeptical populace that foreign forces are committed to their security, not just to killing Taliban, while allowing for quick-pace development and reconstruction, so lacking in the province even though the money is there...

Canada sacrificed treasured lives establishing far-flung outposts (distance is relative when 70 kilometres from the airfield is the Wild West) to expand what was in fact a lightly indented footprint, with much of that hard-fought ground returning to Taliban "control" [emphasis added] – meaning they can operate largely unencumbered – as soon as Canadians left, Afghan national forces not yet ready to "hold" what our troops "cleared."

Over and over, the discouraging pattern repeated itself [emphasis added]. Now, Americans are assuming those responsibilities, as well as the forward operating bases in Arghandab and Zhari districts, while Canadians focus mostly on the civilian core of greater Kandahar city – the brunt of the inner urban security actually turned over to mentored Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police...

Meanwhile, MND MacKay stands firm:

MacKay to NATO: No more troops
Defence minister says other countries could be called next for Afghan mission

Update: For, er, enlightment on subcontinental attitudes do read the "comments" on the WSJ article. Really. Do it. You will be enlightened.

Egregious Eric Margolis and Afghan pipeline nonsense

A letter in the Ottawa Sun (last at link):

Not a major concern

Re: “Quittin’ time in Afghanistan” (Aug. 23). Eric Margolis writes “The war really is about oil pipeline routes and western domination of the energy-rich Caspian Basin.”

Nonsense. Afghanistan has no role in the production or transportation of Caspian Basin oil. Most of that oil is in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan has no need for Afghanistan as a pipeline route. Neither does Kazakhstan. Its oil is exported by pipeline via Russia and to China.

Margolis also mentions “western oil and gas pipelines.” There is indeed a long-standing plan to transport natural gas produced in Turkmenistan by pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan and maybe India. But that is hardly a vital national security or capitalist interest for the U.S., or for other NATO members. Moreover, the pipeline would not be “western.” The participating countries will own it. And, given current conditions, such a pipeline is not likely to be built for quite a while. In any case, most of the gas would be for Pakistani and perhaps Indian consumption — not a major concern for other countries.

Mark Collins

Ottawa

(Pipelines are always a touchy subject) [their comment]

Links sent with the letter:

http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/06/18/Progress-on-TAPI-pipeline-in-doubt/UPI-29261245335324/
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\14\story_14-5-2009_pg7_16
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/gail-to-lay-tapi-pipeline/302755/ (see para 2)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8277
http://www.globalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail6096.htm
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnc92408.htm

More spanking of the misguided (to be, er, kind) Mr Margolis here and here. And on pipelines:

No pipeline shoot!

Update: A thoughtful message received from a friend in England:

Whilst some, and I use that word guardedly, of what Eric Margolis has written, may be true there are some areas of his article which are clearly flawed.

The proposed pipeline scheme will be owned by the participating countries across which it is to be run, not by oil/gas multi-nationals. The end product beneficiaries will be Pakistan and possibly India, for whom the gas/oil will be of tremendous developmental importance.

The idea of the war in Afghanistan being a conspiracy concocted by the multi-nationals is a nonsense.

The idea that only the majority Pashtun group has been enfranchised during the recently held elections is similarly not true. The election has been held nationwide with all eligible having the right to vote. It may be true that some electoral mismanagement or fraud caused some not to be able to vote but the right to vote was officially there.

The idea that the drug trade can be stopped by simply closing the borders of Afghanistan is naive. These borders run for thousands of kilometres across some of the most rugged terrain in the world and are criss-crossed by thousands of official and many more unofficial tracks known only to the smugglers. To attempt to close these would be a well nigh impossible task even if one were to eliminate the corruption of officials on both sides of the borders and in Kabul itself. The real answer is to be found at the root of production. Eliminate the Taleban who now benefit from the profits of the trade. Eliminate the fields and provide the Afghans with an alternative source of income in a sound economic atmosphere.

To do this means helping the country to adopt a stronger, uncorrupt form of government which can take control of the whole country, rule by democratic consensus and provide the economy and public services which everyone in the country needs and wants. To return the country to traditional tribal rule would be to allow fragmentation, dissension and stagnation whilst the narrow interests of ethnic groups and local 'war lords would take preponderance over the core
national issues.

It is partially true that under the Taleban government a sense of order reigned, allbeit in a way very similar to the best of any of the mediaeval regime you may think of. Would one want a return to ignorance, narrow theocracy and a radical limitation of human rights - especially that of women?

The solution for Afghanistan is to provide the country with time. Time during which the security of all its citizens is provided. Time during which education in democracy or political freedoms can be given. Time in which communications and public services can be installed. This time, this breathing space, will only be achieved with the defeat of armed insurgency and support for fledgling government. There is no quick fix. Yes the Afghans should be able to do this
themselves but they will need help in doing so over a long period of time. Rome was not built in day, Kabul neither.

As for the other reasons put forward for the Allies presence in Afghanistan - there is certainly a connected security issue outside the country. The Taleban and Al Quaeda have been responsible for the training and equipping of groups of Jihhadists in both Afghanistan, Pakistan and more importantly in the non governmental tribal areas which lie between the two countries.These groups have brought their 'war' to other countries- Indonesia, India, Pakistan itself, the north African states, Spain, France the US and my own country the UK.

Once again to strike at the root of the issue is the best and easiest way of eliminating it. This can be partially achieve, as I have previously staterd by armed repression and defeat but in the long term the solution lies in stable consensual government, education and an improved economy in which the young will have a 'raison d'etre' other than that which attracts them into extremist groups.

The pipeline conspiracy theory should be garbaged and the real work of helping Afghanistan shoould be promulgated. It is a far worthier cause than mere sensationalism.

Reporter Admits Gaps in Afghan Coverage

This, from Graeme Smith, Globe & Mail reporter, during a speech to the United States military this week about what reporters are missing:

“A key blind spot is that we have no idea what ordinary Afghans want.”

Good to know for judging mainstream media coverage - a little bit more here.

Injured Mountie Back in Canada Recovering

An RCMP statement says Sergeant Brian Kelly, wounded in a 22 Aug 09 bomb blast in Kabul, is back in Canada continuing to recover:

“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is pleased to advise that Sergeant Brian Kelly returned to Ottawa on Saturday, August 22. He is currently in stable condition and continues to receive medical care in hospital …. Sgt. Kelly would like to express his sincere gratitude for all the support emails and calls he has received from friends and Canadians across the country over the past week …. Anyone wishing to send a message to Sgt. Kelly can contact him through the RCMP Web Comments page …. As Sgt. Kelly is still recovering from his injuries, we ask that you continue to respect his privacy and that of his family. The RCMP will facilitate any contact with Sgt. Kelly if and when he wishes to be available for comment.”

Good to hear.

Afstan: Aussie special forces in action?

Looks like it:

AUSTRALIAN forces in Afghanistan have killed another Taliban leader.

Australian Defence Force chief of joint operations Lieutenant General Mark Evans said Mullah Abdul Karim, along with a number of other insurgents, was killed in an operation on August 10.

Lieutenant General Evans said this was an important and positive development in enhancing the security and stability of Oruzgan Province.

He said Mullah Karim was killed during an operation directed against the insurgent network of improvised explosive device operators in Oruzgan Province...

Defence provided no other details of this operation.

However, past missions targeting insurgent commanders have involved members of the special operations task group operating with Afghan security forces...

More on their special forces at end here. Plus one of the rare accounts of Canadian special forces' similar Afghan activities.