Afstan: After a short absence, the CF return to Arghandab/Canadian Army general pulled out

One does wonder about the identity of the new US Army (one assumes) battalion that will come under our Task Force Kandahar, which will now include two US Army infantry battalions and one Canadian, from the PPCLI (there is also a US Army military police battalion under the task force):

Canada expands area of responsibility in south Afghanistan

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - NATO confirmed Tuesday that Canada's area of operations in south Afghanistan will expand slightly to include a northern suburb of Kandahar City known as Arghandab.

The development, first revealed to CanWest News Service on Nov. 18 by Canadian generals in Afghanistan, will see responsibility for the area returned to Canadian Forces after having been a Canadian responsibility from early 2006 until the end of July [some fighting from June 2008 at this post] when it was given over to a U.S. Army Stryker battalion which will now be moved elsewhere in the province.

Few Canadian troops will actually move back into Arghandab. Rather, new U.S. soldiers who will be under Canadian command, will soon take over responsibility for the area, which is one of several Taliban hotbeds close to the provincial capital. The Stryker force had been and will remain under U.S. command [emphasis added].

The realignment of forces will only slightly effect Canadian combat operations. A far greater effect on the battle space of Canada's 2,800 troops in Kandahar will come from the addition of several thousand new U.S. troops throughout Canada's area of operations. Some of those soldiers will come from elsewhere in Afghanistan [emphasis added, where can the US afford to move combat units from?]. Most are expected to be included in a troop surge that U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce Tuesday evening in a nationally televised address from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.

As before [see here], almost all Canadian troops in Kandahar will continue to deal with Zhari, Panjwaii and Dand, as well as in Kandahar City itself.

The realignment of forces around Kandahar City was proposed by Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, who commanded Canada's brigade in Kandahar until Nov. 18. It was approved after high level talks in Afghanistan in November between NATO's top general in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Canada's Defence Peter MacKay and Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, who commands all Canadian forces overseas...

More:

...
Hodges said Task Force Kandahar will have an additional American battalion and an Afghan national army unit by the new year. He said the changes would come regardless of whether Obama decides to deploy additional troops [emphasis added, so a unit already in-country]...

Then this unusual development:

General recalled from Afghanistan
Canadian abruptly shipped home after 'personality conflict' with peer

A Canadian general has abruptly returned home from Kandahar, not halfway through what was to have been a 12-month tour with NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Brig.-Gen. Gerry Champagne left Kandahar for Canada late last week. He had been the chief planner for ISAF's Regional Command South - the headquarters that runs the war against the Taliban in six provinces that are at the heart of the conflict - until a serious rift apparently developed between him and RC South's new commander, Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter of Britain.

"A sharp personality conflict" between the two generals had triggered Champagne's departure, according to sources in Kabul and Kandahar. Champagne was not fired, but he and his superiors in Ottawa decided that it would be for the best if he withdrew from the position, these sources said...

Update: More from the Globe and Mail on the Arghandab story, with an all-too-typical Canadian journalistic clanger by reporter Patrick White:

...
A U.S. batallion [sic] under Canadian command will arrive in the agricultural region within three weeks [emphasis added], according to U.S. Brig-Gen Frederick Hodges, director of operations for International Security Assistance Force's southern command...

Since spring, Canada's area of responsibility has shrunk by two-thirds and three U.S. battalions have been placed under Canadian commander Brig-Gen Dan Menard's authority -- part of a summer U.S. troop surge that brought some 20,000 new soldiers to the troubled southern portion of the country...

No, Mr White. The U.S. battalions you refer to are from the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team that arrived this summer. They are not under the CF's Task Force Kandahar (see third para in first story above) ; the brigade itself is officially under UK Maj.-Gen. Carter, RC South commander. Meanwhile, one US Army battalion has been part of our task force since summer 2008.

Upperdate: A key point about Arghandab from the Toronto Star:

...

In Arghandab, that [more US forces] may also mean added security for the Canadian-backed Dahla dam project aimed at replenishing the water supply of the parched river valley, where a network of canals for vital agricultural land has fallen into disrepair.

Contractors have built a new bridge, and fixed roadways around the dam site, ready for the final phase of construction, according to the Canadian development agency, CIDA. It's part of a plan for winning Afghan hearts and minds away from the Taliban...

Here's a post on the dam from May 2009, and an excerpt from a September post:

...
The Canadian government set as a benchmark the creation of 10,000 seasonal jobs in the reconstruction of the Dahla dam but, so far, only 199 Afghans are working one year after the project was announced...