FRONTLINE WORLD: Canadian troops in Afghanistan

[JMH]

After watching this 25 minute peice on PBS Last Tuesday, I have to say that I was Livid.

This program profiled a remote Canadian outpost roughly 100km from Khandahar city comprised of 120 troops. It was painful to watch.

If this program was indicative of our troop performance in this conflict, I'm saddned to say that the dept. of defence had better pull-up its socks concerning the training of our soldiers that are bound for a war zone.

If "hearts and minds" are the objective in Afghanistan I would suggest the adage "FACTA NON VERBA" ("Deeds Not Words") as being THE order of opperations. Having a motorcade of armoured vehicles galavanting around un-secure territory ....LOOKING TO BUY SPARKPLUGS....is not only idiotic, but completely incompetent. Canadian troops promising goods and services (that they couldn't deliver) for the surounding Afghan villages led to this assinine endeavor. Sufice to say that troop leadership was poor and the troops themselves displayed an embarassing lack of maturity combined with an ambivilance regarding their mission.

The program ended and I was left wondering; why is it that soldiers are now expected to preform the services of an N.G.O.?. They are not trained sufficiently for this purpose (obviously), nor should they be.

Soldiers have two jobs (1) kill enemy combatants at any given opportunity (2) kill more enemy combatants. Thats it.........Killing.......thats their job. Leave the humanities to the proffesionals.

[Riverwind]

The program ended and I was left wondering; why is it that soldiers are now expected to preform the services of an N.G.O.?.

The Taliban was able to seize power because it looked after the needs of the common people when no one else would. Our soldiers would be helpless if the average Afghani started actively supporting the Taliban again. As a result, our soldiers end up doing the work of NGOs because they have no choice. I see this a sensible part of a military strategy even though I am not convinced the mission is worthwhile.

[bush_cheney2004]

Tough crowd....

Winnipeg, Canada

An excellent story. Unfortunately the story left me embarrassed, disappointed and horrified at the Canadians. I watched in disbelief as I witnessed the incompetence and series of poor decisions being made by Canadians in that particular base camp. I can only hope that it was the exception rather than the rule.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/...ideo_index.html

[JMH]

The program ended and I was left wondering; why is it that soldiers are now expected to preform the services of an N.G.O.?.

The Taliban was able to seize power because it looked after the needs of the common people when no one else would. Our soldiers would be helpless if the average Afghani started actively supporting the Taliban again. As a result, our soldiers end up doing the work of NGOs because they have no choice. I see this a sensible part of a military strategy even though I am not convinced the mission is worthwhile.

The Taliban seized power as a result of the "military industrialized complex" (Afghan version) during their post war hey-day period following the the Soviet withdrawl. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a "military muhamed complex" and they forgot about the re-construction aspects of the economy; food, import/export initiatives (apart from drugs) and the general condition of their society in totality.

There is no question that something has to be done.

My argument lays purely within the bounds of reason concerning the ultimate objective.

As a former soldier, I can only say that I was never required to preform these duties unless the situation presented to me was ....extrordinary......which was not remotely evident in this case.

My job was perfectly simple, and by all accounts this method provided positive results that allowed "Proffesionals" (NGO) to get into the picture and provide far superior results than those which occur presently.

With all respect.

[JMH]

Tough crowd....

Winnipeg, Canada

An excellent story. Unfortunately the story left me embarrassed, disappointed and horrified at the Canadians. I watched in disbelief as I witnessed the incompetence and series of poor decisions being made by Canadians in that particular base camp. I can only hope that it was the exception rather than the rule.

You couldn't have said it better. I hope that this is the exception and not the rule aswell............but I'm less than comfortable that this is the case.

The majority of Canadian troops are killed (according to the media) by road-side I.E.D.'s. I remember the military corprate need to "look busy" for the camera and the budget.

I'm sure that our front-line specialists are superb warriors........without question.........they are (few) but proven and respected.

My concerne still lays with our regular troops looking like .......inexperienced reserve troops in the feild of opperations.

[Topaz]

If you "goggle" Taliban you'll find they were against the growing of poppies and of course because of their religion, they mistreated the women, as do ALL Middle-East men. The reason the US went in there was to take them out because of OBL and 9/11. BUT... what if OBL didn't do 9/11?? . The US military is so short on troops, they are going after high-school dropouts and telling them they will be doing this job, which they are trained for, then once they are over there, they give them jobs they are NOT trained for. I've been reading a US military website run by the veterans and they tell their stories and its no wonder alot of them are dead or mained. I fear because of our shortage, the soldiers may not be getting the training but if this true the military and the govt will try to get their secrets from the rest of us. Shame! I will continue to surf the web and find info. on our troops. I also, found that the US had 500 Afghans trained as security and after they were paid, they took off and the US ended up with less than 100! I don't think the Afghan want to fight the Taliban they just need money for food.

[ScottSA]

If you "goggle" Taliban you'll find they were against the growing of poppies and of course because of their religion, they mistreated the women, as do ALL Middle-East men. The reason the US went in there was to take them out because of OBL and 9/11. BUT... what if OBL didn't do 9/11?? . The US military is so short on troops, they are going after high-school dropouts and telling them they will be doing this job, which they are trained for, then once they are over there, they give them jobs they are NOT trained for. I've been reading a US military website run by the veterans and they tell their stories and its no wonder alot of them are dead or mained. I fear because of our shortage, the soldiers may not be getting the training but if this true the military and the govt will try to get their secrets from the rest of us. Shame! I will continue to surf the web and find info. on our troops. I also, found that the US had 500 Afghans trained as security and after they were paid, they took off and the US ended up with less than 100! I don't think the Afghan want to fight the Taliban they just need money for food.

This is an almost legible compilation of crap to fling at the mission. I'm sure you're deeply concerned about US troops and their equipment. Like you say, it's a big plot and the US army is comprised of 100% highschool dropouts because a lot of dead and maimed soldiers say so on a website and the cow jumped over the moon. I don't even know what this is sposed to mean: "the military and the govt will try to get their secrets from the rest of us. Shame!"; but it sounds like there's a plot afoot alright. But sorting through these lumps of turd you flung at the Afghan mission, I don't see you formulating a point. Am I missing something?

[madmax]

I don't see you formulating a point. Am I missing something?

Volunteer.

[kimmy]

If you "goggle" Taliban you'll find they were against the growing of poppies

The Taliban wasn't against the poppy crops. They allowed it to continue unchecked for many years under their rule. Afghanistan's production of opiates hit all-time records under Taliban rule. The Taliban did not interfere with poppy production at all, until 2000, when they banned poppies in an attempt to gain foreign aid and diplomatic recognition.

and of course because of their religion, they mistreated the women, as do ALL Middle-East men.

Declaring that all middle eastern men mistreat women is pretty surprising, coming from one of MLW's supposed "progressives". Declaring that this mistreatment is a result of their religion is doubly so.

In middle eastern countries, women tend to face restrictions on what they can wear, circumstances under which they can socialize with men, and so on. In Afghanistan under the Taliban, women were unable to attend school, work, or receive medical care. While you and your ilk would like to equate the two and ask why we care about the rights of Afghan women when we don't care about the rights of women in other Muslim countries, the reality is that the Afghan women under the Taliban were far worse off than women in other Muslim countries.

The reason the US went in there was to take them out because of OBL and 9/11. BUT... what if OBL didn't do 9/11??

What if the moon were made of green cheese?

-k