Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Afstan: Hell no, we're gonna go/Meanwhile Kandahar shaping

Earlier:
Afstan: Stephen Harper ain't no Barack Omama...
Now: take this Madame Secretary of State--our loud and proud foreign minister:
U.S. makes public call for Canada to stay in Afghanistan
...

The United States has scrapped pretence and is publicly calling for Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan past next year, sparking questions over what Canada’s role will be after the 2011 deadline for military withdrawal.

Though it is no secret that the U.S. would like to see Canadian troops stay, Washington had previously papered over the differences by not specifically asking.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton changed course, saying the U.S. believes it has made progress with a new strategy and hopes Canada will provide “visible” support. She said that Canadian troops might take on a non-combat role.

“We would obviously like to see some form of support continue, because the Canadian Forces have a great reputation. They’ve worked really well with our American troops and the other members of our coalition,” Ms. Clinton said in interview with CTV News before a meeting of foreign ministers from G8 countries.

“There’s all kinds of things that are possible. The military could slip more into a training role instead of a combat role, a logistics-support role instead of front-line combat,” she said, stressing that it is up to Canada to decided its way forward.

Last night, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon insisted there will be no Canadian military mission in Afghanistan after next year's deadline, but said the government is examining what kind of roles civilian officials will play in delivering aid and development programs.

“Canada's military mission will end in 2011,” he said. “Officials, of course, are examining Canada's potential non-military role post-2011. But let me be clear again: our military role will end in 2011."..

But, until they leave, the CF are still hard at it, with the ANA seemingly harder at it themselves:
KHENJAKAK, Afghanistan — Canadian and Afghan troops have swept through villages southwest of Kandahar only to find that locals had already ejected the Taliban.

A combined force of roughly 1,000 troops, supported by tanks and helicopters, spent the last six days scouring through hamlets on the outskirts of the city, areas that have been known staging points for militants. The operation in Adamzai and Khenjakak was conducted under a media blackout and is in the same general vicinity where Canadian soldiers fought pitched battles last fall.

But villagers told troops and the district governor at a shura - or meeting - on Monday that they had already chased the Taliban away and told them not to return.

Afghan and Canadian commanders were quick to say the absence of insurgent activity in the area was sign NATO's new counter-insurgency strategy was working without anyone having to fire a shot.

Known as Operation Lion II, it was the first Afghan National Army planned and led offensive sweep.
Previous shaping the battlefield in preparation for the coming big (largely American and one hopes an effective ANA) push at Kandahar province and city, likely to start in June.

1 Comments:

Blogger milnews.ca said...

The new buzzwords, just out of the PM's spokesperson's mouth, via the Toronto Star:

“It means that the mission post-2011 is going to be a civilian-based mission focused primarily on aid and reconstruction,” said Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the prime minister. “The government is currently looking at specifics but the broad strokes are pretty clear … It’s going to be a civilian peace mission.

2:43 p.m., March 30, 2010  

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