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Topic: Afghanistan - 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment - 2007 (Read 13708 times)
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Hmmmm ,whatever happened with" It is impossible to negotiate with terrorists"" ? I ma one to hope that something like that would work, BUT, i am not BELIEVING it has any better chance than a snowball in a hot oven. I think they best start getting more troops.. and finish the job so many good people have already paid for with life , limb ,and mind....ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Hearts and Minds battle mired in corrupt government, poor policing, civilian deaths
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 3, 2007
SPIRWAN, Afghanistan: Abdullah Shah and his son made a pilgrimage to the holy Muslim city of Mecca this January, courtesy of the Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai himself arranged the trip to Saudi Arabia.
The invitation came after Shah's wife, two daughters and three other sons were killed by a wayward NATO bomb in Lagarnai, a village near here in southern Afghanistan.
Shah, in his 70s and wearing the white turban of a religious man, accepted the trip, but not the message.
Before the deaths, "I wasn't with the Taliban and I wasn't with the government," he said. "But, I tell you, now I am Talib."
In the sixth winter since the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban government, the radical Islamists are making a comeback. Their bold confidence was apparent last week, when a suicide bomber killed 23 outside an air base during Vice President Richard Cheney's visit there.
There are many factors. But citizens like Shah, the Afghan government and key NATO commanders agree on this: The use of force is sometimes excessive and errant. In Afghanistan's tribal society, a single death — no matter if NATO labels it "enemy" — can create scores of sworn foes. And NATO, like the Taliban, has killed hundreds.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100 Afghan civilians died as a result of coalition assaults in 2006. An AP tally, based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials, puts the overall death toll of civilians in 2006 at 834, most from militant attacks.
"Killing Taliban is not going to get this country sorted out. That is not going to fix the problem," said Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, commander of Canada's 2,500 troop force, stationed in southern Kandahar, heartland of the resistance to Karzai's government. What's needed, he says, is an Afghan army.
While troops go after Taliban fighters, Grant says that's not a priority for ordinary Afghans; they are frustrated by insecurity and lawlessness, which they blame on a corrupt and inept government whose police extort, threaten and make them feel less secure.
The international troops are there to support Karzai's government. When they do that aggressively, even in response to deadly Taliban tactics, they are seen as brutes protecting an unpopular regime, he said.
"Are we stuck between a rock and a hard place? Yes. We are here at the request of the government and the government has issues and corruption is leading amongst them," said Grant.
The head of an Afghan human rights advocacy group, Nader Nadery, told The Associated Press that Afghans are turning away from the government and the international forces.
Yet most Afghans don't want the foreign soldiers to leave, he said. They keep local warlords and commanders — some now in government — from turning their guns on each other. Such feuds killed thousands of Afghans in the 1990s, destroyed much of the capital, Kabul, and eventually gave rise to the Taliban.
Grant said his priority, higher than chasing Taliban, was training and equipping Afghan forces to provide security on their own by 2009, when the Canadian mission ends.
There's much work to be done.
Wali Mohammad is a police officer in Kandahar, looking smart in his gray woolen hat and pants. He told the AP that a policeman's salary of US$60 (€46) a month is so low it drives police to corruption.
"There is no discipline among the police, no direction," he said. "We are given nice uniforms and weapons but that won't feed our family. We are compelled to be corrupt."
The police chief of Zabul province, Noor Mohammed Paktin, earlier told the AP that criminal gangs abetted by the police and military are as big a threat in some parts of Afghanistan as the religious militia.
With the spring thaw, fighting is sure to intensify.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates promises NATO and coalition forces will go after the Taliban rather than wait for them to strike.
"What we want to do this spring is have this spring offensive be our offensive," he said.
But aggressive action risks a backlash.
In 2006, NATO and coalition forces mounted blistering offensives, including the strongest called Operation Medusa in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar.
Residents of Spirwan, a village in the heart of the district, fled before last year's operation and had only recently returned when the AP visited this January.
Mohammed Khan, a villager in his 50s with dirt-caked hands from scrounging through the rubble of his home, screamed abuse when he saw a Westerner approach.
"What are these foreign soldiers doing?" he said. "One day they are dropping bombs on us and then they come with three or four dishes of food. What is that? What do they think?"
The offensive against the Taliban left the common people with nothing but problems, he said.
"We hate the world community. We hate America. We hate NATO," he said. "What good are they doing for us? What good is our government doing?"
In what appeared to be the only concrete structure in the otherwise mud-brick village, local elder Dur Mohammed warned that the bombing of villages was creating more Taliban. He sat in the corner of the room, smoking and stroking his artificial leg, lost in the 1980s war against the invading Soviet Union.
"People don't like the Taliban coming into the villages, because then the bombing will come," he said. "But why are they (NATO) killing the Taliban? They are from this country. Why should the foreigners come and kill Afghans?"
Grant said the war is lost if the international community loses the hearts and minds of Afghans. More foreign troops aren't the answer, he said, and when assaults are needed they must be accurate.
A study of the Afghan war released Tuesday by the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation reached a similar conclusion.
"As coalition troops continue to use close air support and superior artillery firepower to flush Taliban insurgents out of provinces like Kandahar, the real contest for the hearts and minds... may well hinge on the competing sides' "collateral damage" statistics," it said.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, another Washington-based group, said that NATO and the U.S. military were wrong to emphasize their ability to kill Taliban. "The ensuing collateral damage in a culture that emphasizes revenge has created ten enemies out of one and has disillusioned most Afghans," it said.
Grant says there is more anger today toward the foreign soldiers than in 2005, when he also was stationed in Afghanistan. To turn around that perception means taking risks, he said.
"I tell the troops that there are 55,000 drivers in Kandahar city and maybe five among them are suicide bombers. But if we treat all the other 54,995 drivers like they are all suicide bombers then we have lost," he said.
Some, like Abdullah Shah, who lost so much of his family, can't be won back.
"I don't care. They can kill me. What are the foreign soldiers doing but killing us?" he said, recounting the day his wife and children were struck as they tried to flee. His youngest child, a 10-month-old baby, died with his mother.
"From whom can they protect us? The looters? The looters are the government and they are with the government."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Good report Mike, not good news ,but to change the perception the truth has to be faced straight on, even when it hurts. I sure dont know what they can do better to help preserve innocent life, whilst doing their duty. I hope the locals can get better word out to their contrymen to pay attention to the Nato Halt orders, and why is is so necessary. I do feel for our guys who have been involved and left with no choice. I hope they do not take the burden on themselves, and am sure they feel it is easy for someone like me to say, but it is the truth, they were onlt doing their duty.. and sadly ,it was necessary... many other innocent lives are being saved by their actions, i hope too ,that they can see and belive that...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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‘It will take years’ to train police
Illiteracy, poverty hamper efforts by Canadians in Afghanistan
By JOHN COTTER The Canadian Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — One of the first lessons that Afghan police recruits are taught is not to steal from the people they are supposed to protect.
The fact that there is a need to instil such a basic tenet in prospective law enforcement officers shows the challenge faced by Canadians who are working to reform a police system that has been ravaged by years of corruption and neglect.
"There are some parts of Afghanistan where the last thing people want to see is the police showing up," said Brig.-Gen. Gary O’Brien, former deputy commanding general of police for the Combined Security Transition Command — Afghanistan.
"The police (in some areas) are corrupt. They are part of the problem. They don’t provide security for the people. They are the robbers of the people."
Much of that corruption is by police who steal to feed their families, to survive.
Why? Because in some cases their own senior officers steal part of their wages under an archaic payroll system, O’Brien said in an interview from southwest Ontario.
To deal with the problem, the Afghan government has established a plan where police payroll is deposited in banks instead of doled out at the local police station.
Officers in some areas now draw their pay at a bank by showing their personal identification cards.
Police reform in Afghanistan is as daunting as the country’s rugged landscape.
In the 1990s, when Canada and other countries helped reform the 5,000-member police force of Kosovo, the autonomous province of Serbia, about 3,000 people were assigned to the project, O’Brien said.
In Afghanistan there are 62,000 police, but barely 500 people are assigned to forge them into a credible force.
The challenges include dealing with recruits and non-commissioned officers who can’t read, the lack of a basic management system, poor equipment, low pay and little or no formal training. And all of this within a struggling fledgling criminal justice system in a country battered by decades of war.
To make headway, O’Brien said the focus has been on the very basics.
"We are not training a police officer for the streets of Woodstock, Ont., we are training a policeman for the wilds of Uruzgan. The training has to be right," he said.
"The basics need to be the understanding of the rule of law — that a policeman is there to protect the people. Then it gets down to the simple basics of how to run a checkpoint, how do you stop a suspicious individual."
There are signs the push to fight corruption and reform the police system is taking hold.
The Afghanistan Interior Ministry has announced that police officers are due for salary increases.
Senior police commanders are also to be chosen and promoted based on performance reviews and skill tests.
"We are now getting good leaders, they are now putting the processes in place to support the police and give them the training they need. But this is just beginning," he said.
Canadians are involved in police reform in Afghanistan at different levels.
O’Brien, whose tour with the Security Transition Command in Kabul ended late last year, has been replaced by another Canadian, Brig.-Gen. Greg Young.
A team of RCMP and municipal police officers, working out of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city, has been advising Afghan police commanders.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Alan McCambridge said that while Afghan police are keen to learn, the vast majority have never been in a classroom before and can’t read or write.
He said there is a plan in the works to identify top Afghan police non-commissioned officers with good ethics and leadership skills for literacy training.
"Progress is slow because the literacy rate is so low, but when you see the pride they exhibit when they learn a new skill, that’s the reward," McCambridge said Saturday.
"It is going to take years to really change the way the Afghan people look at the police as a respected profession."
A training school for recruits of the new Afghan National Auxiliary Police force is run near Kandahar Airfield by Canadian military police.
Despite the hurdles, O’Brien said the Afghan police can be reformed, but he warns change won’t come quickly.
"It is going to take time and it is going to take resources and it is going to take resolve from the international community," O’Brien said.
"I would hope that the people of Canada come to understand the challenges, and not just the issues."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Last updated at 7:42 AM on 04/03/07
'I would go back in a heartbeat'
King's grad 'clobbered in the head with a Taliban axe' still supports Afghanistan mission
GRAHAM THOMSON
CanWest News Service
You might not remember his name.
But you surely remember what happened to him.
One year ago this weekend, Capt. Trevor Greene was hit in the head by a crazed Afghan wielding an axe in an attack that horrified Canadians for its sheer viciousness and brutality.
His shaken colleagues, who shot the attacker dead on the spot, thought Greene was done for. Indeed, the blow was probably deep and deadly enough to kill most people, but not Greene.
Astonishingly, he survived the attack, and today is most assuredly alive.
And he has a message for Canadians: "Despite being clobbered in the head with a Taliban axe, I would go back in a heartbeat to finish off the mission."
It is a message that manages to convey humour, optimism and determination, which pretty much sums up the man and the traits that have seen him come so far since the attack.
Still struggling
Greene, who was promoted to captain from lieutenant the day after he was hit, is still in Vancouver General Hospital, still confined to a bed and wheelchair, still struggling through endless sessions of physical rehabilitation.
But he is getting better.
"There's no impairment of his cognitive functions," says his fiance, Debbie Lepore, who has been at his side every day since he was brought home. "He thinks as well has he did before."
For privacy reasons, she didn't want to release any recent photos of Greene, but says he looks much the same as he did before the attack, maybe a few pounds lighter.
Greene's continuing fight is to overcome the physical handicap created when the axe cleaved into the area of the brain that controls his motor functions.
"That's why he's not able to walk, he's not able to move his hands and his arms very well at this point," says Lepore.
Every day he goes through physical therapy in an attempt to rewire his brain. He is relearning how to move his hands, his arms and his legs.
"So, if the brain makes new connections to get those neurons through and the synapses firing, then there's a chance that he'll get that back. But he was hit pretty hard in the area that controls the legs."
It must be a frustrating struggle at times for Greene, 42, who before the attack was a strapping six-foot-four bundle of energy who spoke English, French and Japanese. A journalism graduate of the University of King's College in Halifax, Greene wrote several books - one on the missing women of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and another on the homeless in Japan.
It was this interest in the downtrodden that led him to volunteer as a member of Canada's Civilian-Military Co-operation team in Afghanistan.
Greene's physical progress is slow and laborious, measured in the twitch of a finger, the flutter of a hand - and some days there is no measurable movement at all.
Metaphor for mission
His recovery will take years; there is no fast fix or set schedule. It is akin to Canada's progress in Afghanistan. Indeed, Greene's story could stand as a metaphor for Canada's mission here.
It is the story of a big-hearted and well-meaning man who sat down with people in the village of Gumbad, right in the heart of Taliban country, and in a show of trust and friendship laid down his weapon, removed his combat helmet and took out a notepad and pen to write down what the villagers needed.
That's when a teenager brandishing a weapon right out of the Middle Ages attacked.
It was the end of innocence for big-hearted and well-meaning Canada, and a reminder we are in a war zone fighting an enemy who will use youngsters to attack us from behind with suicidal brutality.
Our progress since then has moved in fits and starts.
In the past year since the attack on Greene, 36 Canadians have been killed.
Canadian troops won a clear victory last summer in Operation Medusa when the Taliban made the mistake of standing and fighting a conventional battle, thinking Canadians wouldn't have the stomach for battle. Canadians decimated Taliban fighters by the hundreds in the districts of Panjwai and Zhari.
However, Canada did not follow up on the military triumph with a strategy to help displaced residents reconstruct their shattered lives. That would have helped bring immediate and long-lasting peace to the region.
Instead, the districts continue to teeter on a razor's edge. Life is returning, people are coming home to their farms, but the threat of the Taliban remains.
Canadians travel through the area only in armoured convoys.
But Canadians do go out every day, steadily increasing the number of patrols from the Provincial Reconstruction Team based in Kandahar City, the same team Greene belonged to.
The job of PRT volunteers is to help Afghans rebuild their lives and thus build a lasting peace. Among other things, they hire Afghans by the hundreds to clear out long stretches of irrigation canals, help immunize millions of children against polio and train the Afghan National Police.
'Not a Band-Aid solution'
After Greene's attack and the escalation of fighting last year, the PRT's work ground to a halt.
Now, they're back out visiting villages.
Consequently, Greene remains very much an optimist on Canada's role in Afghanistan.
"The mission is critical for propping up the government in a volatile region," he says in an e-mail statement. "This is not a Band-Aid solution. I believe we can succeed."
Greene is still not up to the rigours of an interview, but compared to last year, when he almost died from pneumonia and underwent a series of major surgeries, he is getting better.
A few weeks ago, he made his first trip outside the hospital and went to dinner with his fiance, their two-year-old daughter and his parents.
"He's just an amazing person," says Debbie.
"This world needs people like this, and so that's what inspires me. When I'm inspired, it's not tiring. It's all part of the journey for Trevor and I. We both get a lot out of experiences, and this is an experience that we're going to go through in life, and we're making the most of it."
The Canadian military, however, is apparently not making the most of it.
Lepore, who is not one to complain, says she is having a difficult time getting proper therapy for Trevor. "He's only given 30 minutes of physiotherapy sessions at a time," she says.
"He has had virtually no speech therapy for most of the time that he's been in hospital."
Military officials in Ottawa say they provide the care deemed necessary by health-care professionals - but cannot discuss the particulars of Greene's case.
Despite her frustration with the system, Debbie, like Trevor, is an optimist.
"I don't know where we're going to end up. But I know he's got a long way still to go for sure. I know he's going to make a very good recovery. I just have a feeling. He's alive and we rejoice at that."
A trust fund has been set up in Greene's name at the CIBC. Donations can be made to the "Captain Trevor Greene Trust Fund" Account #39-31137 (Bank 010, Transit 00500).
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Great reports here Mike, thanks again for you dedication to our brothers and all they do ,and helping us all keep up with things..i feel we must now stay the course, politics aside... IF the local Afghanis want that, and it appears the vast majority do...it is going to take time, people have to learn the rudiments of education while receiving a higher education... and it seems the educators over there are doing a great job.. we all need to support this in order that funding and people will be able to keep this going.. a whole new society is emerging with the same people as there before.. they want this and we must help... it will be a big step in putting and end to people killing each other for "power" and " control".. and of course terrorism thruout the world....and my best wishes to Capt Greene.. an amazing man.. i hope he knows God and the people are on his side.. and it seems like he is on the way to a full recovery...one that will take years.. but he is winning....God bless him and his family....God give him a bit more strentgh to continue... this world needs him badly..ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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I think this is rather unsettling... mostly in the fact that the MND said, in the house of commons, Canadian soldiers would be doing but ONE trip to A-stan.... lip service for the masses or, BS baffles brains...
Stressed-out soldiers sent back to Kandahar
JEFF ESAU
From Monday's Globe and Mail
The Canadian military is sending soldiers to Afghanistan who are suffering from mental illnesses, including depression and operational stress injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
This shift in practice is based on a radical overhaul the Canadian Forces promised to undertake in its approach and attitudes toward soldiers' mental health.
The Afghanistan mission has been the bloodiest and fiercest combat Canadian soldiers have seen since the Korean War. Recently declassified daily briefings delivered to the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, show the latest toll includes 39 soldiers killed in action, five dead from accident and 83 suffering what the Forces describe as non-battle (NBI) injuries. Although no breakdown is kept, the NBI number includes those considered not mentally fit for duty.
The issue of mental illness among those in uniform is being increasingly studied, with the Canadian Forces' chief psychiatrist, Colonel Randy Boddam, currently serving a four-month stint in Afghanistan
He told The Globe and Mail: “Let's acknowledge it [mental illness], let's bring it out of the shadows and get people in so they get treatment sooner, and be employable and living their lives the best they can.”
Col. Boddam added that deployment to a combat zone can benefit some depression and PTSD sufferers. However, he said, “we do not deploy knowingly anybody who is suffering from a mental illness that would impair their ability to function in this environment.”
Rather, the Forces “deploy people who are on maintenance phases of their treatment or who may have a minor illness that is not really impairing their function,” such as a phobia.
The precise work these soldiers carry out is withheld because of privacy issues but combat work is not ruled out.
Dr. Mark Zamorski, head of the military's deployment health section in Ottawa, said most soldiers posted to operational theatres who are being or have been treated for a mental illness “do just fine.”
To find out how well they really are doing, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor asked Forces medical authorities in November about the psychological effects of the Afghanistan mission on the troops. He received this blunt response in a briefing note obtained under the access to information law: “The impact the Afghanistan mission is having on our soldiers is not yet known.”
Mental health statistics from U.S. and British forces returning from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have been inconsistent. The 2.8-per-cent prevalence rate of PTSD in the Canadian Forces is roughly the same as for the general Canadian population. A Statistics Canada survey conducted Forces-wide in 2002, however, revealed that depression was “almost twice as high as in the general population” – a finding medical authorities cannot explain.
In a lengthy 2003 analysis, military medical authorities conceded that the Canadian Forces have been faced with a “declining capability” to deal with soldiers' mental health issues even while there's been a “steady and significant increase in the prevalence of mental health conditions among CF members.”
After being “increasingly targeted by media criticism” for its failure to keep up with the times, the military must own up to its “obligation to the well-being of its service personnel,” said the analysis, which is built on the premise that mental fitness is “an essential component” of operational readiness and mission success.”
Said Col. Boddam: “We want to point out that mental illness does exist, that we can pretend it doesn't but it does and, yes, some soldiers [with mental illness] are going to deploy.”
Both Dr. Zamorski and Col. Boddam emphasize that – with the exception of the most severe cases – a soldier's mental health can be pegged somewhere along a continuum from extremely poor to extremely good. It is possible for an individual with excellent mental health to suffer a decline during or after a deployment, but still not be diagnosable as mentally ill.
Each case is handled individually to ensure that seriously ill soldiers are not sent into a tension-filled or life-and-death situation. Col. Boddam says the decision to deploy a soldier who is ill is based on “medical employment limitations” assigned by a medical officer prior to deployment. Having symptoms of mental illness “does not mean you're a psychological cripple,” he says, and dismisses “cookie-cutter-ish” judgments about mental health that put symptomatic soldiers in “a little pigeon hole.”
“Not all post-traumatic stress disorders are created equal,” Col. Boddam said.
A rigorous screening protocol for mental illness was introduced in 2003 after senior army officers voiced concern that soldiers with mental health problems were being deployed overseas.
The new screening process, involving the completion of several validated health questionnaires and a 20- to 40-minute interview with a mental health professional, was designed and administered to 95 per cent of the 5,562 soldiers deployed to Afghanistan between July, 2003, and July, 2005.
The screening precluded fewer than 1 per cent of soldiers from deployment.
Those results did not surprise Dr. Zamorski “because of all the distortions that are inherent in the predeployment context, such as enthusiasm for the mission.” Soldiers were not untruthful during the screening process, he said. They were just demonstrating what he calls “predeployment health inflation,” which occurs when a soldier overstates his health because he is highly focused on the mission and thriving on the support of his family and friends. Then, when soldiers return home, Dr. Zamorski says, some exhibit “a tendency to understate their health post-deployment,” often because “they want to get on the record and want people to recognize their sacrifice.”
Once in Afghanistan, soldiers with mental health issues can seek treatment at the multinational hospital at Kandahar Air Field, which has on staff a psychiatrist, two psychiatric nurses and a social worker, a dedicated mental health cadre unseen in recent Canadian Forces operations. Soldiers who come forward are not necessarily sent back to Canada, Col. Boddam says.
“If you can keep people in the game as long as their illness doesn't preclude that, then for them the outcome is substantially better. The risks of longer-term things like PTSD are reduced.”
“Assuming all else is equal, to put them in an operational setting may not in any way exacerbate their illness,” Col. Boddam said. “In fact, depending on their overall condition, the camaraderie in the unit and sense of accomplishment may be at least of some benefit to them.”
Dr. Zamorski, however, points out there are serious risks to keeping mentally ill soldiers in a combat scenario, which is why detection and treatment are so important. “Is there somebody who's died in Afghanistan because they weren't paying attention because they were mentally ill? It's possible... it is even likely.
“We know these illnesses cause deficits that can realistically interfere with performance while deployed,” Dr. Zamorski said. “If I were a commander I'd want to know about that. But wanting to know about it and having a way to know about it are, unfortunately, two separate things.”
Canadian Forces medical authorities say they are addressing mental health aggressively. Between 2004 and 2009, $98-million is earmarked for “a comprehensive, holistic, but diagnostically rigorous and evidence-based approach to mental health.” The mental health professional cadre will be increased to 447 from 229 across the Forces.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Dag nabit , we owe it to these people and their families, and indeed to all Canadians to help them return to at least reasonable normality, not to the battlefield ,maybe with the hope they will get into a problem and get " fixed " over there, and not even considering them and their brothers who are also going to become innocent victims... what i nthe name of God is the matter with these people thinking they are going to pull that off.... we all need to raise proverbial H*** over this....ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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March 5, 2007
No anthrax vaccine for Afghanistan troops: DND
By DENE MOORE
MONTREAL (CP) - Canadian military officials say they're not considering a mandatory anthrax vaccination campaign even though the U.S. military has made the controversial inoculation mandatory for its soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
As of April 30, all U.S. soldiers heading to Afghanistan will have to be immunized against anthrax.
The U.S. Department of Defence has announced that all branches of its military will have to inoculate service members heading to high threat areas, including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Korean Peninsula.
But Gloria Kelly, spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces health services group, said Monday that the Department of National Defence is not considering the same.
"At this point in time, we are not requiring our people to have anthrax vaccinations nor are we considering it," Kelly said from Ottawa.
Both the Canadian and U.S. militaries ceased mandatory anthrax immunizations after questions arose about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
The U.S. army continued to offer a voluntary vaccination but only about half of U.S. soldiers signed on.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has since declared the anthrax vaccine safe and effective, opening the door to the mandatory program south of the border.
"The anthrax vaccine will protect our troops from another threat - a disease that will kill, caused by a bacteria that already has been used as a weapon in America, and that terrorists openly discuss," Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defence for health affairs, said in a U.S. defence department statement announcing the program.
"The threat environment and the unpredictable nature of terrorism make it necessary to include biological warfare defence as part of our force protection measures."
In little more than six weeks, all U.S. soldiers heading to Afghanistan will have to be immunized against anthrax, a bacterial infection that commonly occurs in domesticated animals.
Anthrax has not been used in combat but five people died and 17 were sickened when anthrax spores were sent through the U.S. mail in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Dr. Ron Wojtyk, of Canadian Forces health services, said the threat of anthrax exposure in Afghanistan is not sufficient enough to make the vaccine mandatory.
Wojtyk said the U.S. is deployed in areas where the threat is more pressing, such as Iraq.
"If we deploy to an area where there is a threat of anthrax or possible release on a bioterrorist type of scenario, then there would be an order for anthrax and it would be mandatory," Wojtyk said Monday.
Canada has about 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
During the 1991 Gulf War western troops were immunized against anthrax.
The Canadian military received special permission from Health Canada to use the vaccine developed for the U.S. Department of Defence, although it was not approved for use by the general public.
Despite concerns about the manufacturer and possible adverse side effects, in the spring of 1998, on the heels of a similar directive within the U.S. military, the Canadian Forces made the anthrax immunization mandatory for troops serving in Kuwait.
Many soldiers refused the inoculation, citing concerns of a link with so-called Gulf War syndrome.
Canada later discontinued the vaccination.
The U.S. Department of Defence, at the behest of a U.S. district court, discontinued in October 2004.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Tom Clark's Afghanistan Blog
Updated Mon. Mar. 5 2007 3:50 PM ET
Tom Clark, CTV News
Monday March 5
I had a fascinating conversation with a young Afghan man who works with us over here. We had some time to kill, so he put on some of his favourite Afghan music, which oddly sounds like country and western played with sitars, and talked about the war, life and of course, women in Burqas.
Keep in mind that throughout his 21 years, his countrymen have been killing each other almost without pause. So it's not surprising that he has a certain fondness for, and intimate familiarity with, guns. I doubt he could actually shoot one with any accuracy, but in Afghanistan that's not a requirement.
He's educated, tri-lingual (Pashtou, English and Farsi), curious about things, a film buff, and a born entrepreneur. All those things make him a natural enemy of the Taliban, so it's not a surprise that he's quite delighted to have the coalition here. But as a good and true Afghan, he also has contacts with all sides. It's just the way things work here.
When the talk turned to life in general, things got even more complicated. Basically, he's bored, with few friends, and there's practically nothing he can do about it. And in that he's like just about every other young Afghan, male or female.
The customs of this land prevent my young friend from having a girlfriend, unless he's basically prepared to marry her on the spot, and even then she would have to be chosen by mum and dad.
Guy friends? Not easy either. There are no places to hang out, people don't go visiting each others houses for dinners, and besides, everyone is pretty well done the day and at home by eight.
Movies? No. Spectator sports? Ditto. Theatre? You must be kidding.
So he sits alone most nights watching DVDs, which explains why he's a film buff and going out of his mind.
It's a story you hear again and again. The old ways still prevail, even among the young, educated and increasingly worldly. And it bores them half to death.
Which means that we in the west should not expect that winning this conflict means turning Afghanistan into a suburb of Toronto. Winning will simply mean being able to get out of Dodge, leaving its inhabitants with a stable peaceful government, and maybe the chance of someday being able to have a girlfriend.
A man picks up his payment from a World Food Programme project that's funded in part by Canada (Photo by Tom Clark, CTV News)
A man picks up his payment from a World Food Programme project that's funded in part by Canada (Photo by Tom Clark, CTV News)
Sunday March 4: There's a town on the Afghan side of the Afghan-Pakistani border, with the wonderfully exotic name of Spin Boldak, and, as you might imagine, it has been a place of intrigue and conflict for centuries.
High above the town on a lump of a hill, sits an old fort. No one in town seems to know exactly when it was built, a few hundred years was the general guess, but it has been variously in the hands of the British, the Russians, the Taliban, and now the new Afghan army.
From its commanding view of the border, a single old Soviet era anti-aircraft gun, with boxes of corroded shells for ammunition, stands at the ready to protect the town.
I went for a spin to Spin today, and what's more remarkable is that I made it back in one piece. I was traveling in a civilian car and had four full hours of the most thrilling brushes with extinction I can remember. Let me say this about Afghan drivers: they're mad. All of them.
They've never seen a car they didn't want to pass, or a part of the road they didn't want to occupy, no matter which side it's on. Rules of the road are more like suggestions, and there are very few to start with anyway. Enough said. You've been warned.
I went to Spin to look in on a World Food Programme project that's funded in part by Canada. The idea is you send someone out to work for three months clearing old canals to get the water moving again, and pay him in food. Not very much food mind you, maybe only enough to feed his family for a week or so. But that's the whole point. It forces him and maybe his lay about brother-in-law, and his eight grown children, to get out there and work to make up the shortfall. Afghan tough love.
Spin is lucky at this point in the war. It's fairly peaceful here, in Afghan terms, and travel to and from the town is relatively safe. But the Taliban are in the Pakistani mountains just a few kilometers away, a constant worry. But fortunately, this winter they haven't done much more than issue statements.
Proof maybe that the old anti-aircraft gun is doing its job.
Saturday March 3: I'll say this much for the soldiers of the Van Doos; they're the most fashionable soldiers in Kandahar. Many of them have adopted the keffiyeh as an accessory to the rather bland desert uniform.
The keffiyeh is that black and white chequered piece of cloth, sometimes worn as an Arab headdress, but among some westerners worn as a scarf around the neck. Soldiers going back to the Second World War found them useful in hot climates as a way of keeping the sand away from the face and mouth. Useful and utilitarian.
But strangely dashing too. Call it military chic.
I bring this up only because, once again, I was a guest of the best dressed unit in the south, bouncing along in one of their convoys.
But it was where we were bouncing that made this special. We were tracking exactly the route taken by Alexander the Great in 392 BC when he rumbled through here on his way home from conquering the world. Now a lot has changed in 2,400 years, but not everything.
For instance, the mountain passes he had to go through are still here and still control the way in and out of Kandahar City, but the choke points that would have been controlled by Alexander (or his enemies) are today the responsibility of a Mountie from Newfoundland. Historically speaking that's a bit of a surprise.
Cpl. Barry Pitcher (right) of St. John's left his suit and tie life as a commercial fraud investigator to train Afghan police. (Tom Clark photo)
Cpl. Barry Pitcher (right) of St. John's left his suit and tie life as a commercial fraud investigator to train Afghan police. (Tom Clark photo)
Cpl. Barry Pitcher of St. John's left his suit and tie life as a commercial fraud investigator to show the Afghan police how to get their man, and in this case, their Taliban. He's going to be here a full year, twice as long as most of the soldiers, including the Generals, and generations longer than most reporters.
Pitcher happily admits that his Mountie friends back home have questioned his sanity. But he's here with some other like-minded police as well, including one from Cape Breton and another from Medicine Hat.
It will be interesting to see how the Afghan police turn out in a few years. Can't you just see them, after this training, pulling over a car and saying, "Good Day me son, I wants ya to put down dat RPG, la. And don't step in the snow eh?"
And they'll probably say it with a jaunty little keffiyeh around their necks.
Thursday March 1, 2007
I am not making this up.
Today I met Captain Canada.
Clearly this needs some explanation.
The Kandahar Air Field is swimming in nationalities: Canadians, Brits, Dutch, Romanians, Jordanians, Afghans, Australians, and especially Americans. Our southern cousins are everywhere here, which is not surprising because they are by far the largest contingent on Base. They are also everyone's best friend in need. Any ground unit here knows that if you run into a spot of something, one call to the American air force can usually get you out of it. They are also extremely friendly.
Although this is a multinational mission, every country maintains, and proudly so, its own distinct uniforms, insignias, and recreational compounds. The Dutch, for instance, have their own little Amsterdam style café, without of course anything you would normally find in an Amsterdam Café, except coffee.
But the mess tents are a multinational free-for-all. It was there that I spotted him. At the next table, a person wearing a distinctly American uniform, with the words U.S. Air Force over the left pocket of his shirt, and the word Canada over the right pocket. I guess my curiosity showed.
"Canadian eh?" he said in a drawl that came straight from south of the Mason Dixon line.
"Canadians always stare".
Well, yeah!
Any uniform that has both U.S. Air Force and Canada on it is a bit unusual, for either Canadians or Americans. It turns out that it was more unusual than I imagined.
He introduced himself.
"Hi. Captain Rick Canada"
(First reaction: get out of here! Second reaction: stifle growing urge to guffaw.)
So I had to say something I never thought I'd ever get to say; "Nice to meet you ... Captain Canada".
From his expression, he's gone through this routine a few times before. But he was extremely indulgent, patient, and pleasant. He explained that the origin of his name is Spanish (which lends credence to one of the stories of how we got that name for our country -- a Spanish explorer took one look at it and declared "Ca Nada", which loosely translated means "there's nothing here").
But when I got more comfortable with his name, Captain Canada and I talked. He was an extremely amiable man and he opened up about something else.
He's been in Afghanistan for six months now, and it's the first time he's ever worked with Canadian soldiers.
"We really like working with your guys." And in that wonderfully direct and sincere way Americans speak he added: "I mean it. They're great. Best around."
Who's to disagree with Captain Canada? Not me.
Wednesday, Feb. 28
We're trying to get a bit of rest today, as there is every indication that we will all be very busy in the days and weeks ahead. But resting here still involves talking about the situation, which brings me to an observation.
Anybody who has spent anytime around military types knows how confusing conversations can be with them. It's not so much because of what they say, but how they say it. They love speaking in code. (People of a certain generation who remember Razzle Dazzle and Howard the Turtles secret decoding ring will know what that's about.)
Here's what I mean. A typical opener here could go something like this; Well I can't wait for my HLTA. I've been up at PBW, no TIC's this time. Eating way too many IMP's. MRE's were supposed to arrive in the LAV but it hit an IED according to intel, and now an HL is taking it to KAF. Still it's better than what you get at the D FAC.
Sadly, after just two weeks here, I understand every word of that.
(Translation: I can't wait for my Home Leave Travel Allowance. I've been up at Patrol Base Wilson, no Troops in Conflict this time(fighting). Eating way too many Individual Meal Packs. Meals Ready to Eat (the American version) were supposed to arrive in the Light Armoured Vehicle, but it hit an improvise explosive devise according to intelligence, and now a heavy lifter is taking it to Kandahar airfield. Still, it's better than what you get in the mess tent.)
Even the translation needs translation for heaven's sake.
I don't know why the military doesn't like to speak English (or French, the Quebec units are just as bad). I can only assume it must fun. It's not that they can't speak the language. Ask any soldier here almost any question and you'll get this answer: Outstanding.
How are you: Outstanding. How's the food today: Outstanding. Where's the rest of your platoon: Outstanding. Presumably they are out ... standing ... somewhere.
But as we are talking about language, I want to pass on what I think is a very useful phrase. It comes from my friend Murray Brewster of Canadian Press, who says that whenever he finds himself the target of a real or imagined injustice, he goes into his "monkey dance of outrage." It involves bending your knees slightly, putting your arms over your head, and moving them back and forth from the elbow down, while walking in circles and complaining loudly. I have seen it before, but never knew what it was called until now.
And so to bed.
Tuesday, Feb. 27
If you need a dose of optimism, then you have to go to the Syed Bacha school.
It is the poorest, most overcrowded, most wonderful place I have ever seen.
It looks grim, but the kids love being at Syed Bacha school. (CP Photo, Murray Brewster)
It looks grim, but the kids love being at Syed Bacha school. (CP Photo, Murray Brewster). For more photos of Afghanistan life by Murray Brewster, click here to see a gallery.
To find it you have to go just five minutes down the road from the massive NATO base near Kandahar. Then look for the old apartment buildings that were bombed by the Americans in 2002.
Go to the one that was the most badly damaged, the one that a bomb almost cut in two, and there, amid the rubble, you'll find the place that 500 children call school.
There is no running water, no electricity, no heat. There is no library, the chalk boards are all broken, and there's not a single piece of sports equipment.
And yet against some of the longest odds you can imagine, this place is brimming with hope.
At first, it doesn't make sense. After all, the teachers are horrendously underpaid; fifty dollars a month. Sometimes there aren't enough teachers, so the older students are told to teach the younger ones. There's no more computer classes because that teacher died in a bomb attack by the Taliban last summer. Even when there were classes, the schools only computer stayed in its box because there was no electricity to run it. The students had to imagine what it could do.
But its when you meet the kids that it all starts to fall in place. They love being here.
They are excited about learning, excited about their futures. One after another they came up to me and announced that they want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a pilot, or a carpenter. Their optimism seems to be without limit.
Now here's the amazing part. Given the almost total deprivation of material goods, when I asked them what they wanted most for their school, the first answer was unanimous; more teachers, teachers that will "teach harder," teachers for subjects they've only heard about, like biology and chemistry.
Of course they need so much more. They live in a bombed out garbage strewn wasteland, with no level ground for a game of soccer, and only one slide for a playground.
So far, not many have come to help, except for some Canadian soldiers who have quietly given what they could in the way of pens pencils and paper.
So much of this could be fixed, of course. A few bulldozers from the base, five minutes away, could transform the place within days, and a bit of help from overseas could fill the rooms with books, and the playground with equipment. Heck, how difficult would it be for NATO to just build them a proper school? They're neighbors after all.
But it wouldn't be charity if that happened. It would only be an attempt by the rest of the world to share in just a bit of the magic created by the teachers and kids of the Syed Bacha School.
Monday, Feb. 26
If you think that you may have a phobia of being in a small enclosed space with people you don't know and can't understand, relax. It's not as bad as you think.
It happened to me today.
Big Daddy, myself, and our colleague from the Canadian Press, Murray Brewster, decided we would take a little road trip. There were some old Russian barracks we wanted to see, and beyond them the remains of Taliban and al Qaeda installations.
So we went "outside the wire," in other words beyond the gates of the Kandahar Base, to meet Jojo, my Afghan driver, interpreter, and all-around nice guy. Jojo is in his early twenties, so he drives fast and talks even faster.
We all piled into his car and bumped along something that is called a road, by the locals, but I think that just speaks to their sophisticated sense of humour.
At length, we came upon two interesting things all at once. On one side, there was what could only be described as a vehicle killing ground, a vast area of burned out, bombed out old Soviet tanks, trucks, even a mobile radar station. On the other side was a four-story tower that was home to an Afghan Army check point.
So we stopped.
It all went quite well, so well in fact that the guards invited us in the tower for tea. The Afghans are very hospitable people, when they're not shooting each other, and it would be rude to decline, even though tea drinking can take an awfully long time.
Big Daddy was the first to bail, with the entirely plausible excuse that he wanted to get video of the Soviet wasteland while the light was just right. Murray, no fool, mumbled something about helping out, and quickly fell in with BD. Jojo then said he better go too... just in case. That left me, and six grinning Afghan soldiers.
Inside, tea was poured in an awful silence. Bread was offered wordlessly. I had to say something. Not knowing a word of Farsi, I plunged in with something remarkably stupid like... "So you guys like it out here?" No one understood of course, but I got what I figured was a considerate reply from the commander, in Farsi. We all grinned. Here was a great challenge.
And so for the next half hour we all made up sign language, Pig Latin and anything else we could think of to communicate.
When my fair-weather colleagues returned, they were somewhat perplexed to find me chatting amiably with the soldiers on the front steps.
With a wave we were off, and I said to no one in particular in the car how easy a language Farsi is to pick up.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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