"It’s a crass political game being waged by two parties"

Further in particular to this post, but also more broadly this one, the start and conclusion of a post by Raphael Alexander:

Who Really “Supports The Troops”?

The whole detainee affair, which I’ve largely ignored until now because as far as I’m concerned Canada has done more than it’s fair share of diligence, has spilled over into a partisan fighting match between the Liberals and Conservatives. It wouldn’t make much difference to me, except that the two have now taken to smear attacks on each other involving our military...

In this current imbroglio, you can be sure that nobody really has the troops at heart here. It’s a crass political game being waged by two parties who should instead be united in the defeat of a common enemy. The Taliban must be enjoying this from their caves, waiting out our self-destruction as western army after western army retreats in their own self-inflicted defeat.

I tend to agree with Raphael.

Update: And from Paul at Celestial Junk (whose son has just returned from a tour in Afstan with the Army):

Utter Disgust with Liberals and Conservatives

...At this point my fellow conservatives will come rushing in with excuse making ... something to do with that oh so nasty media. To which I say ... if you can't show strong vision and communicate it in the face of a hostile media, you might as well kiss your country goodbye. While men and women die for us in Afghanistan, my fellow conservatives worry about those meanies in the media ... how utterly weak.

The day that Harper vastly increases the military budget so we can at least match most of our NATO allies in budgetary commitment [see this post], I may change my tune...

Upperdate: Earlier from Paul:

Canada: We Don't Stand on Guard for Thee

Another aspect of the detainee issue--some cautionary words/Special Forces in Afstan, Kunduz debacle

Further to this post,

"Richard Colvin's story of widespread torture and indifference is unravelling"

some cautionary words from BruceR. at Flit:

...
Buried in a weekend edition, Palu has pinpointed the shoe that hasn't dropped yet on the Colvin detainee allegations ("in-field transfers" is the more common term). It isn't just those taken today in mentored operations, although I'm sure that number in increasing. Over the last couple years, dozens of Afghans have been taken on ISAF-led ops in Kandahar Province and handed over at the point of capture by ISAF personnel to participating Afghan security forces. Because they were never technically in Western hands for any extended period, there is no reporting requirement imposed on the Afghans under our existing protocols. Unavoidable? Probably. But supporters of the mission might want to continue to keep their arms braced on the seat-back in front of them, because at some point the media may connect those dots.

Lots of interesting stuff earlier in the post on how special forces might be more widely used, with a particular, force-economizing effect, and on "fallout from the Kunduz attack", more here and here from Spiegel Online.

Update: More from Brian Platt at The Canada-Afghanistan Blog:

Torture

...The hypocrisy of the troops-out crowd would be hilarious if it wasn't so dangerous.

"Richard Colvin's story of widespread torture and indifference is unravelling"

That according to Brian Lilley, Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal (links in original):

Leaks abound on the issue of torture in Afghanistan. Those supporting and those opposing the claims of Richard Colvin are trying hard to make sure that Canadian journalists have access to the documents at the centre of the controversy.

The Globe and Mail columnist and Newstalk 1010 commentator Christie Blatchford has her hands on redacted copies of Richard Colvin's emails and finds his evidence wanting.

As you read Blatchford's two columns, one Saturday and one Monday, it is important to remember what Colvin's allegation was in his testimony to the special Commons committee on the Afghan mission. "According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured," Colvin told MPs. "For interrogators in Kandahar, it was standard operating procedure."

Blatchford's run down of the memos in today's column and the words of retired General Michel Gauthier testifying before that same committee tell a different story...

Matthew Fisher, of Canwest News Service, details comments from Eloi Fillion, deputy director of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, showing the organization is upset with the man opposition parties believe is a whistleblower...

Read the whole piece. Earlier:

Richard Colvin and Afghan detainees/Update: Six of his (redacted) memos

Update: Why certain commentators in the major media, with a certain cachet, need to be read very closely. Scott Taylor:

...Colvin served in Kandahar for 17 months [emphasis added] in 2006 and 2007...

But in Mr Colvin's own words:

...
I spent 17 months in Afghanistan. First as a senior DFAIT representative of the provincial reconstruction team, or PRT in Kandahar, and then for over a year at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul [emphasis added, facts dear boy, facts] as the head of a political section and chargé d'affaires -that is, the acting ambassador [which does not in reality mean very much as such]...

Afstan: 500 more British troops confirmed/Update: PM Harper holds fast

Total to be 9,500:

Britain will send 500 more soldiers to Afghanistan in December as part of a broader surge in NATO-led troop levels to tackle worsening violence and train Afghan forces, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.

Brown's confirmation of an earlier, conditional pledge comes a day before U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce 30,000 more troops to fight the Taliban and train Afghans so that foreign forces can eventually be withdrawn.

"I believe over the coming months even more countries will respond," Brown told parliament...

In October Brown said he would be prepared to send the extra troops -- taking Britain's force level to 9,500 -- as long as other coalition countries sent more soldiers, the right equipment was available and Afghan troops were trained faster.

Britain also has about 500 special forces soldiers in Afghanistan in addition to the main troops [emphasis added, our government says practically nothing about our special forces, including their numbers], Brown said...

As for other NATO members, an earlier post:

Afstan: Less to any NATO surge than meets the eye

And to put the British numbers into, er, perspective:

...
By the way, when the Marines have some 20,000 troops in Afstan early next year, they alone will have more than twice as many forces there than the next largest foreign contingent, the Brits with some 9,000. Something to ponder...

Remember too that the British contingent is about twice as big as the next largest: the Germans [see p. 2 here] who, unlike the Brits, barely fight.

Update: Meanwhile our prime minister is holding fast:

Canadians prepare for key role as NATO readies for last stand [good grief!] in Afghanistan
...
Though Canada will likely be central in the push to improve security in Kandahar, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that was unlikely to influence plans to end the military mission in 2011 [note nothing about "combat", see end of this post].

"I don't sense any desire on the part of parliamentarians to do that," he told reporters at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

"We're right now examining how Canada can move forward with enhanced civilian presence, a focus on development and humanitarian aid."

As NATO members await details of Obama's plans for Afghanistan, they're keen to establish the parameters of an eventual withdrawal of international forces.

While at the Commonwealth summit, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced plans to hold a conference in January that would establish benchmarks for the gradual handover of Afghanistan's security to local forces...

Related:

"U.S. set to hand Canada larger role in Afghanistan"

Upperdate: UK grand total will in fact be around 10,000:

In a detailed Commons statement, Mr Brown confirmed that all the conditions had been met to allow an extra 500 troops to be deployed in December - taking the force level to 9,500.

But he also disclosed that when special forces were included, the "total military effort" in Afghanistan will be in excess of 10,000 troops [story has video of PM Brown's Commons statement, more on those special forces here]...

Meanwhile, nothing more from the French (who are already doing more than the Germans or Italians--the Italians may do a little bit more):

...Mr. Obama spent much of Monday calling allied leaders.

He spoke for 40 minutes with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who signaled that France was not in a position to commit more troops. There are currently 3,750 French soldiers and 150 police officers in Afghanistan.

“He said France would stay at current troop levels for as long as it takes to stabilize Afghanistan,” said an official briefed on the exchange, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private diplomatic exchange.

Instead of troops, Mr. Sarkozy told Mr. Obama that France was putting its focus on a conference in London sponsored by Germany and Britain to rally support for Afghanistan, officials in Washington and France said.

The French defense minister, Hervé Morin, publicly confirmed the French position on Monday, saying, “There is no question for now of raising numbers.”..

Afstan: Big Marine component of second Obama surge/Update thoughts: But how many new forces overall and why Helmand first?

The US now has four Army ground brigades in the country with a primary combat role: the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, and 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, all in ISAF Regional Command East, plus the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Kandahar, RC South (that last BCT was part of the first Obama surge in February this year}.

Also in RC South is the, very large, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Helmand (another part of the first Obama surge, details of its composition here).

It now looks very likely that 9,000 more Marines--a further expeditionary brigade--will be deployed to Helmand (the logical place for them) pretty soon as the first ground force element of the president's second surge to be announced Tuesday, Dec. 1:

Newly deployed Marines to target Taliban bastion

Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin final preparations to deploy to southern Afghanistan and renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that slowed this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government, senior U.S. officials said.

The extra Marines will be the first to move into the country as part of Obama's escalation of the eight-year-old war. They will double the size of the U.S. force in the southern province of Helmand and will provide a critical test for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's struggling government and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy.

"The first troops out of the door are going to be Marines," Gen. James T. Conway, the Corps' top officer, told fellow Marines in Afghanistan on Saturday. "We've been leaning forward in anticipation of a decision. And we've got some pretty stiff fighting coming."

The Marines will be quickly followed by about 1,000 U.S. Army trainers. They will deploy as early as February to speed the growth of the Afghan army and police force, military officials said.

The new forces will not start moving until Obama outlines his new strategy in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. The revised plan, which faces a war-weary and increasingly skeptical American public, is expected to call for 30,000 to 35,000 new troops in a phased deployment over the next 12 to 18 months.

The parceling-out of reinforcements is driven in part by Afghanistan's lack of infrastructure, which cannot immediately support a larger U.S. force. The phased approach will also allow the president to cancel some of the additional reinforcements if the counterinsurgency strategy advocated by McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, does not show results or if the Karzai government does not meet goals for stamping out corruption and providing for the Afghan people, White House officials said.

The first place Obama will look for results is Helmand, a Taliban-dominated province that has been McChrystal's primary focus for much of this year and has been the site of some of the bloodiest fighting. Earlier this year, about 10,000 Marines moved into the area and pushed Taliban fighters out of several major cities there. The Marines then began to rebuild the long-absent Afghan government and police forces in the area...

This post has more details on possible further units that may be sent (including perhaps a divisional headquarters in Kandahar at some point); posts here and here deal specifically with future deployments to Kandahar and implications for the CF.

By the way, when the Marines have some 20,000 troops in Afstan early next year, they alone will have more than twice as many forces there than the next largest foreign contingent, the Brits with some 9,000. Something to ponder.

And maybe the US, as Marine and then Army forces grow in the south, will need more than a divisional HQ: a corps HQ after the US takes command of RC South in November 2010?

Update thoughts: If, besides the Marines, President Obama plans to dispatch fewer than three Army BCTs with a combat focus (such a new overall commitment would amount to almost doubling current US ground combat strength) then I think it will be an indication that he is not really interested in making a success of Gen. McChrystal's COIN strategy. Take another look at this post, it's about a middle-ground choice. And listen closely on Tuesday.

Also, one wonders whether the evident immediate focus on Helmand (fairly soon it would seem there will be some 30,000 ISAF forces in the province, roughly double those now at Kandahar) reflects real and urgent COIN requirements--as opposed to just being the simplest thing to do first, Marines being "expeditionary"-organized and all that. 'Twould be a pity if Helmand were made better whilst the more important province, I should think, Kandahar got significantly worse.

Two forgotten wars for most Canadians: Korea--and Italy

Korea. Italy:

A small group of veterans is returning to Italy where they waged one of the longest, fiercest campaigns of the Second World War.

During a kick-off event Friday at Sunnybrook hospital, home to about 500 war veterans, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson called the trip to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Italian campaign a “journey of honour and remembrance.”

“Together, our unique delegation will walk on some of the same streets where Canadians fell,” he said. “We will walk among the headstones belonging to the youth of another generation. And we will remember them by reading their names aloud; by running our fingers over letters carved in granite, by thinking of dreams unfulfilled, by remembering lives lost. And by remembering families torn apart by their sacrifice.”

The group of veterans, youth ambassadors and politicians will visit war cemeteries and monuments and take part in special ceremonies.

Thompson said many Canadians don’t realize the scope of Canada’s efforts in Sicily.

Donald Stewart, who served as a gunner in the war, said word made its way home that he had been killed. His father was surprised when he showed up on leave.

“He said, ‘You’re supposed to be dead,’” the 85-year-old told a group of high school students gathered at the hospital. “Then he gave me a hug.”

Almost 6,000 Canadians were killed in Italy — Canada’s greatest loss in any one country during the Second World War.

Those who survived endured oppressive heat, tough mountainous terrain, rampant diseases and bitter, hand-to-hand combat.

The landing at Sicily was the largest amphibious invasion yet [and bigger than Normandy, see my first comment here]. Three Canadians earned Victoria Crosses in Italy.

Nolan Hill, a 16-year-old Calgary student and youth delegate, is looking forward to meeting the veterans and hearing their stories.

“You can only learn so much from a text book and when you hear it from a person it’s much more informative and real,” he said.

More on the Italian campaign at the start of this post. Remember the "D-Day Dodgers" and spot that tune as done by Brits, I would think (nice bit of historical recapitulation too):

Buster Brown goes on and on and on/Update: Perfidious Canadians and Brits

David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen notices The Torch:

With friends like these...

Perhaps it’s time we dusted off the plans for defending Canada from the United States. Perhaps we are already doing so — as I’ve learned from Mark Collins, who has been reviewing “highly secret” Canadian defence documents on his blog, The Torch.

The documents are from 1922. That may seem a long time ago, but as I am not aware of any later strategic thinking, on the threat of an American invasion, we will have to take them as “most current available.” As a writer of United Empire Loyalist ancestry, the invasion of 1812 remains fresh in memory, to say nothing of the Fenian raids, that contributed such urgency to our Confederation. And as a former boy scout, I think, “Be prepared.”

Here I am referring to “D.S. No. 1” from “NDHQ” — distributed in 1922 and withdrawn around 1932, with instructions to all military districts to destroy it...

Thanks very much, Mr Warren; I must however point out that this a group blog, founded by Damian Brooks. And that the documents in question were reviewed at the archives by a friend who does considerable research there, not by me. The post to which Mr Warren refers, which gives details on Defence Scheme No. 1:

"Highly Secret": Abandon Ottawa to the Yanks!

And from Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs today:

...
Canadian Commentary

Mark Collins -- The Torch
Abandon Ottawa to the Yanks!
David Warren -- The Ottawa Citizen
With friends like these ...

Update: A comment received from my researcher friend:

Alas, Warren overlooked the fact that the foundation of Defence Scheme I was a spoiling attack on the US to buy time and create strategic space allowing a slow retreat while mother England got her act together. Given that in 1922 Canada still had a reserve of CEF veterans, including seasoned commanders and highly trained staff officers with far more sucessful military experience and tactical acumen than their "doughboy" counterparts, we might have pulled it off. It would be fascinating to war-game Defence Scheme No.1 against War Plan Red.

I hae me doots, can't see the Brits actually coming to our rescue at that time. But see The Stricken Nation (p. 162, 1890) for truly perfidious Canadians and Brits of a previous generation.

Upperdate: More analysis of the plan:

Canadian Defence Scheme Number One
A Defensive Preemptive Strike Against the United States, circa 1921

And excerpts from the scheme itself:

...
POLITICAL QUESTIONS
...
2. French Canadians (all Roman Catholics) form nearly one third of the population of Canada. They took little interest in the Great World War. There may have been “Vatican” influence, but it would appear that the main reason for lack of interest was lack of proper political control and leadership from Ottawa. The Roman Catholic in Canada is suspicious of the Militia. It has no reason to be so. It has everything to gain and nothing to lose by supporting the Militia. If the United States ever conquered Canada, the dual language would be done away with at once and the Roman Catholic Church would have much less power and influence by one hundred fold...

Section 9: Allies or Possible Allies of Great Britain
...
Mexico. It has a turbulent and unruly population estimated from 12 to 15 millions. For over 100 years it has been a pin-prick on the American Southern Flank. The Mexicans have not shown themselves, generally speaking, opposed to British interests. In case of war with the United States it is not unlikely that Mexico would cause trouble on the Southern Frontier, causing a goodly force of United States’ troops to be concentrated towards Mexico. If Mexico became an active participant in a War against the United States, it would be an area of operation for Britannic or British Empire troops against the Southern States, having for its object the capture of Galveston and New Orleans, and blocking the Mississippi River...

Shades of the Zimmermann telegram, thank goodness the scheme was not leaked at the time. The good old days.

"U.S. set to hand Canada larger role in Afghanistan"

I don't think this story by Matthew Fisher of Canwest News actually gives much more detail about new US forces to come under Canadian command at Kandahar than this story of his Nov. 19. At the end of this post, noting a similar CP piece then, I speculate on who some of those American troops might be:

New Canadian commander at Kandahar/More US troops to be under his command?

It would seem almost certain that a fair number of the new troops President Obama is set to announce Dec. 1 will be coming to Kandahar--in a few months. I would think most of those would be under US command but some could also be included in our task force along with whatever American forces are assigned to it in the near future.

It is significant, and unusual, that the US is willing to put significant forces under direct Canadian operational control. Remember one US army battalion already has been part of our Task Force Kandahar battle group since late last summer (barely mentioned by most of our media and largely unacknowledged by our politicians) and contributes about one-half of the task force's ground combat strength. The first such battalion, the 2-2 Ramrods, has been replaced by the 1-12 Infantry and shifted from Maywand to Zhari district.

Richard Colvin and Afghan detainees/Update: Six of his (redacted) memos

Yesterday, with further links:

"In their own words: David Mulroney's opening statement at Afghanistan committee"

Today: Blatchford of the Globe (pro-Afghan mission, more here) has some reservations. Read on...

E-mail trail only adds to Afghan questions
Richard Colvin's secret correspondence provides little light on detainee issue after a week in which Ottawa rejected his claims

For a week, diplomat Richard Colvin's accusations about Canada's handling of its Afghan prisoners – and their subsequent alleged torture at the hands of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security – dominated headlines and Parliament, despite the fact that no one had seen the e-mails in which Mr. Colvin said he had tried to wake Ottawa to the problem he saw as so serious.

The Globe and Mail now has what appears to be the entire collection of the e-mails Mr. Colvin sent on the subject during the 17 months he spent in Afghanistan from April of 2006 to October of 2007. A couple are virtually completely blacked out; some are heavily redacted, others rattle on at such length they could have done with a little more redacting.

It seems to have been Mr. Colvin's visit to the provincial prison in Kandahar city on May 16, 2006, that first triggered his concern. But that inspection and an earlier one upon which he relied, made in December of 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, were, in the Afghan context, practically sunny about their findings...

Update: Six of Mr Colvin's (redacted) memos, via the CBC and Amnesty International:

...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kandh0039.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kandh0074.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kandh0082.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kandh0125.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kandh0138.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/kgbr0291.pdf

"In their own words: David Mulroney's opening statement at Afghanistan committee"

Transcript via David Akin of Canwest News, video here, media coverage here. Earlier:

Live stops at five, or, down the TV rathole: Detainees, the generals, and the Commons' committee

Afstan: Shooting the messenger

Nothing improves if we pull back

A great and honourable deserter

A delightful post (see the paintings) by Peter Worthington at the FrumForum:

Why We’re Thankful

I first spotted him at a banquet and awards ceremony in Seoul, marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean war – a grizzled old colonel with a white handlebar moustache and the Medal of Honor around his neck.

But what caught my attention was two Canadian war medals nestled among the 26 medal ribbons he wore – the Canadian Volunteer medal with overseas clasp, and Victory medal from WWII.

“How come?” I asked him.

A mischievous grin spread his face. He introduced himself – Col. Lewis Lee Millett, a storied American fighting soldier, although I didn’t know it at the time.


...he’d joined the U.S. army at age 21 in the summer of 1941 – and then deserted, because the U.S. wasn’t yet in the war. He came to Canada and joined our army to go overseas. He wanted to fight Nazis...

After Pearl Harbour, when the U.S. entered the war, he transferred back to the U.S. army...

A thumping good read (as the Brits say): Bullets, Bureaucrats...

...and the Politics of War, the subtitle of General (ret'd) Rick Hillier's memoir, A Soldier First:

I recently finished it (almost a page turner, great help from Chris Wattie). But I rather wish the former CDS had written three distinct books:

-Soldiers, politicians and bureaucrats--and Canadians (what the memoirs are really focused on)

-The future roles, configuration and equipment requirements of the Canadian Forces (dealt with in a scattered and passing fashion in the memoirs)

-Problems of multi-national military operations (ditto comment just above).

The last two might be serious, and much needed, monographs. One hopes Gen. Hillier may still produce something along those lines.

It is also stunningly clear that Gen. Hillier was much more impressed by former Prime Minister Paul Martin and Minister of National Defence Bill Graham than he was by their successors' government:

-Martin, Graham and I got along superbly, right from the start...[p. 325]

-My relationship with Paul Martin was, I thought, exceptional. [p. 346]

-...A key part...was the incredible relationship that we had with Prime Minister Martin, first and foremost, his cabinet, and, most importantly, the Department of National Defence.

-Bill Graham was confident, incredibly smart, and sage...[p. 352]

On the other hand nothing so, er glowing, about the next government, certainly not Prime Minister Harper:

-Despite all the rumours around Ottawa about how much we hated each other, Gord [O'Connor, MND] and I got along and worked well together, most of the time. [p. 395]

-The [Conservative] staffers wanted me to change the way I was doing the job of Chief of the Defence Staff and I was determined not to let that happen. [p. 404]

I'm amazed the media have not highlighted that aspect. Maybe most of them didn't read the book very closely. More on the memoir here, here , here (Damian), and here (video).

Bruni and Rhodes

For years, when I told people I attended the Royal Military College of Canada, far too many otherwise intelligent Canadians would ask me if that was a university. I had to work hard to keep my jaw from dropping to my chest. Given the entry requirements as well as the rigors of the school itself, which extend far, far beyond the academic, to say that was a frustrating question is a gross understatement.

So I hope you'll pardon me a little bit of bragging on my alma mater, courtesy of Ian Elliot of the Kingston Whig-Standard:

A Royal Military College student has won one of the world's most prestigious scholarships.

Gino Bruni, a 2008 graduate, will be named a Rhodes Scholar on Saturday, becoming just the 12th RMC ex-cadet to win one of the scholarships and the first from the school in more than 20 years.

...

Bruni, a native of Calgary, went through RMC as a member of the Reserve Entry officer program, meaning he graduated as a qualified officer in the reserves but is not obligated to serve a certain number of years in the regular force as are the majority of graduating cadets.

He got his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and then stayed at RMC for his master's in nuclear engineering, in no small part because RMC is one of the few universities in the country with an onsite Slowpoke nuclear reactor for research.

Upon his graduation in 2008, Bruni won a slew of academic and military awards, including the Military Support Award of Merit, and he maintained his high standards in post-graduate work with an A-plus average in his nuclear engineering studies.

"I think it's an incredible honour, and I'm a little surprised that more RMC students don't become Rhodes Scholars, because the four pillars of RMC [academics, athletics, bilingualism and military training] seem to mirror the qualifications set out by Cecil Rhodes," said Bruni.

...

Only 80 Rhodes scholars are named each year from around the world, and the application process is rigorous, taking in not just a student's academic achievements but athletic and community involvement as well as character.

BZ to Gino Bruni...Gimme a BEER!

"Highly Secret": Abandon Ottawa to the Yanks!

Further to this post,

Really unthickening the Canada/US border
...
1) First Canada, from Blessed Buster Brown:


...
Three general plans were conceived by NDHQ for the Director to work on:

* Defence Scheme No. 1, (DS No. 1), defence against a possible attack from the USA, judged the most important...

some relevant information in a message from a friend:

A gem at the Archives: (RG 24, volume 2925, file HQS 3496) relating to Defence Scheme No.1.

Alas the actual plan was not there, just a lot of 1922 dated letters from Military Districts acknowledging its receipt and an equal number ten years later confirming its destruction (all labelled "Highly Secret"). There were quite a few maps though, i.e. the disposition of regular and National Guard divisions in the USA, notes about how many troops could be mobilized in places like Maine, and, most interestingly, comments relating to likely USA objectives and the threat in different sectors.

For example, in Alberta it was noted that much of the population around Lethbridge came from the USA and their loyalty could not be taken for granted. The 3rd Division sector (covering southern Ontatio and Quebec) was happy to write off Windsor and London, accepted that the loss of Toronto and Hamilton would have grave economic effects, but deemed the defence of Kingston, Montreal and Quebec essential. It also had this gem about our fair city:

OTTAWA, the capital of Canada, lies behind this sector [essentially the Windsor/Quebec corridor]. As, however, we do not possess a highly centralized form of government the capture of our capital is of no military or economic importance. In the minds of politicians and civilians, however, the importance of OTTAWA may be greatly exaggerated and this should not be overlooked, as efforts may be made to concentrate forces for its defence, which from a military point of view might be more usefully employed elsewhere.

Update: Some fun comments at Milnet.ca.

Afstan: Bad times for the German mission

Two pieces from Spiegel Online:

1) Germany's Top Soldier Resigns over Air Strike Accusations

Germany's highest-ranking soldier has resigned over allegations that the Defense Ministry did not come clean about civilians killed in a recent air strike in Afghanistan. Former Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung is also under pressure to resign...

2) Did the German Government Misinform the Country?

A Thursday newspaper report accuses former German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, now Chancellor Merkel's labor minister, of having withheld information from parliament regarding a German-ordered air attack in Afghanistan which killed dozens of civilians. The opposition is demanding that Jung resign...

Post from September:

Afstan: Reaction to Kunduz airstrike/A broader perspective

And necessarily related:

Afstan: Less to any NATO surge than meets the eye

Update: Another casualty:

'Jung Never Got a Handle on the Defense Ministry'

German Labor Minister [previously defence minister] Franz Josef Jung resigned on Friday following revelations that he had misinformed the public and parliament about a military airstrike in Kunduz. German newspapers argue that the scandal could further undermine support for Berlin's mission in Afghanistan...

More here.

"Hitler’s Car and the State of Canadian History": Jack Granatstein, the Canadian War Musuem, and our history

This recent post gives background on the vehicle. Mr Granatstein has sent me a 2001 paper of his, parts of which are excerpted below. Among many other books Mr Granastein is the authour of Who Killed the Canadian Military

(1998, briefly, all of us):

On July l, 1998, I became the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa for a two-year term. This was the best job I have ever had in my life and if only the Museum had been in Toronto where my family was, I would have stayed forever...

One milestone on this route to a government decision to support a new military history museum was the extraordinary case of Hitler’s car, an artifact that caused a loud public clamour in February 2000, just before the decision on funding. Let me explain.

In 1970, the War Museum was given a Grosser Mercedes touring car...

Subsequent research in the CWM determined beyond doubt that the car was one of six or seven in Adolf Hitler’s personal fleet. And the presentation in the War Museum on Sussex Drive now shows it as Hitler’s car.

That presentation is dreadful. The car sits on the third floor oozing evil--but it was originally and still is presented in a mock Bavarian village setting with fretwork hearts cut into the shutters. Dear, dear Adolf who loved dogs and children. Later additions to the display show a mannequin in SS uniform, a large Nazi flag, and small display on concentration camps. With the exception of the SS uniform, these are all but invisible because of the layout.

From the day I arrived, this Hitler shrine offended me...

I had been told that the car might be worth as much as $20 million at auction, a real attraction to someone needing to fundraise $15 million and generally strapped for funding. So one day, showing an Ottawa Citizen reporter through the War Museum, I mused that I would like to sell the wretched car.

I soon learned, if I had not known before, of the power of the press. An Ottawa Citizen story became a Southam News story, a Canadian Press story, a Reuters story, an Agence France Presse story, and a television item here and abroad. In the space of two days of news, the coverage of Hitler’s car resulted in the Museum being flooded by hundreds and hundreds of letters...

At least 99 percent of the public response was hostile. There were half a dozen or so writers who parsed my surname, decided I was Jewish, and declared me a racist who wanted to punish Germans. I was also a tool of the Canadian Jewish Congress. ‘You are Jewish, aren’t you?,’ one writer said. ‘You are obviously letting your personal feelings dictate what the Canadian public is allowed to see and not see.’ There were some who argued on museological grounds with arcane arguments about the principles of deaccessioning artifacts. But the great majority argued along these lines:

1. Canadians had fought and died to capture this limousine and now the War Museum was getting rid of it, probably to the Americans, to neo-Nazis, or to some Saudi prince.

2. The War Museum and me personally were in the grip of ‘the Politically Correct school of museum management’, trying to argue that World War II, as another writer claimed, ‘never happened.’ I was, another said, practicing ‘historical revisionism’. ‘We should not sanitize everything to McDonald’s-like blandness’. I was ‘rewriting history’, yet another claimed, trying to airbrush everything offensive out of the past. There were hundreds of letters along those lines.

As the author of Who Killed Canadian History?, a little book published in 1998 that argued against political correctness, the sanitizing of Canadian history, the pulling of socially useful tidbits out of the past and their use as object lessons by provincial Ministries of Education for social engineering, I am aware that there was a certain irony in my being denounced for all the things I had railed against...

On reflection, the anti-Semitic ravers and the outright crazies aside, I have come to see that the firestorm of response was heartening. Canadians genuinely seemed to believe that their history belonged to them, and they did not want museums, bureaucrats, historians or anyone else trying to take it away from them. Yes, they had the facts of the Hitler car wrong for the most part. The car had not been captured by Canadian soldiers, the War Museum was not airbrushing the war out of its exhibits, far from it. But the writers and callers, by now used to seeing their past blowdried and made inoffensive to anyone, leapt to judgment...

...This is a country that has fought and bled—and still fights and bleeds—to make this a better world, and to portray Canadian nationalism (and Canadian national historians) as riding with Adolf Hitler in his Grosser Mercedes is insultingly stupid.

The interesting point to me is that the carping notwithstanding, we have, I believe, made some progress in getting history front and centre in the last few years...

...I believe all of us want more history to be read and watched and taught, more for Canadians to know and more for them to understand better than they have done. We all should believe that Canada is a special place and that native-born Canadians and those who come here as immigrants should know how this happened. No past, no future, in other words, and that past and future is local, regional, AND national. We have many limited identities, but we are all and always Canadians too.

The Hitler’s car story suggests to me very strongly that the Canadian people want to know their history. And I think it’s important that we be leading this parade, not dragged behind. The parade has reached the first street corner and the band is striking up, and I hope you will take your place in the front rank.
Hitler’s car is featured in the new Canadian War Museum, but the presentation of the exhibit is executed with much more attention to historical truth. No one who sees it will be able to conclude that the Fuhrer loved dogs and children.

Hitler’s car is featured in the new Canadian War Museum, but the presentation of the exhibit is executed with much more attention to historical truth. No one who sees it will be able to conclude that the Fuhrer loved dogs and children.

Note to Taliban Info-Machine: Trevor Greene's NOT Dead!

Fact check alert for the English-language version of this steaming statement grunted out by the Taliban Info-machine today (English - official and Google translation - as well as Arabic versions available in PDF here at a non-terrorist web site) ....

A fourteen-year old boy, Qari Muhammad Zarif, killed an American soldier with a scythe on Nov. 24, hereabout Mumlah area of the Kugyano district. As a matter of fact, it is not the first time that a boy of this age has carried out such an act of bravery out of true Islamic feelings, nearly 4 years ago a boy of ten, Shaheed Abdul Karim, had killed a Canadian marine with an ax in Bakhto area of the Shawlikoot district in Nangrahar (sic.) Furthermore, last year, a boy of the same age, Abdullah, threw petrol at a U.S. marine who was burned to death.

1) Shawalikoot (or, as spelt elsewhere, Shah Wali Kot) is in KANDAHAR, not NANGARHAR.

2) It wasn't a Canadian "marine" who was hit with an axe in Kandahar in 2006 - last I heard, Canada doesn't have Marines.

3) Trevor Greene, the victim of the attack by the ten-year-old "shaheed" (martyr) is VERY MUCH alive, and doing astonishingly well thanks to the determination, grit and hard work of both him and his partner - unless the Globe & Mail's fact checkers dropped the ball here and here earlier this month.

Keep enjoying the lies - more bitchiness here.

A travesty of Canadian journalism/Upperdate: Coup de Rick?

So Gen. (ret'd) Rick Hillier is a wannabe caudillo, right? Better hide your children, James Travers of the Toronto Star seems to be suggesting:

...
More common in U.S. or even South American generals, Hillier's popularity, and the populist drum he beats, make the former chief of defence staff a national phenomenon...

Hurl to the max.

Babbler's Update: I generally don't like to jump in on someone else's post, but this requires a bit more comment.

Travers makes the following assertion:

First Hillier surprised his Liberal political masters by formally signing, on Canada's behalf and at Afghanistan's request, a prisoner transfer agreement crafted in Ottawa as an adequate response to concerns spotted as early 2002 but now dismissed as weak.

That is in direct contradiction to Hillier's account:

Foreign Affairs took the lead and drew up a memorandum of agreement with the Afghan government. David Sproule, our ambassador in Kabul, was at the forefront of developing this agreement. Bill Graham, Ward Elcock and I were of absolutely one mind that an agreement with the government of Afghanistan was the way to go.

...

General Abdul Rahim Wardak, the former Chief of the Defence Staff who was now the Afghan Defence Minister, was going to sign on behalf of the government of Afghanistan and had requested that I sign it with him. Wardak and I had become close during my time as ISAF commander, when he was CDS for Afghanistan. He knew and trusted me. Foreign Affairs had no problems with this, so during my trip to Kabul, David Sproule accompanied me to visit Minister Wardak and, with Sproule orchestrating the shuffling of the various copies with signature blocks marked by yellow stickies, we signed the agreement, bringing it into force.

If Travers thinks Hillier's lying, if he has sources or evidence of that, he should bring them forward. Otherwise, he should apologize for misleading the TorStar readership.

Upperdate: Thanks Babbler, should have done it myself but was upchucking. I guess Mr Travers thinks he has found a case of coup de Rick.

More media coverage of the appearance at the Commons' committee by generals Hillier, Gauthier, and Fraser is here.

Uppestdate: Back at "South American generals", sure looks like Mr Travers was read by St. Rick of the Globe and Mail; but he ain't Salutin:

...
Wednesday afternoon, the Three Generals (it sounds better in Spanish) testified...Los generales were dismissive...

Afstan: Less to any NATO surge than meets the eye

Further to this post,

NATO/US "surge" in Afstan?

the latest:

U.S. Seeks 10,000 Troops From Its Allies in Afghanistan
...
Germany [see Upperdate here] and France have balked at committing any more forces to a war that has so little public support that they can barely maintain current troop levels.

The Netherlands and Canada have begun discussing plans to pull out. Canadian defense officials told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in Halifax last week that they had no intention of sending troops in the future, and that they remained committed to withdrawing by the end of 2011.

Even if the allies make commitments for 5,000 or more new troops after the president’s address on Tuesday at West Point, NATO officials say, those commitments will include troops already in Afghanistan to provide security for recent elections and trainers for the Afghan Army and the police.

And it remains unclear whether several thousand NATO and other foreign troops are really the equal of a similarly sized American force in terms of military capacity. Some countries may continue to restrict how their forces may be employed. In addition, a force that is cobbled together from too many nations — a few hundred here and a thousand there — might not have the unit cohesion of an American force, military analysts said.

Washington has not yet made formal troop requests to allies, but there have been diplomatic and other conversations seeking commitments in principle, carried out by senior American officials; the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen; and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain...

...

Mr. Brown said Wednesday that he was “now optimistic,” after canvassing allies, that a number of countries “will indeed make available increased numbers of troops, and more police trainers and civilian support.” He said he hoped the figure would be 5,000 troops.

Other NATO officials said that figure was roughly accurate, even low. With new contributions expected from Poland, Italy [more here and here] and Britain, the major exceptions for the moment are Germany and France, the officials said...

France, however, is standing firm on its refusal to consider sending more troops beyond the 3,750 now in Afghanistan. It increased its troops by a battalion of 800 last year, added 200 more this year, and plans to send 150 more gendarmes to help train the Afghan police, said Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French military.

From Nov. 1, France has also redeployed its troops out of Kabul [the Turks are now in command there] into a new task force with 2,500 troops based east of the capital [emphasis added, more on the French here]. But President Nicolas Sarkozy told the newspaper Le Figaro in mid-October, “France will not send a single soldier more.”..

Update: Here's story noting French mentors in the field with the ANA, good on them (and other mentors, including ours).

Two truths and a question

Here are the truths:

"A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on." - Proverb

"Whoever talks about it the most owns it." - Public relations truism

Before I get to my question, I'd like to quote from Rick Hillier's book "A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats, and the Politics of War:"

The Canadian Forces, with Foreign Affairs, were concerned about how the Afghans would treat those prisoners, just as there are concerns with any developing nation, and so in late 2005 we began discussing how we would handle them - the Taliban and suspected Taliban grabbed during operations. Foreign Affairs took the lead and drew up a memorandum of agreement with the Afghan government. David Sproule, our ambassador in Kabul, was at the forefront of developing this agreement. Bill Graham, Ward Elcock and I were of absolutely one mind that an agreement with the government of Afghanistan was the way to go.

In December 2005 the agreement was finalize, needing only the signatures from Canada and Afghanistan to bring it into force. I happened to be visiting our troops in Kandahar and was asked if I would consider signing the document for Canada during the couple of days I planned on spending in Kabul. General Abdul Rahim Wardak, the former Chief of the Defence Staff who was now the Afghan Defence Minister, was going to sign on behalf of the government of Afghanistan and had requested that I sign it with him. Wardak and I had become close during my time as ISAF commander, when he was CDS for Afghanistan. He knew and trusted me. Foreign Affairs had no problems with this, so during my trip to Kabul, David Sproule accompanied me to visit Minister Wardak and, with Sproule orchestrating the shuffling of the various copies with signature blocks marked by yellow stickies, we signed the agreement, bringing it into force.

With that in mind, I'd like to know why exactly we've had three generals (Hillier and Gauthier retired, Fraser still in active service) testify before the House of Commons committee while the diplomats remain silent. I'd like to know why Peter MacKay, the Minister of National Defence, is the lead government spokesperson on this issue, while the Lawrence Cannon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is nowhere to be seen.

In other words, why exactly is the CF wearing this?

Update: I'm a big fan of Lew MacKenzie, but I have to disagree with him this once:

Two and a half years ago, two complaints regarding the very issue currently being debated in Parliament were filed with the MPCC. Its efforts to proceed in a timely manner have been thwarted as lawyers on both sides argued whether the MPCC's mandate permitted it to investigate the charges that the Canadian Military Police turned detainees over to Afghan authorities knowing they would be abused. It was judged that the issue was an operational matter and not within the commission's jurisdiction. The hearings were suspended a few weeks back.

A public inquiry would be a colossal waste of taxpayers' money. The government should put the file back into the MPCC's lap and direct all players to co-operate. The commission has the highly qualified staff necessary to get to the truth of the matter in the most cost-effective manner.

Having the MPCC take the lead on this will be seen by all too many - and wrongly, I must stress - as a military investigation of itself, simply because the word "military" appears in the complaints commission's title. It will be decried as a whitewash. And the Canadian Forces will continue to take the lion's share of the public opinion fallout.

By all means, direct the MPCC to push as much information towards whichever institution or commission eventually investigates this shitstorm. But the CF has just recently regained its reputation with the Canadian public; keep our men and women in uniform as far away from this political catfight as possible.

Upperdate: Nipa Banerjee weighs in with her considerable personal experience:

I can recall numerous instances during my term with the Afghanistan program where the Canadian bureaucracy took a despicable stance on issues of ethics, accountability and the public's right to access information.

In 2005-'06, a fraud charge surrounding a CIDA-financed program (approximately $4 million) was brought to my attention by employees of the Canadian NGO charged with implementing it. At this time, against my strongest recommendations and a negative external evaluation, CIDA was considering a second grant to this politically valued NGO, so I was told. Upon receipt of my e-mail alerting CIDA headquarters about the alleged fraud, a superior instructed me to not write any more e-mails on the subject, specifically so as to not leave any written trail that might have to be made available to the Canadian public under the Access to Information Act. My attempts to probe the results of any audit on the NGO met with similar stern warnings. This NGO soon announced bankruptcy.

It's worth reading the whole piece. Again, I ask: why is the CF taking the heat on this?

Live stops at five, or, down the TV rathole: Detainees, the generals, and the Commons' committee

Both CBC "News Network" and CTV "News Channel" (quotes fired for effect) stopped live coverage at 1700 ET and CBC also dropped its Net streaming. A complete disgrace, especially from Mother Corpse, the people's supposed network. Equally disgraceful: CPAC is not, as far as I can find, covering it online even though it says it is:

...

Please select a video

CPAC TV

English | Français | Floor

Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan

English | Français | Floor

What totally pathetic media we have. Hurl.

Update: I'm not sure, but the committee may have broken up (intentional wording) shortly after five--no excuse still for cutting out a bit before. But as of 2100 ET it's now on live on CPAC, about 1/2 hour in, and also at the committee link above...

Upperdate: As of 0830 Nov. 26 CPAC has the hearing video here.

"Our Soldier is Home"

The son of a good friend returns from the Sandbox:

...

Improving links with the ANA...

...is not as easy as perhaps it should be--and other intelligence challenges:

U.S. intelligence chief in Afghanistan wages battle for resources
Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn encounters military resistance in his task of overhauling U.S. intelligence-gathering in Afghanistan to boost efforts to defeat the Taliban.

The peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains create a stunning backdrop for the U.S. military's Kabul headquarters, but Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn rarely notices. Sheltering Taliban fighters and American combat outposts, the mountains symbolize the old way of fighting. Flynn was sent here to help define a new strategy for the war...

Flynn's boss, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and allied commander, has ordered an overhaul of how intelligence is collected, disseminated and, most of all, used by troops in Afghanistan...

To institutionalize the sharing of intelligence in Afghanistan, Flynn is building new intelligence "fusion cells." These centers are staffed and equipped to gather all available intelligence from video feeds, audio intercepts and other sources and make it available immediately to combat units across the country.

An even bigger hurdle for Flynn is improving how the allies share intelligence with the Afghan security forces. Earlier this year, Flynn proposed installing a secure video connection between the U.S. and Afghan military headquarters to allow officers to share intelligence and plan operations.

The project bumped up against North Atlantic Treaty Organization bureaucrats. In one meeting, Canadian and Polish officers, adeptly staying in their lanes, said Flynn's plan faced serious problems: No money was budgeted for the equipment, installing it would violate NATO rules and there were not enough technicians for the job.

As the meeting dragged on, Flynn became exasperated. "This isn't the Balkans and a peacekeeping mission," he told them. "This is a combat zone."

After the meeting, Flynn stopped the two officers in the gravel courtyard behind the NATO headquarters and tried to enlist them in his cause.

"We are going to move this command into the 21st century as fast as we can," Flynn told them. "If you want to push back, push back. If what I am saying isn't right, tell me. But from my experience, we can do this, and we can do it faster. Do not worry about perfect."

When they seemed to be coming around, he pressed his point. "We are beyond the nonsense," he said. "There is not a lot of time for us to show progress here in Afghanistan."

A few days later, Afghanistan's military command center got its top-secret communications equipment and a direct link to McChrystal's war room in Kabul, the capital...

More on this sort of problem from a post by BruceR. at Flit:

...
3. Force protection measures in a warzone limit our mentoring. Our own unwillingness to risk or lose soldiers works against us, setting at least three huge barriers in our path. It's very difficult within established force protection measures, for mentors in the South to spend continuous time with their Afghan counterparts. Our limited access to them means they're left to their own devices a lot. If you're not living and working with them at all times, that's when the corruption and incompetence will inevitably slip back in. And while we have trouble maintaining a persistent presence in their headquarters, for the same reason, they can't enter our inner sanctums, drastically limiting the sharing of intelligence and operational planning [emphasis added], let alone military culture...

Update: Because of arrangements that have been made with the Pakistani government--as a result of its important place in international counterterrorism efforts--it has been, ironically, considerably easier to share intelligence with the Pakistanis than with the Afghans.

US to focus on Kandahar

Sort of make or break for the COIN campaign:

Surge Targets Taliban Bastion

Commanders in Afghanistan say they will devote the majority of the fresh troops expected from the White House to securing the country's troubled south and will especially target this volatile city, the Taliban's main power base.

President Barack Obama will announce his revamped war strategy in an address early next week, likely Tuesday. He is widely expected to adopt a plan that sends between 20,000 and 40,000 more troops to bolster a flagging military campaign and the 68,000 U.S. troops now fighting it.

But even before Mr. Obama takes his case to the public, military commanders on the battlefield are ready to implement a plan that makes a defensive ring around Kandahar a linchpin of the fight to come. No matter how many troops the president decides to authorize, the Kandahar campaign will be an early, large-scale test of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's plan of refocusing allied military, political and economic efforts on population centers and away from sparsely peopled rural areas.

The new commander of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, and his staff detailed how they will put the McChrystal approach into action, in interviews with The Wall Street Journal: They plan to mass thousands of troops now scattered around the south and pack them into a tight cordon around the outskirts of Kandahar city [see this post for current positioning of US and Canadian troops].

At the same time, the coalition plans to pour economic, police and political assistance into the urban core to try to persuade residents that the Afghan government serves them better than the Taliban alternative. "We have to regain the initiative, and we have to get some momentum going," said Gen. Carter.

As Gen. McChrystal's team scrambles to reverse Taliban gains in Kandahar, they will also dispatch thousands of American soldiers to secure the major highways that pass through the city to Pakistan and southern Afghanistan.

As soon as this weekend, officers expect to order the fast-moving armored Stryker Brigade to devote itself full time to securing roads plagued by hidden bombs and illegal checkpoints run by insurgents, bandits and corrupt police...

Thousands of the new troops also would likely be deployed to expand the Kandahar approach to the most densely populated districts of the Helmand River Valley in neighboring Helmand province [those would likely be Marines, see this post for more on US units that may be coming]. Together, the two areas contain about two million of the estimated three million residents of southern Afghanistan.

The new southern strategy is an explicit recognition that a move this past summer to position a few thousand Canadian and U.S. troops outside Kandahar failed to stop insurgents from infiltrating the city.

For years the coalition paid little attention to the city, despite a huge allied presence at the airfield outside town. That neglect allowed the Taliban, whose Islamist movement was born in Kandahar, to again make inroads [see "Bullshit Bob" here]...

...allied and Afghan officials say Kandahar is too crucial to lose. "The history of Afghanistan always was, always is and always will be determined from Kandahar," provincial Gov. Tooryalai Wesa [an Afghan-Canadian] said in an interview...

For security reasons, allied officers don't want to publicize how many soldiers will be involved in the Kandahar operation. They say their plan will boost the troops encircling Kandahar by 50%, while reducing the area they cover by 90%, making the cordon harder for insurgents to penetrate.

Gen. Carter is wary of inserting large numbers of foreign troops into the center of Kandahar, an ethnically Pashtun city in a Pashtun insurgency. There is a small Canadian security and economic-aid team inside the city [the Provincial Reconstruction Team] and a 150-man U.S. military-police company [so in fact not an MP battalion under our command, more here]. Gen. Carter plans to boost that with another small MP unit to bolster the Afghan National Police [what about those extra US troops reported to be coming under Canadian command?]...

The coalition also plans to flood Kandahar and its environs with economic aid, including a $50 million Canadian irrigation system [that actually would be the Dahla dam project, more here, which US troops are already helping protect], a U.S. farm-and-jobs project and a new electrical-distribution network expected to cost some $20 million...

As for the world needing more Canada, read this AP story on the situation in Kandahar City.

Update: The governor of Kandahar escaped an assassination attempt Nov. 27.

"Ice Pilots" takes off

Vroom:

Some takeoff, eh? Ice Pilots NWT, History Television's bracing docu-reality series about a renegade airline that links remote communities across Canada's north using vintage Second World War-era transport planes, roared to a ratings record last week, with 459,000 viewers.

That was the most viewers to watch a homegrown-series debut in History's history. To put that number in perspective, last week's audience for Ice Pilots NWT topped that of time-period rival The Jay Leno Show (306,000), even though Ice Pilots aired on a specialty channel and Leno on a conventional broadcast network.

And small wonder. Ice Pilots NWT is a lot of fun to watch, fascinating and entertaining by turns, and a lot easier to watch from the comfort of home than to suffer through in person.

Tonight's episode, the self-explanatory Pre-Christmas Rush, finds the mercury dipping below -40, even as remote communities in the Mackenzie Valley are running desperately low on supplies. Just as important, families are waiting for their Christmas presents, but a gruff mechanic and a Curtiss-Wright C-46 flight crew are stranded in a motel room in Norman Wells, with a busted engine outside and a serious case of cabin fever brewing inside.

Debut episodes of new TV shows often draw a crowd initially, only to disappoint in subsequent weeks. There's nothing disappointing about tonight's Ice Pilots NWT, though. If anything, it's even more focused, even more gripping and more nerve-racking than last week's opener.

Ice Pilots NWT is white-knuckle viewing at its best:exciting without being voyeuristic or manipulative. Based on the evidence of its early ratings, it might also be the biggest homegrown TV success story since Project Runway Canada. And why not? These runways are real. (10 p.m., History Television)...

See this previous post for relevant links and video.

Hitler's Mercedes: We've got one too

I'm also interested in cars. From the Canadian War Museum, 2007:

...
July 19 – 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (bilingual)
Spotlight on Hitler’s Car
The Mercedes Benz, which Hitler used as a parade car, recalls one of history’s most brutal and murderous dictatorships. Dr. Jeff Noakes explains the car’s past and what it means to the story of the Second World War.
Gallery 3 – Entrance...

Photos:

Another vehicle (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs) :

Adolf Hitler's Mercedes bought by Russian for £5m
Adolf Hitler's Mercedes has been bought by a Russian oligarch for an estimated five million pounds.

Adolf Hitler standing in a convertible Mercedes reviews SA and SS troops in 1937 Photo: AFP/GETTY

The car was once part of a fleet used by the Nazi leader in his travels across Europe during the Second World War.

The midnight blue 770 K model car (the CWM's is also a 770) was locked away in a collector's garage in Bielefeld along with seven other vehicles used by Nazi leaders...

Afstan militias: Secret? Really?

A Torch post two days ago:

If Afghan government security forces aren't doing it...

Sometimes one truly does despair of our media. I'd wager the headline below was done by someone here in Canada as CP's Mr. Montpetit seems a real reporter ("Two days ago"):

Secret U.S. plan to support Afghan militias echoes Canadian general's ideas

Via Milnews.ca, Nov. 24.

Afstan: Set to be decided, announcement Dec. 1

Almost two weeks ago:

Obamastan: Serve returned...

Now, from Foreign Policy's "AfPak Channel", note numbers:

Daily brief: Obama expected to announce Afghanistan decision December 1

Getting closer

Around 20 members of U.S. President Barack Obama's national security team met for the ninth or tenth time last night to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, and rumors are coalescing around "early next week" for the president to announce his decision of a "middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 U.S. forces" to the Afghan theater (AP, NPR, Reuters, AP, AFP). Politico, Reuters, NPR, and McClatchy all report the much-anticipated decision will come in a presidential television address on December 1 (Politico, Reuters, NPR, McClatchy)...

Major CF operation near Kandahar continues to be ignored by our media/Update: Canwest correction

Quelle surprise. Post from Nov. 17:

Big Canadian operation at Kandahar ignored/Other CF Afstan news/Globeite update: Blackwater

Two days ago:

Canadian soldiers push deeper into insurgent territory in Kandahar

Canadian soldiers are pushing deeper into insurgent-controlled areas southwest of Kandahar city as their commander awaits an expected NATO request that Canada take on greater responsibilities.

The military announced Saturday that Canadian troops had moved into the northern limits of Nakhonay, a town of around 2,000 people in the heart of the volatile Panjwaii district.

This marked a new phase of an operation dubbed Hydra, which started last week with Canadian and Afghan forces taking control of Haji Baba, located northeast of Nakhonay.

Canadian Maj. Ryan Drukowski gives instructions to his troops ahead of siezing Haji Baba, Afghanistan, Nov. 13, 2009. Canadian Forces launched a massive show of strength over the weekend against the insurgent stronghold southwest of Kandahar city, seeking to open a new front in its fight against the Taliban. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Montpetit

"We have spread ourselves into the northern regions of Nakhonay and we have begun presence patrolling in Nakhonay itself," said Maj. Darcy Wright, the acting deputy commander of the Canadian Battle Group.

"We have long suspected Nakhonay as having an insurgent presence."

Canadian soldiers entered Nakhonay on Thursday and have met with little resistance as they begin to secure the area...

While Nakhonay has been the site of three different operations since 2007, the Canadian military is committed to maintaining a presence in the area for the foreseeable future.

Hydra is already one of the largest operations in recent memory, involving 1,000 [emphasis added] of the 2,800 Canadian troops based in the country...

Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, the new commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, hinted last week he could find soon himself responsible for more territory, and have more troops under his command.

He also said his priority will be securing Kandahar city, raising the question of whether there are enough troops to push forward with stabilization projects in Panjwaii.

"There is with any operation we run, especially within counter-insurgency, a balance that we have to have," said Wright.

"You cannot abandon one area and chase a ghost."..

There are also 200 Afghan National Army soldiers taking part...

A good, solid wire service report without our journalists' frequent spin or agenda (and Mr Montpetit has obviously been outside the KAF wire for some of the operation). Pity almost nobody ran it. Here's another story, by Matthew Fisher of Canwest News that none of the chain's papers saw fit to print (via GAP).

Update: Canwest correction--have been informed that Mr Fisher's piece was published on Sunday in the Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Victoria Times-Colonist, Vancouver Province (as a brief) and Vancouver Sun.com. My apologies but neither Google News or Google Web turned them up. Not as almighty as one has become tempted to think.

Upperdate thought: I guess most of our major media think Canada's war in Afstan is for all practical purposes over when they no longer bother to cover what the CF are doing in that war.