Canada in Afghanistan

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

A Canadian soldier was found dead Saturday morning in Afghanistan in the southern province of Kandahar, and the Department of National Defence attributed his death to "non-combat-related wounds."

"One Canadian Forces member was found dead from non-combat related wounds at approximately 6:00 a.m. local Kandahar time on 25 June 2011 at a coalition forward operating base in Kandahar City," the Department said in a statement.

The soldier's identity has not yet been made public at the request of the family.

The soldier is the 157th Canadian to die in combat in Afghanistan since 2002.

Canadian combat troops have already started returning from Afghanistan, and will all be home this year.

At the same time, Ottawa is planning to send 950 military instructors to train Afghan soldiers.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Memorial to fallen Canadian soldiers buried at front line Afghan base
The Canadian PressBy Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – Wed, 8 Jun, 2011



MA'SUM GHAR, Afghanistan - A symbol of Canadian blood and sacrifice, etched into the crusted hillside of a forward operating base in Kandahar for nearly four-and-a-half years, is being buried and left behind in Afghanistan as the end of Canada's combat mission draws ever nearer.

The Maple Leaf rock mural at Ma'sum Ghar started as a tribute to five soldiers killed during the landmark battle of Pashmul, known as Operation Medusa.

But throughout the years, the memorial has grown as more and more marker stones were placed to honour additional casualties.

A total of 59 stones, representing 72 soldiers who operated out of Ma'sum Ghar, were buried in a trench at the base of the memorial Wednesday in a moving sunset ceremony staged by members of the Royal 22e Regiment battle group.

Capt. Joshua Robbins, the commander of 1 Platoon, Para Company, knew three of the soldiers and the family of a fourth.

"It's just evidence of how close our army is; how small it is," said Robbins, who is on his first tour of the war-torn country. "The degrees of separation between us are few and far between."

He and other soldiers said they found it entirely appropriate to bury the memorial stones in Afghanistan, rather than bring them back to Canada.

As each stone was carried to the trench, where the sides were draped in black cloth, the names of the dead soldiers were read out.

Some of the markers were personalized with drawings and even tiny regimental and Canadian flags. A few of them had plates drilled into the rock, but the names had been scorched or bleached off by the brutal Afghan sun.

"They represent Canada for us," Maj. Graham Thompson, the task force chaplain, said of the stones. "They represent great Canadians for us. They represent honour and honourable service for us."

After the moving, unusual ceremony, soldiers — some of them teary-eyed — filed past the trench and tossed poppies and handfuls of Afghan sand atop the markers.

The U.S. is about to take over the base, which has been a linchpin in the Canadian army's war in western Kandahar.

The memorial was originally built in the winter of 2007 by Americans and South Africans whose bomb-sniffing dogs accompanied troops into the field.

Van Thames, of AM-K9 Protection said at the time that he built the tribute in his spare time as a way to say thank you to the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, who kept him and his team safe and comfortable.

Although touched, some troops were upset that it took someone other than a Canadian to think of the gesture, which has become iconic for anyone who has spent any amount of time in either Panjwaii or Zhari districts, west of the provincial capital.

"I had one guy that come up and first of all I thought he was mad with me," Thames said when the memorial was built.

"I said, 'What's wrong? What did I do wrong?' He said: 'I'm mad 'cause it took an American to think about it and do it instead of one of us doing it."

Thames and his fellow dog handlers, Hollis Crawford and Rogelio Meza, laid out all of the rocks and then proceeded to paint them red and white before they were joined by two South African colleagues to finish the job.

It is hard to understate the historic significance of Ma'sum Ghar, an ugly, J-shaped mountain that seems to thunder unexpectedly from the desert floor and overshadow the town of Bazaar-e-Panjwaii.

Early in the war, its slopes were soaked in Canadian blood. It was the launching point for Operation Medusa, the first NATO-led offensive in Afghanistan.

Most Canadian combat operations throughout the war have been staged out here.

The army's contingent of Leopard 2A6M battle tanks have called it home — one that has sustained frequent pounding by Taliban rockets.

As a heavily fortified position, the base was a beacon of safety for the untold number of patrols that stepped off — or launched — from its gates into the surrounding nest of insurgent vipers.

Lt.-Col. Michael Wright, who was a major in August 2006, won the Medal of Military Valour, along with three of his men, when he fought to hold on to Ma'sum Ghar after the Taliban had encircled it.

Insurgents recognized the value of its bluffs soon after Canadians moved into Panjwaii in force that summer.

Wright, in an interview with The Canadian Press, said he recalled watching from nearby Patrol Base Wilson as firefights increased and tracers flew around the mountain at night.

The Taliban had been using cracks and folds of Ma'sum Ghar to mortar Canadian positions and Wright was told to take and hold the area on Aug. 19, 2006 with a platoon of soldiers.

The troops linked up with Afghan police who had been holding the nearby district centre.

"I could hear some machine gun fire to the south," Wright recalled. "I sat down to do some confirmatory orders and I heard a pop and saw a (rocket-propelled grenade). It landed about eight feet away, but luckily it didn't explode or things would have been very different."

The shot had come from a position that was supposed to have been manned by Afghan police, but had been quietly overrun.

"It was very difficult to figure out where the enemy was coming from," said Wright. "The fact they were coming from the south was not what we were expecting at all."

Waves of Taliban tried to storm up the mountain and Wright's light armoured vehicle opened up with its 25-millimetre chain gun. Soon other LAVs were firing both to the south and east and an American Predator drone joined in with a few well-placed Hellfire missiles.

Wright's platoon hung on, suffered no casualties, but eventually withdrew.

A couple of weeks later, as the first act of Operation Medusa, the Canadians took the hill and have never left — until now.

Although it will remain a Canadian base for a few weeks, Wednesday's ceremony signals the beginning of the end.

The U.S. has already moved in and greatly expanded the rugged outpost.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Another man down in Kandahar. Enemy action ruled out. No name released until further notice by the family. This morning's paper suggested he was at a camp where Special Forces operate. Most of the guys on those camps are not necessarily SF, but screened augmentees doing a wide variety of support functions. MTF.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words......
Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers , 'The Sunday Telegraph' LONDON :

Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region.

And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.. It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.

Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts.

For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.

Yet it's purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the 'British.'

The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone.

Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time.

Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, Mike Weir and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British.

It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces.

Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan ?

Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.

Lest we forget.

*********************
Please pass this on to any of your friends or relatives who served in the Canadian Forces or anyone who is proud to be Canadian; it is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.

[John McGillivray]

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words......
Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers , 'The Sunday Telegraph' LONDON :

Alex, this is a very old article first published in 2002 after the deaths of four Canadian soldiers by an American National Guard Cowboy, who was hot and bothered to drop his bomb so that he wouldn't have to carry it home; or maybe it was just the go pills (speed) that he popped an hour earlier.
http://beatles.ncf.ca/canada.html

[Ganmain Tony]

Very very long - but well worth the read - give yourself 15 minutes. I think you'll get some idea just how invaluable our blokes (all nations involved) are to bringing lasting peace to Afghanistan...

The Australian
By Brendan Nicholson, Defence editor
August 27, 2011

THE generals commanding coalition troops in Afghanistan say their plan to save that country is simple, but not simplistic, and they insist it's working.

As casualties in Afghanistan increased during the past two years, Australians have been told repeatedly by leaders on both sides of politics that they would "stay the course" in a war that has gone on for most of a decade.

Julia Gillard told parliament again this week that the goal was clear and the mission defined.

But apart from the oft-repeated statement that "Afghanistan must not be allowed to again become a safe haven for international terrorism", it has been far from clear how that mission is being carried out or whether it can succeed.

There is a plan and the commanders in Afghanistan have insisted in interviews with Inquirer that it is working.

In April, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Australian Defence Force commander in the Middle East, Major General Angus Campbell, said considerable key ground had been taken from the insurgents during a milder than expected northern winter.

They said those gains were substantial but fragile and the insurgents would fight hard to win back the territory during the summer.

The next stage of the plan involves consolidating control over the main population areas lying in a giant circle roughly defined by the main ring road known as Route 1 or Highway 1.

As security is consolidated, these areas are placed under the control of Afghan troops and police backed by coalition forces.

At the same time a strong screen of special forces, including Australian Special Air Service and commandos, are tracking down Taliban leaders, cutting them off from supplies from Pakistan and elsewhere and making it dangerous for them to move back into Afghanistan.

ADF head of joint operations Lieutenant General Ash Power was in Afghanistan this month for briefings from Australian and NATO commanders.

Another Australian in a key role is Major General Michael Krause, the chief military planner in coalition headquarters.

A race is on between the declining will to fight of Western nations that are struggling economically and tiring of seeing soldiers killed, and the push to improve security, governance and life in Afghanistan and to build respect for the rule of law.

The generals spoke frankly about the campaign and they are confident the insurgency can be defeated. Power says the public perception that the war is going badly is wrong.

"People develop a perception from what they read or hear or see on the television and all you're doing in news cycles is taking snapshots of a spectacular event, whether it be the attack on an international hotel or what happened in Tarin Kowt on July 28 [a lethal Taliban attack on the governor's compound and the headquarters of Matiullah Khan, the strongman recently appointed as police chief in Oruzgan province].

"If you just get that as the only view of Afghanistan then, quite understandably, you'll think things are going pretty bad.

"If you keep going back, as I've done now for a while, you do see progress. You see the roads being built, the schools being built and there's certainly more kids going to school or getting access to health facilities.

"Having said that, there's still a long way to go."

It's clear that the Afghanistan that emerges after transition will be far from perfect, a compromise of sorts.

In April, a US Defence Department study on progress towards security and stability warned that extensive work was needed to improve the ability of the government of Hamid Karzai to bring law and justice to the people. Even more bluntly, it warned that corruption would erode the government's legitimacy, undermine the international community's objectives and drive Afghans into the hands of the insurgency.

The recent appointment of Khan as police chief in Oruzgan province has been strongly criticised internationally. MK, as he is known, amassed a fortune and established a power base largely through contracts with coalition forces to escort their road supply convoys through dangerous areas. It has been claimed that he has dealt harshly with opponents. Australian commanders have taken a "better the devil you know" position on MK and given him the benefit of the doubt.

Power says it has been tough for anyone to earn a living in Afghanistan.

"If you've been able to rise to the top and you've in that position of influence, no doubt you would have got there through birth right, familial links, patronage, tribal support, a bit of rat cunning, having highly tuned survival skills, a fair bit of street smarts and obviously you have to be supported by other people," he says.

"Matiullah Khan is now the appointed police chief inside the province and we're looking forward to working with him."

MK has said all the right things and promised to deal with some difficult areas.

"It will be very interesting to see how he manages the police force around the province," Power says.

Krause says recent assassinations of key figures close to Karzai and other high-profile attacks are signs the insurgency has had to change its tactics.

"There is no mass insurgency in this country; that's gone," he says.

The Taliban is turning to "spectacular" attacks by hit squads coming in from across the border.

"The Taliban and other insurgent groups have recognised that we've got a better than even chance of pulling this off," Krause says. "On a daily basis, in the areas we've retained there is enough good governance happening that it is accelerating away from the Taliban's ability to affect it."

Krause scoffs at the refrain that "the West has the watches and the Taliban has the time".

"This idea of waiting out the West is a fantasy. We'll stay here and we'll make it happen," he says.

"All we need is patience from people back home and a recognition that we can do this. It is very, very doable.

"By securing the Afghan people we give them the opportunity to reject the Taliban and get on with life. By [our] securing population centres and allowing commerce between them, life can go on.

"The Taliban is able to operate in this country largely through extortion, fear and intimidation. The proof of that is where we've been able to secure an area the Taliban have not come back."

Lashkar Gah district, in Helmand province, was a Taliban stronghold. Coalition and Afghan forces went in before and during the northern winter and cleared the insurgents from the area.

"We demonstrated to the people that we could hold it against the Taliban. It is now in Afghan control so the governance is out there, the security is out there. The people are growing wheat instead of poppy and the kids are going to school," Krause says.

"That's effectively what we're going to do across the country."

The Taliban tried during the northern summer to retake Kandahar and Lashkar Gah but failed.

"So we have demonstrated our ability to retain the key bits of terrain in this country such as Kandahar and the central Helmand River Valley, and it is our intention to continue to do that."

Krause says these gains are still reversible but as Afghan troops improve those areas will be more secure.

"The Taliban can wait us out, they can't wait out the Afghan army and the Afghan police. Every day they fail to recapture is a day the Afghans get stronger."

Krause says there's already a building boom in some of the areas freed from Taliban control. "They're voting with their hands, they're building."

The plan is to demonstrate that Afghan troops and police can keep the Taliban out.

"We then, effectively, will have militarily defeated the Taliban. One option for them then is to engage in political dialogue and that would be fine," Krause says.

Some emphasis is now switching to the east to deal with the Haqqani network, which is allied to the Taliban and has links to al-Qa'ida and Pakistan. The group is heavily involved in extortion and other criminal activity including the drug trade and uses terror to advance its cause. It carries out most attacks in Kabul and its members are considered the best trained and equipped insurgents. They are responsible for some of the bloodier attacks on civilians.

"They are not going to reconcile so we'll probably use more counter-terrorist techniques against them than we would use classic counter-insurgency," Krause says.

Such as? "Killing them. They're not going to reconcile."

By 2014 the Afghan security forces will be fully trained, fielded and equipped, Krause says. "They will have the lead in the security of the country. We will be in support of them by then."

Krause says 2014 will not be the end of the operation but a change of mission.

After 2014, the US and NATO will have a strategic agreement with Afghanistan to demonstrate a long-term commitment.

When Smith outlined plans for Australian troops to hand over security control to Afghan forces by 2014 he said some instructors would stay on. Australian special forces will stay on too.

It is clear that a strong special forces contingent with all the helicopters, intelligence-gathering resources and other support they use will be needed in Afghanistan for some time after 2014 to help fend off any Taliban resurgence.

Krause has dealt closely with the Afghan army and says he has become increasingly impressed.

"They are extremely good natural fighters but they also have a great sense of loyalty and patriotism. It is a noble profession to be a warrior in this country."

Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, a veteran of the war against the Russians, says now the armed forces are coming up to strength it's time to work on quality and replace leaders who are not up to the job.

Krause says the loss of a helicopter full of US special forces soldiers recently is not a sign that that Taliban is on top.

"Casualties are a very regrettable part of conflict but there's a big difference between the cost of a war and progress in a war. We do about eight to 10 of those activities every night so there's a very high tempo of operations."

Krause says the goal is to get Afghanistan to a stage where it can stand on its own feet and reject the Taliban so there's a reasonable expectation it can maintain its own security, improve governance and ensure development.

"You've got to realise the bar is pretty low. We're not turning this place into Australia.

"They're coming off such a low base that if there's a cold water tap in the house they feel they're making a huge advance. They are industrious and ingenious people In the areas we have secured, the Afghans are rebuilding their country. That's good enough. That's what makes it worth it."

Krause says some Taliban attacks have been barbaric. A 12-year-old was used in recent suicide attack and troops rescued a 10-year-old fitted with a suicide vest.

"They use the mentally ill. They can coerce people to be suicide bombers by holding their family and they hanged a seven-year-old for talking to coalition troops in Helmand province."

But he says the situation in Afghanistan is rapidly improving. "It's changed very quickly in the six months I've been here and all for the better.

"We have demonstrated tangible progress in the really hard bits. It has had an effect on the Taliban and we have been able to defeat them in key areas and our aim now is to sustain that defeat.

"From where I am at the moment that seems a very reasonable expectation."

So has Australia's investment in blood and money been worth it?

"I'll leave other people to make that judgment on whether it's been worth it. But what I can say is that it is highly likely that it will be successful," Krause says.

"The bottom line is that we will achieve the mission we've been sent here by the international community to do.

"We're not leaving with our tail between our legs. We'll actually do this one."





David Connery

Australian Logistics Services

Vice President

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Children of Fallen Military Personnel to Receive Canada Company Scholarships/

Honorable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance to Attend Ceremony Aboard HMCS Montréal

TORONTO, Aug. 31, 2011 /CNW/ - Children of Canadian military personnel who died while serving their country will receive post-secondary education scholarships from Canada Company at the fourth annual awards ceremony commencing at 11:00 a.m. aboard HMCS Montréal in Toronto on Friday, September 2, 2011.

The Canada Company Scholarship Fund (CCSF) was created in 2007 to supplement benefits available to children who have had a parent die while on an active mission. Awarded annually, the scholarships provide $4,000 per year for up to four years to children who qualify. These scholarships help to offset tuition fees and other living expenses required to complete a post-secondary education.
Event: Canada Company Scholarship Awards aboard the HMCS Montréal
What: Seven students to be presented with Canada Company scholarships
(Three in absentia)
Who:


The Honorable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance
Blake Goldring, MSM, CFA, Chairman of Canada Company and Chairman and CEO of AGF Management Limited
Senior leaders from all branches of our Canadian Forces
Seven Scholarship recipients and their families
Date and Time: Friday, September 2, 2011
Media Access to Site: 10:30 a.m.
Awards Presentation/Press Conference: 11:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m.
Interviews with Recipients/Presenters: 11:50 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Location: Aboard HMCS Montreal, Berth 272, Queen's Quay, Toronto (Foot of Yonge Street)

Attention Story Editors: Recipients will include representation from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

Canada Company: Many Ways to Serve, is an apolitical organization created in 2006 to bring community leaders across Canada together to support Canada's military and their families in the work they do at home and abroad.

For further information:

Karen Archer
Manager, Public Relations & Public Affairs
Tel: 416-865-4295
Email: karen.archer@agf.com

Amanda Marchment
Manager, Public Relations & Public Affairs
Tel: 416-865-4160