"Military rebuffs blogger’s call for top Canadian general to be fired"

A blogosphere tempest. From Matthew Fisher of Canwest News:

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Canadian military in Afghanistan emphatically denied Wednesday a claim by an American blogger popular among soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that Canada's commander, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, should be fired for not having prevented an attack on a bridge near the Kandahar Airfield where an American soldier and four Afghan civilians died Monday.

Blogger Michael Yon, a former Special Forces soldier who has sometimes had strained relations with the U.S. and British military bureaucracy because of his writing, alleged Canadian troops were not providing security as they should have because they and Brig.-Gen. Menard were watching the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game on television at the time of the attack and that the U.S. should take over his command before a major offensive that will likely begin late this spring.

"Task Force Kandahar, responsible for security of the bridge that was blown up on Monday, happens to be under Canadian command," Mr. Yon wrote [at Facebook].

CanadianForces Lt.-Col. Danny Fortin said Mr. Yon's description was inaccurate. The bridge, which lies on Highway 4 a short distance from Kandahar Airfield, "does not fall within Canada's area of responsibility for security," he said.

All the land surrounding the airport has long been the responsibility of the Royal Air Force Regiment, a British infantry unit that specializes in protecting airports from attack [see Upperdate here]. Most road checks in the area are carried out by Afghan National Police, while sweeps for improvised explosive devices on the major highways in Kandahar are done by a U.S. army Stryker brigade or by U.S. combat engineers attached to them.

"We are tasked to provide reinforcements in the area, if that is necessary as it was during recent floods," Mr. Fortin said. "We support the RAF when required."

While confirming that the general watched the hockey game with some Canadian and American troops, the game "was over hours before the incident at the bridge," Mr. Fortin said...

Mr. Yon's demand that Brig.-Gen. Menard be replaced hinted at a growing frustration on the part of some Americans that NATO has put four U.S. battalions under Canadian command in Kandahar [actually only three at the moment, I think - MC].

"I can see how someone in the American forces might say: ‘Why aren't we under U.S. command?'" Mr. Fortin said. "But the Americans answer to a Canadian who answers to a British major-general who in turn answers to an American. This is coalition warfare at its best."

An American colonel who serves in Brig.-Gen. Menard's headquarters was also part of the checks and balances that NATO had put in place to ensure that American concerns were heard, he said.

The issue of who commands what in Kandahar is particularly sensitive at the moment, with NATO planning a major offensive in the province later this spring. Additional U.S. combat units are expected to arrive in Kandahar in the near future, including thousands of troops from the 101st Airborne Division [more here]...

Bruce R. also responds at Flit:

Michael... Yawn

Battlespace provocateur Michael Yon is calling for the head of Canada's commander in Afghanistan on his Facebook page, after a suicide vehicle took out a bridge between KAF and Kandahar City, along Highway 4, killing one American.

Now, I'm not saying Yon doesn't have a point when he says it's hard to realize there's a war on in KAF. It is a very very bad place that way. But he's still a little erm, offbase on this one...

I doubt it was their [CF's] Area of Operations in any case. When I was there that part of Highway 4 was the domain of the ANP, supported by British base defence troops, and the Afghans were actually pretty good at looking at culverts and such on this stretch. I imagine that's still close to the case...

More from BruceR.:

Michael Yon's stuck in KAF update

Yon bridge update

And a topic thread at Milnet.ca.