Stupid hyperbole about forthcoming Kandahar ops (whatever they're called)/A bit of orbat fun

This really is over-the-top on the part of the US Marine Colonel and can only lead to misinterpretation and disappointment:

Upcoming Afghan battle is 'our D-Day'
Ménard, Royal Canadian Regiment take lead in potentially decisive campaign

Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard of Canada is to direct NATO's potentially decisive campaign in Kandahar City and four other districts this summer, including the volatile Panjwaii where troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment [more here] will take the lead as the battle unfolds.

"On what we and the Taliban both say is the vital strategic ground, Canada is still in charge during this critical time," Col. David Bellon, director of operations for Regional Command South.

The U.S. marine colonel works for British Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter who is running the division-sized operation, which is the biggest of NATO's war in Afghanistan.

The Canadians "have the key task for the division. I cannot overstress that enough," Bellon said of a campaign in the increasingly violent Taliban heartland that has already begun slowly with shaping operations and may last into the fall.

"This conflict is our D-Day," Bellon said of the fight for Kandahar. "This will decide who stays. If we get pushed into the water, it is over."

Drawing parallels with the key role that Canadian troops played during the Normandy landings in 1944, he added: "The first guys on the beach here are the Canadians."

Ménard, as the leader of Task Force Kandahar, now commands several thousand U.S. troops in and around Kandahar City and an approximately equal number of Canadians in the city and in Panjwaii, to the west.

[Actually there are quite a few more US troops than Canadian--three battalions versus one (augmented)--in the CF's official list; and why is the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team,10th Mountain Division, not included in the list?

...the 1-71st Cavalry is in Kandahar, the country’s Taliban hotbed, attached to a Canadian battle unit...

Moreover there are a lot more US Army troops arriving who will be involved and who will not be under Canadian command, see Update here. Plus the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team which has been around since last summer, out fairly soon (near end at link), more on the BCT here.]

Asked about what effect the transition in Kandahar was having on the Canadians as more U.S. forces arrive, Bellon said: "There is no doubt that it is frustrating for them. The time was when (Kandahar province) was all their AO (area of operations) and the Maple Leaf led here."

The colonel said the Canadian force is providing strong counsel for the surge of U.S. troops ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama.

"We are relying on the Canadians and the lessons that they've paid for through blood and valour for 95 per cent of what we know here," Bellon said...

As to what will be happening:

Spinning Kandahar: It won't be an "operation"

It'll be a process...

Some D-Day. Seems the colonel didn't get the memo.

Update thought: In addition the US Army's 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade has been at KAF since last spring, more here.

Upperdate: This looks like a prime example of how things are planned for Kandahar City:

U.S. troops, Afghan police sweep through Taliban stronghold
Military and civilian teams search homes and offer reconstruction aid in a Kandahar district. The operation is a preview of a wider summer campaign.

Photogallery here. And here's a recent, much less comphrehensive, Canadian action in a neighbouring district (note who's along with them):

Afstan: In the field with 2 RCR

Uppestdate: More here on the 1-71st Cavalry:

Taliban Haunt Nights in a Kandahar Village
Fear-Struck Afghans Turn Away Troops Who Come Seeking Their Confidence

... the 1st Squadron of the 71st Cavalry Regiment, arrived in recent weeks, and has already pushed into villages that haven't seen Afghan or coalition forces in years.

The squadron's Charlie troop established on May 1 a new outpost in the village of Gorgon, 15 miles southwest of Kandahar city, setting up camp around a school that, like most others in the area, was shut down by the Taliban two years ago.

"The Taliban were the only armed force that would come down here, maintaining a monopoly of violence for a long time," says the troop's commander, Capt. Kevin Krupski, a 26-year-old West Point graduate. "The locals have been intimidated."

Several months before the Americans arrived, the Canadian army briefly maintained an outpost in Gorgon's school. After the Canadians left, the Taliban burned down the building and assassinated locals who collaborated with the foreign forces.

Now, Capt. Krupski's mission is to convince the distrustful villagers that the Americans won't abandon the area to the Taliban again—and that the Afghan police who arrived with his troop will be here for good...[or maybe at least 2011]