"Afghanistan: ground pounding" (plus the Arctic and Canadian shipbuilding)

Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up--excerpts:

Canadian defence and security: Northern Strategy

The Government has released its Northern Strategy, available at the link below.
http://www.northernstrategy.ca/

Rob Huebert for the Ottawa Citizen and Whitney Lackenbauer for the Toronto Star evaluate the strategy and the government’s commitment to it. The two authors have also published papers with the Canadian International Council – Rob Huebert has written, “Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security in a Transforming Circumpolar World”, and Whitney Lackenbauer, "From Polar Race to Polar Saga: An Integrated Strategy for Canada and the Circumpolar World.”
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/todays-paper/have+Arctic+strategy/1839397/s...
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/673139
http://www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/download/resourcece/archives/fore...
http://www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/download/resourcece/archives/fore...

CBC reports on comments by academic and former NDP electoral candidate Michael Byers on this strategy [more on the Prof. here].
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/07/28/north-strategy-reax.html

LCol Paul Dittman for the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies has written an article entitled, “In defence of defence: Canadian Arctic sovereignty and security.”
http://www.jmss.org/2009/spring/articles/dittmann-spring2009.pdf

Geoffrey Simpson for the Globe and Mail examines the government’s Northern Strategy and its commitment to the North in general.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/its-an-arctic-policy-worth-build...

The CDA reminds its readers of the 2007 Vimy Paper published by the CDA Institute, “Defence Requirements for Canada’s Arctic,” available at the link below.
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/cdai/vimy-papers

[By the way, all the "Arctic sovereignty" hoo-hah is nonsense--the end of an earlier post:

...
The Harper government's insistence on using the military to assert sovereignty in the North is wrongheaded, especially as no country has any claim to our land there (Hans Island aside). Some earlier posts:

"Icebreakers best bet in Arctic"
The right approach to Arctic "sovereignty"
The icebreakers we should build
"A job for the Coast Guard"
What to do with the Canadian Coast Guard?
"Military should focus on coastline, not war: Layton"]

Canadian defence and security policy

The Government held a Shipbuilding Forum earlier this week on 27-28 July. The CDA released a press release commenting on the event, available at the link below. Murray Brewster for the Canadian Press reports on ship procurement in Canada and interviews Senator Colin Kenny about the issue.
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/cda/policy-statements-presentation/cda-welcomes-federa...
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1135215.html ...

[Shock and horror--I agree with Jim Travers of the Toronto Star; it's political oink, oink, oink to insist on building Navy and Coast Guard vessels in Canada. Then there's the problem that the Navy's envisaged Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships and Joint Support Ships cost too much in any event as they are neither fish nor fowl.]

Canada in Afghanistan

Matthew Fisher for Canwest News Service analyses the division of labour and responsibilities between American and Canadian forces in Kandahar province.
http://www.canada.com/news/Somnia/1837218/story.html

Matthew Fisher for Canwest News Service analyses the planned Dutch withdrawal from Uruzgan province and compares the debate over it to Canada’s.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Dutch+withdrawal+from+Afghanistan+harbinger...

Commander ISAF General Stanley McChrystal has issued a new tactical directive.
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/official_texts/Tactical_Directive_090706.pdf ...

Afghanistan

Rajiv Chandrasekaran for the Washington Post reports on the possibility of more US troops being requested for Afghanistan [emphasis added].
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR20090730039...

Richard Oppel for the New York Times reports on the US Marines’ experiences in facing the Taliban. Tom Coghlan for the Times describes a patrol by the US Marines and their encounter with Taliban in Helmand province.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/world/asia/26marines.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6726843.ece

Mark Thompson for Time magazine writes on the number of American troops in Afghanistan, citing Anthony Cordesman’s study, which is also linked below.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1912483,00.html
http://csis.org/publication/afghanistan-campaign ...

Benedict Carey for the New York Times writes on soldiers’ instincts and hunches in detecting IEDs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/health/research/28brain.html ...