| 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. |
 Author
|
Topic: Afghanistan - 3rd Battalion, The Royal 22nd Regiment. 07-08 (Read 5647 times)
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Here's a pretty good read...
Fifteen Days
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
Globe and Mail Update
October 26, 2007 at 12:32 PM EDT
On July 22, 2006, Task Force Orion, the Canadian battle group that served in southern Afghanistan from February to August that year, was returning from almost a month in the field, far beyond the safety of the large coalition base at Kandahar Air Field.
After weeks of hard fighting in remote parts of the south, the exhausted troops met in a “leaguer,” a traditional circle-the-wagons defensive position, for a pep talk from their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hope, before heading back to KAF.
Lt.-Col. John Conrad, who was in charge of the National Support Element, the unit responsible for keeping the fighting troops supplied with everything from bullets to fuel, drove out that day with a resupply convoy going to meet the soldiers.
As the NSE commanding officer, there was absolutely no need for Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad to go out on convoys, but he made a point of doing so at least once a week. “It wasn't about the technical things that I brought to it,” he says. “To me it was about the moral plane: These guys need to see that I am here with them, I trust them, and that my life [has] exactly the same value as yours, we're in this together.”
Like his friend Ian Hope, Conrad knows that, as the boss, “you can't show you're afraid – and I was, every time I went out on a convoy, I was damned afraid.”
The resupply convoy, Conrad aboard, left KAF [Kandahar Air Field] at about 3 a.m. on July 22. They were bringing diesel, rations, water, a low-bed truck for vehicle recovery (it was already full by the time they got to the leaguer; an armoured vehicle called a Coyote had broken down) and a wrecker for towing. “It's just a package of capability,” Conrad says, “like dragging a Canadian Tire store somewhere to where you're working.”
He and Hope had a cigar together. “It was a very long day,” Conrad says. “It's a helluva long drive from KAF to where we needed to be in Helmand, but a great day. Ian's guys were coming back, they'd done battle, everyone was triumphant.”
As the troops were running, buoyant, to get into their trucks, Conrad pulled Hope aside, told him he had a Coyote down, and asked for a light armoured vehicle (LAV), “just so I could have two big cannons. And he said, ‘Yep, no problem. Just stay with us. Just stay with us at the back of the convoy.' ” But it didn't work out as they planned, because one of Conrad's cargo trucks broke down. They had to stop and put it on the wrecker, and suddenly, they were behind the tail end of Hope's convoy.
“Then we cross the Arghendab River,” Conrad says, “and generally when we crossed that river, I usually think, ‘Okay, I'm out of the bad place.' ” But they had to stop again: The brakes on the broken-down truck were grabbing, and the mechanics needed another 10 minutes to back them off. “And that just widened the gap between Ian and me.”
Conrad had gone out in a G-Wagon utility vehicle, but for the trip back had switched places with the crew of a 10-tonne diesel truck because its air conditioner was on the fritz and he wanted to give the poor guys a break. Directly in front of him was a Bison armoured vehicle.
“So we're coming into that urban sprawl that kind of gives way to Kandahar,” Conrad says, “and there's a terraced village over there, like high ground, and on this side there's off in the distance three mountains, but it's kind of like an open field. And we're just moving along, a little bit slower because we've got a couple of vehicle casualties,” he says, when he noticed a small cab-over truck. A Toyota Hiace, he thinks, approaching.
They were then about five kilometres west of the city.
“Right up to the time the thing detonated, you're looking at a car that's white, harmless-looking, right? Yeah, it's kind of winking its way on the left-hand side, but that's because we're taking up the entire road. … We actually saw him in one instant – it's a little truck,” Conrad says, “and the next instant it's BOOM!”
Twenty-five feet in front of him, the Bison was hit, parts of it flying into the cab of Conrad's truck, smoke rising everywhere.
The driver, 44-year-old Frank Gomez, who was in the Canadian Airborne Regiment with Ian Hope, was killed instantly by shrapnel to his head. As the Bison was blown off the road, embedding itself in a culvert, the young air sentry, 29-year-old Jason Patrick Warren, of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Montreal, was killed too. There were wounded soldiers inside the vehicle – 10 altogether.
“You open the back, it's just a bloody mess,” Conrad says. “The doors were awash in blood. Tony Ross, one of the captains, was vomiting; he had shrapnel in his ear. It was just complete hell gothic.”
It was only Ross's second time out; Conrad had offered him a chance to “go out and see the results of your staff work,” and now he was puking his guts out.
Conrad saw Warren lying on the ground, with “a huge trauma to his shoulder, and quite obviously dead.” The soldiers were enormously upset. “One of the guys says to me, he says, ‘Do you smoke?' I said, ‘No, but I really would love a cigarette right now.' I have no idea who he is, just some young guy.”
Conrad, for a time, believed Warren was Travis Boudreau, one of his own corporals. The two men looked a lot alike. Later, he found out it wasn't Boudreau. “Boudreau is standing there in the flesh, and this is a guy I've known, my soldier, I've known him a long time and he's alive. … In the first nanosecond, ‘I'm so happy to see you, I'm so relieved,' and then immense guilt: My God, how could I feel that way?”
He helped extricate Gomez from the driver's seat, out the back and into a body bag. It was the first time in his 24-year career John Conrad had done that, and “all I could do was give him a pat on the shoulder as they zippered the thing up.”
The next two hours were nightmarish, the Afghan National Police (ANP) trying to keep civilians back, Black Hawks circling in the air, the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) arriving from the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team office not far away.
“We fumbled our way through it,” Conrad says, “as best we could as soldiers, as human beings.”
Then, taking with them the dead and minor casualties not in need of air evacuation, the IRF pulled out. That's when a man wearing a suicide vest walked into the crowd of civilians and blew himself up.
“There were children,” Conrad says, “and you know, seeing an Afghan father picking up his child, just wrapping up a dead child as if it's part of his everyday life. It's just the ANP, throwing bodies into the back of a pickup truck, and blood pouring down the tailgate. And they just accept it, you know? It's not the way things should be.”
Some Afghans approached Conrad, asking for help, and he had to say, “‘I'm sorry, I can't help you, I can't even help myself right now.' I felt really helpless. I felt I couldn't even get my own soldiers out of there, and I felt guilty afterwards, because, you know, to me it just seemed like the Taliban, they're totally playing with us. It doesn't matter how many books you read, or how you read all about Napoleon. It doesn't matter how smart you are, they're kicking our ass.”
Conrad was furious at the claims, afterward, that Canadian soldiers had been firing into the crowd. Steve Chao for CTV reported the allegation that night, and also that Canadian authorities denied it. The network's “fixer” – a local who can speak the languages and go places Westerners can't or won't – had arrived at the scene quickly, and interviewed purported witnesses, one of whom said on camera that the Canadians had fired at everyone, “including women and children.”
As soon as Conrad arrived at the PRT, “two glorious Apache gunships” in the air above them, he called the Deputy Task Force Commander, Colonel Tom Putt, and said, “Tom, I give you my word: We didn't fire on that crowd. It was ball bearings, it was the metal that the guy was wearing.”
He was also furious at General Dave Fraser, who a day or so later described the aftermath and the extractions as “textbook.”
“Do you want to hear about it, sir?” Conrad says he thought. “Do you really want to hear about it? Of course not. I've always told General Fraser the truth, when he's bothered to ask me. I've always told him the truth.
“Sometimes, the truth is not that great.”
All Conrad, a father of two girls and two boys, could think of on the drive to the PRT, and for much longer, was his oldest son, Aidan, now 11.
“He's kind of a nerd,” Conrad says, “plaid shirts, a bit socially inept. He's a normal child, but who's gonna put up with him like his dad? Or my second one, Morgan, the other boy, who's very, very quiet. You really need to dig to get him to do things, and who's gonna take the time to do that like I will? All I could think of was, I almost checked out there, and it made me very, very sad to think that my son, with his bolo ties – no one wears those any more – he's just gonna get even more weird without me to give him some balance.”
When he phoned his wife, Martha, that night, he burst into tears, and is not embarrassed about it. “We're spending human capital there,” he says, “the very best that this country has to offer, and there's no harm in pausing for reflection and grief when this is being spent. The cause is just. The Afghan people are deserving, but more important, the Canadian people are deserving of national security, and the cause is, I believe, just. But as we're spending these diamonds, it's okay to be human. In fact, it's fucking necessary.”
Ian Hope knew nothing of what had happened until he was pulling into KAF and got the first radio message about the bombing.
He'd been mulling over what his soldiers had accomplished, planning to get the press out to interview the returning troops so they could get some public recognition. Instead, he spent the night in the hospital, writing letters to soldiers' families and thinking, as he says, that “this indeed was ‘the long war.' ”
I was one of a couple of reporters who had walked down to the tactical operations centre to see the convoy come back. I love watching them return from the field, the troops filthy and exhausted but always indomitable.
Hope was the first one I saw. I had some small idea of all that they'd done, and was expecting him to be excited and proud. He was quiet, so subdued. He looked miserable. Only hours later did I learn why.
All that Task Force Orion accomplished that day – defeating the logistics of that unforgiving place; kicking the snot out of the enemy; riding out all the twists and turns and complications; the protracted and painful leave-taking – had come to the same bloodied end so common in that country. “It was,” as Kirk Gallinger says, “a very Afghan day.”
On July 23, John Conrad was back at KAF. The last thing he felt like doing was joking, but he knew he had to show his soldiers what he was made of. “By God,” he says, “they've taken their hits. … That was the first time I had a suicide bomber detonate right in front of me, so I wanted to show that, yeah, I'm good to go.”
He walked into his orderly room on the ground floor, where the task force's administration was. He knew people would be sneaking peeks at him, wondering how he was. The hellos that met him were tentative.
Corporal James Brooks was there, and “I said in a very loud voice to Corporal Brooks, ‘I need a general allowance claim, right?' We have these forms – like when you have a claim against the Crown, like you had to make a phone call or whatever – we have this watershed claim to reimburse soldiers. So I said, ‘Brooksie, I need a CF-152, general allowance claim.'
“Brooks calls it up on his computer, starts typing in the claim: Service number, name, and says, ‘Right, sir. What is it for?' ”
Conrad replied, “One hugely soiled pair of underwear.”
|
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
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Hillier says he's not at odds with PM over Afghanistan
BILL CURRY
Globe and Mail Update
October 26, 2007 at 5:48 PM EDT
OTTAWA — Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier is rejecting accusations that he has publicly contradicted the Prime Minister regarding the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Just back from Afghanistan, Gen. Hillier took to the Canadian airwaves late Friday in an attempt to quell the political firestorm that took hold in the House of Commons, where all three opposition parties demanded answers as to why Gen. Hillier and the government are apparently at odds over how long it will take before the Afghan army is ready to protect the country on its own.
In last week's Throne Speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Afghan army and police will be ready to take over by 2011. Yet Gen. Hillier told reporters this week in Afghanistan that such a goal is 10 years off.
“I've talked to the Prime Minister. I'm absolutely clear of where he wants to go, of what he needs, and I'm absolutely in line with that, otherwise I wouldn't be his chief of defence staff,” Gen. Hillier said late Friday during an appearance on CBC Newsworld.
“There is no contradiction -- I believe we are absolutely on the same page,” said Gen. Hillier in an official statement late Friday. “We - the Canadian Forces - are tasked with training the Kandaks - the Afghan battalions in Kandahar and helping them develop a fully functional operational brigade - and we continue to keep the Taliban on their back feet.
“There is enormous progress on this front - with the mentorship, training and leadership of our professional and very dedicated soldiers - that I have just returned from having seen myself - I believe that the Afghan National Army will indeed have the lead on operations in the province in the next two to three years. In the shorter term, Afghan Army battalions are already taking the lead in certain parts of the province where they are ready to do so,” he said in the statement.
“Canada does not have responsibility for the long-term professionalization, professional development and major equipping of the Afghan National Army, which in my view, will take a significant period of time.”
Comments from the General followed a fiery Question Period in the House of Commons in which all three parties grilled the government over the apparent discrepancy between Gen. Hillier and the Prime Minister.
Conservative cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister's Office stood by their original estimate.
“Building up the capacity of the Afghan people is obviously going to take time,” Government House leader Peter Van Loan told the House of Commons. “We want them to be able to defend their sovereignty. We know that will not happen overnight, but our government does believe it can happen by 2011, the end of the period that is covered in the Afghanistan Compact. We look forward to receiving the report of the [John] Manley panel, which all parliamentarians will have an opportunity to review and, as we have said many times before, it will be up to this Parliament to decide, in the end, the deployment.”
Michael Ignatieff, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, told reporters Friday that Canadians are more likely to believe Gen. Hillier's time line, rather than the government's.
“You can't go out in a Throne Speech and, and say 2011 and then have your Chief of the Defence Staff saying well actually, it's 2017,” he said. “And then third, to make it worse, let's appoint a panel to look at a third set of options and then in the House of Commons, to hide behind that panel when you don't know what the heck you're doing. I mean this creates, this creates a very bad impression of incompetence and mismanagement. And the troops deserve better.”
NDP leader Jack Layton said the minister's comments support what his party has been saying for a long time.
“I believe that clearly the general is telling the truth,” Mr. Layton told reporters. “We've said for a long time that there's no military end in sight and saying that we're going to be there for 10 more years is the equivalent of saying there is no end in sight. Mr. Harper doesn't want to acknowledge that to the Canadian people. He wants to keep that hidden because he knows that Canadians wouldn't support a 10-year counterinsurgency war effort by Canada and the $10 billion that would be required so I think it's time for the prime minister to come clean with the truth.”
The Conservative government's Oct. 16 Throne Speech stated that Canada should not abandon the people of Afghanistan in Feb. 2009, when the mission is currently scheduled to end.
“Canada should build on its accomplishments and shift to accelerate the training of the Afghan army and police so that the Afghan government can defend its own sovereignty. This will not be completed by February 2009, but our Government believes this objective should be achievable by 2011, the end of the period covered by the Afghanistan Compact. Our Government has appointed an independent panel to advise Canadians on how best to proceed given these considerations,” the speech stated.
Then on Thursday while visiting Canadian troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Hillier said it would take 10 years for the Afghan army to be ready to defend itself.
“It's going to take 10 years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number that Afghanistan will have, and make them professional and let them meet their security demands here,” Canada's chief of defence staff said.
“I think most Canadians, living in the incredible country that we have, don't always see all the complexities of trying to rebuild a country and, in some cases, build a country from the 25 years of destruction that took place in Afghanistan.”
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
MacKay calls for more NATO troops in the south
Updated Sun. Oct. 28 2007 1:59 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada is doing more than its fair share in Afghanistan and other NATO countries must contribute more, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says after returning from a NATO meeting in Europe last week.
"There has to be burden sharing," he told CTV's Question Period on Sunday. He met with other NATO defence ministers in the Netherlands this past week.
More troops and equipment must be directed to the south, MacKay said.
Canada is operating in Kandahar province, where the Taliban and other insurgents have been active. Seventy-one Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have died since 2002.
The British have been involved in constant conflict in Helmand province to the west of Kandahar, while the Dutch are working in Uruzgan to the north.
Countries such as France, Italy and Germany are operating in relatively low-conflict zones in northern Afghanistan.
"The south is the gateway and the key to success in Afghanistan," MacKay said. "Other countries recognize that, and we're working very hard to secure more support for what the Canadian troops and the Dutch and others are doing in southern Afghanistan near Kandahar province."
Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop had some tough talk for his fellow NATO ministers.
"There is no such thing as a free ride to peace and security. Fair risk and burden-sharing remain the leading principles of this alliance," he said during the meetings.
In response, some countries promised more troops and military trainers to help out. The Netherlands is expected to announce next month whether it will extend its mission in Afghanistan.
MacKay said his office will continue to work on the burden-sharing issue.
"They (Canada) are starting to play hardball now diplomatically, so I'll give it a little bit of time, but it's not very encouraging," retired general Lew MacKenzie told Question Period.
A retired Dutch general told The Canadian Press in an interview that Canada shouldn't expect NATO to offer more help in Kandahar until the Canadian decision on extending the mission is imminent.
"As with the Dutch, they will do just enough to keep them in place," said Maj.-Gen Frank van Kappen, who advised former UN secretary general Kofi Anan on military matters.
Mission length and NATO
Canada's current mission is set to end in February 2009. In the recent throne speech, the minority Conservative government indicated it would like to see the mission continue into 2011.
"There's not a person on the face of the Earth who knows when this mission will end," MacKenzie said, adding success will occur when the Afghan government can provide security for the country.
"If NATO doesn't step up to the plate and play to win, this mission is going to go on forever."
Steven Staples of the Rideau Institute added, "There will be no NATO cavalry coming over the hill, and so the only option remains getting the Afghan army up to speed -- and even that remains questionable."
MacKenzie said he's been on trips to Afghanistan and credited the country's army with making "tremendous progress. But there's no way I can tell you when it's going to be ready to secure the entire country," he said.
That rests on the ability of NATO, which isn't doing enough to defeat the insurgency, he said.
A NATO decision to rent civilian helicopters to fly missions in Afghanistan rather than have member countries deploy their own military helicopters in high-risk areas "is humiliating for NATO," MacKenzie said.
|
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
|
|
|
ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 2247
|
Well, i can say , i admire you trying Mr McKay, but thebottom line for me , is 20,000 pairs of combats boots , on the ground ,at the sharp end..over there... or we pull out..the ball is in Natos court, do with it what they will, but we MUST stick to our " guns" .. nothing less...ranrad
|
RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
We are a family alright... just ask those Agent Orange vets your screwing over, of the fact that, regardless of the cons promise prior to the last election, those of us who receive Veterans Affairs benefits still have them deducted by SISIP.
Prime Minister Harper lends support to fundraiser for Valcartier military families
27 October 2007
CFB VALCARTIER
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today attended a fundraising event for military families at CFB Valcartier, home base of the Royal 22nd Regiment that now leads the Canadian mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The fourth annual Criée d'automne includes a dinner, silent auction and raffle that raises funds for the Valcartier Military Family Resources Center.
Speaking at the dinner, Prime Minister Harper called the families of soldiers serving in Afghanistan “the unsung heroes of Canada’s mission. The strength of the support back home is one of the main reasons our troops are world-renowned for their skill, courage and professionalism.”
The Prime Minister, who was joined at the event by the Honourable Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, donated an autographed hockey stick and puck for the auction.
“Quebeckers can be very proud of the women and men of the Royal 22nd who are writing another glorious page in the history of their regiment,” Prime Minister Harper said. “I’ve talked to soldiers deployed overseas and I can tell you they all feel better over there, knowing their families are being taken care of back here by organizations like Military Family Resources Center. The Canadian Forces really are a family, and a family takes care of its own.”
|
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
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Ottawa determined to make polls justify Afghan mission By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Tue. Oct 30 - 5:18 AM OVER THE PAST few weeks, a couple of opinion polls conducted in Afghanistan have brought forward some rather contradictory results. The first one published was an Environics survey that canvassed 1,578 Afghans from across the country’s 34 provinces, but with more surveyed in Kabul and Kandahar than the other regions. The key finding of this survey was that some 60 per cent of local citizens are happy to have foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan and they want them to remain. Naturally enough, Defence Minister Peter MacKay was on top of that statistic like a starving dog on a freshly opened can of Alpo. This was the "proof" the war salesmen needed to convince an increasingly cynical Canadian populace that our soldiers are appreciated by the "majority of Afghans." The tub-thumpers immediately took up this rallying banner and held it aloft. How could the naysayers and peace-at-all-costs lobby possibly argue with such irrefutable proof as a poll that indicates the "majority" of Afghans wants our military assistance? What MacKay and the Colonel Blimps did not want to highlight was the fact that when a similar opinion poll was conducted in Afghanistan in 2002 — right after the collapse of the Taliban — the Afghan support for foreign troops was about 89 per cent. A far more comprehensive survey was just compiled by the Asia Foundation for the U.S. Agency for International Development. This organization has long-standing roots in Central Asia, and its poll — nearly four times larger than the Environics study — involved 6,263 Afghans from all provinces. A headline from the executive summary tried to put a positive spin on a statistic that appeared to indicate otherwise. Behind the statement "The majority of Afghans remain optimistic about the future," the survey concluded that just 42 per cent of respondents believed their country’s reconstruction was on the right path. While 42 per cent is not a majority by any calculation, this statistic is even more depressing when compared to the fact that in 2003, more than 64 per cent of Afghans did believe in the new course upon which their country was embarking. Not even the most creative stockbroker could convincingly describe a 22 per cent drop in support as a positive development. To be fair to those who compiled the results for these opinion polls, they did make it clear from the outset that gathering such data is a difficult challenge to say the least. More than two-thirds of Afghans are illiterate, and there is no such thing as a nationally distributed newspaper. As a result, the majority of Afghans receive their news via radio broadcasts. The lucky six per cent of Afghans who are connected to the power grid have access to television and Internet, but a staggering 14 per cent of poll respondents said they received news via word of mouth from family and friends. Security was a critical consideration for those conducting the poll, and one-third of those questioned agreed that the increasing violence was the No. 1 problem in Afghanistan. According to the tub-thumpers, the most commonly claimed measure of our troops’ success in Afghanistan is the fact that women are no longer required to wear their burkas. Free from the iron-fisted rule of the evil Taliban, Afghan girls are now able to bare their faces and sport the latest fashions. Thus, a rather surprising finding in the Asia Foundation study was that 60 per cent of Afghans still believed "a woman should usually wear a burka." The number of women surveyed who felt this rule should apply? Fifty-four per cent. When one factors in that only urban-dwelling Afghan women actually wear traditional burkas (rural and semi-nomadic females wear more practical head scarves), it would seem our "liberation" was less than successful. Even more enlightening was the statistic concerning Afghans’ fear of expressing a political opinion in the area in which they lived. A full 69 per cent of respondents felt that it was unacceptable to be critical of the government in public. One can only imagine how that figure translates into the responses they would give to a foreign pollster asking their opinion of foreign troops. But who am I to question Peter MacKay? If he says that these new polls prove our mission is justified, so be it. Unrelated statistic: In the 2006 federal election, the Conservative Party had 36.27 per cent of the popular vote. ( styalor@herald.ca) |
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
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
I think polls are for spinmasters and Harper is the best spin master I have ever seen... Of course, it all just an exercise on bullshit baffles brains.
Bring on winter...
Troops kill 20 Taliban in Afghanistan
Wed 31 Oct 2007, 11:19 GMT
By Ismail Sameem
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led troops have killed some 50 Taliban fighters surrounded in a district close to the main southern city of Kandahar, the provincial police chief said on Wednesday.
Fighting has surged across Afghanistan in the past week as Taliban insurgents and Afghan government and foreign forces attempt to consolidate positions before the onset of winter.
Taliban fighters moved into the Arghandab district, only some 12 km (8 miles) from Kandahar, last week after a pro-government tribal leader who held the area died of a heart attack two weeks ago leaving the northern approach to Kandahar exposed.
Afghan army and troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched an operation around Arghandab this week to wrest back control of the area, local officials said.
Some 50 Taliban have been killed in the fighting around Arghandab since Monday and Tuesday and at least another 25 have been wounded, said Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. But some 200 to 250 Taliban insurgents were still in the area.
"The rest of the Taliban are surrounded and they cannot escape or be reinforced," he told Reuters.
Three Afghan police and one Afghan army soldier have also been killed in the fighting, he said.
VILLAGERS FLEE
The sound of loud explosions could be heard from the small town of Arghandab and at least 20 trucks of villagers were seen leaving the area of the fighting with their belongings.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said insurgents had captured seven checkpoints around Arghandab and inflicted large numbers of casualties on Afghan and foreign troops.
Mainly Canadian forces around Kandahar have been engaged in heavy fighting mainly to the west of city, the Taliban's de-facto capital when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 till 2001.
But the death of tribal leader Mullah Naqib two weeks ago left a gap in their defences, security analysts said.
To the north of Kandahar, Afghan and ISAF troops are also been engaged in a much larger operation in Uruzgan province, but there were few details available on the progress of the fighting.
U.S.-led coalition troops and Afghan forces backed by air power killed "several" Taliban fighters in Uruzgan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition forces killed some 30 Taliban, including two commanders, in an airstrike in the Gilan district of Ghazni province on Tuesday, Mahbubullah Mazlum, the district chief told Reuters.
The U.S. military said "several" insurgents had been killed in the area, southwest of the capital Kabul, after coalition troops came under fire during a search operation on Tuesday.
After their heavy defeat in late 2001, the Taliban quietly regrouped as U.S. political and military leaders "took their eyes off the ball" to concentrate on Iraq, security analysts say, and relaunched their insurgency two years ago.
The last two years have been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with some 7,000 people killed.
(Additional reporting by Mirwais Afghan in Kandahar, Saeed Ali Achakzai in Spin Boldak and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul)
|
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
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Canadians in major battle outside Kandahar
BILL GRAVELAND
Canadian Press
October 31, 2007 at 10:39 AM EDT
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadian troops along with U.S. and Afghan forces have confronted a show of force by the Taliban in a major battle just outside Kandahar city, military authorities said Wednesday.
Intense fighting have reportedly left 50 Taliban dead and 50 more wounded after the Afghan National Police and NATO soldiers surrounded two villages in the Arghandab district, about 25 kilometres north of Kandahar city.
The Taliban were believed to have massed about 300 fighters in the area, hoping to take advantage of a leadership vacuum in the district which sits on a rebel infiltration route.
"The Arghandab district is very close to Kandahar city," said Maj. Eric Landry, chief of planning for the Canadian military contingent in Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Forces, or ISAF.
"This might be a vital ground for the insurgents. It is also a vital ground for us so we want to make sure this district is secure for the population, but also that we have freedom of movement in this district."
Mullah Naqib, a Kandahar strongman who died of a heart attack earlier this month, had been a supporter of Canada's military presence in Afghanistan, warning against a pullout of Canadian troops when their current mission expires in February, 2009.
"He kept the district very secure and very unpermissive to the insurgents. Since his death, his son has replaced him. He's also very pro-government and pro-ISAF," said Landry.
"The fact that Mullah Naqib is dead led the insurgents to believe that they would get more freedom of movement in the Arghandab district, but it's not the case."
"The Taliban are hiding in the houses," said Provincial Police Chief Sayed Afgha Saqib. "We will try and capture them alive."
One Afghan soldier and three police officers had so far been killed in the fighting, he said.
He said no air support was called in and he doesn't believe there were any civilian casualties.
Landry told reporters the biggest movement of Taliban troops happened last year during Operation Medusa, in which Canadian troops and coalition forces fought fierce battles with the insurgents.
The latest battle is "one of the most organized attacks" by the Taliban in recent months, Landry said. Despite their numbers, however, the Taliban have not been an effective fighting force this time, he said.
"We have groups of 10 to 15 insurgents in different places. They're trying to do co-ordinated attacks but the fact is they are in small numbers and very divided. Presently, they're very ineffective," he said.
"The numbers are there but we are affecting their morale as we speak and we are definitely affecting their freedom of movement."
An insurgent spokesman refused to confirm the Taliban's losses but said the cost to the coalition side were greater than reported.
"A third of the Arghandab is still under our control," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahamdi. "We have killed seven police and burned three police vehicles."
A NATO official disputed that claim.
Wing Commander Antony McCord, a NATO spokesman who gave a briefing to reporters in Kandahar city, said Arghandab was "completely under our control."
News of an impending battle had spread through the villages in the Arghandab region earlier.
A long line of residents made their way south, seeking refuge in Kandahar city until the all-clear is sounded.
"I saw several Taliban coming to our district. I became scared and confused and I understood that sooner or later an operation would be done in Arghandab," said Adbul Ahad, 32, a farmer.
"I have my family towards Kandahar city. I have rented a house for my family and everything we had was left behind."
"I am thankful to Allah that our lives are safe," he added.
"The Taliban shouldn't have arrived here. It was one of the safest districts but it's not safe any more."
|
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
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3376
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Security rules ignored in sensitive contracts
Kathryn May
The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The federal government is risking security breaches by handing out billions of dollars worth of contracts containing secret and other sensitive information to suppliers who don't always have the security clearances to do the work.
In a report released yesterday, Auditor General Sheila Fraser concluded that the government's contracting process is riddled with poor security practices that are putting classified and secret information in the hands of companies and suppliers before they have undergone proper screening. The audit, however, did not examine whether any breaches of security actually occurred.
"Failing to protect sensitive information in contracting can pose serious risks to the national interest," said Ms. Fraser. "Reducing these risks will take a concerted effort to strengthen accountability, clarify policies and ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly understood and respected."
The report singled out the construction of the new North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) complex in North Bay, Ont., which was built by unscreened contractors and workers who had free access to the plans and construction site. As a result of this security lapse, National Defence launched an investigation and decided it had to make "modifications" to ensure the complex could house the sensitive and classified material for which it was built.
Industry observers say the findings could sound alarm bells in the United States, especially for Canadian companies doing work on major contracts that involve the secrets of other countries. U.S. defence officials have long questioned the security practices of Canadian companies bidding on military contracts.
The audit examined the security practices of Public Works, National Defence and the RCMP, three entities that handle the most sensitive contracts. Of the 86 contracts examined, 24 were awarded before suppliers got the necessary security clearances to do the jobs. About 16 of these contracts required secret or higher security clearance. The audit found contracts were awarded an average of 11 months before security clearances were issued and in four cases the work was completed before contractors got their clearances.
In other cases, Public Works improperly used "delay clauses," allowing work to start while security clearances were still underway, on little more than an assurance that the contractors "shall eventually" comply. Ms. Fraser said Public Works also failed to exercise its "due diligence" because a sample of files found missing screening and security documents.
Ms. Fraser was most concerned about the lack of security clearances for contractors working on defence construction projects. Nearly all of 8,500 contracts awarded by Defence Construction Canada had no security checklists done and went to unscreened contractors.
Ms. Fraser said the audit found the security policies are weak, confusing and fail to clearly define responsibilities for the various players involved in safeguarding the information that is entrusted to contractors. She said a big problem is that, at each stage, bureaucrats assume proper procedures were followed at the earlier stages, but there are no mechanisms to ensure this is the case.
|
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
|
|
|
|
| |
Logged
