Opaque Canadian Forces Mission in Afghanistan

I take tracking the Canadian deployment in Afghanistan seriously. However, it's very hard to know what the goals and the results are when one reads the reports, like this one in the National Post: Forces dismantle police substation in Afghanistan ‘drawback’

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Canada's military says it has not abandoned villagers in the Taliban-controlled western Panjwaii district, insisting that the "drawback" of troops last week and the dismantling of a Canadian-built police substation are tactical victories.

Tearing down the Mushan substation signals the start of a new strategy that will see Canadian Forces troops move closer to Kandahar city, where the majority of Kandaharis live and where a greater security presence is considered an urgent priority.

But Mushan village and surrounding communities are now left without a fixed Canadian presence for the first time in two years, after hard-won battles and casualties in the area.

The police substation, lately referred to as a strong point, was taken apart and troops were redeployed in a large-scale operation called Munkiredal, the Pashto word for deny.

(...)

The entire Panjwaii district area remains an area of Canadian responsibility. The number of Taliban operating there is difficult to determine. Their movements are seasonal, and they concentrate in certain areas. Canadian officers can't say if there are fewer insurgents now compared to three years ago.

How do they expect to garner support on the homefront for the mission, when it is not clear what exactly they are doing and and if there is any success while doing it? The government needs to do more than claim: "We're doing important work."

Fresh New Nation Building in Afghanistan

Canadian Forces have a new strategy. It's described with corporate buzz words and bureaucratese. Forces plan to defeat Taliban town by town

The innovative approach is to start in the town of Deh-EBagh in Dand District, where the Taliban recently launched a major attack. Afghan-led, the strategy is to involve targeted Canadian aid, technical assistance, and mentoring within a security bubble established by Afghan and Canadian forces.

Mentoring. That's one buzz word I can't stand. Corporations no longer do a review or assessment to see whether you deserve a bonus for the year, but they now "mentor" you. It's meant to put a positive spin on the situation but ends up coming across as condescending.

But seriously, we're in a war here. I don't think General Patton ever talked about "mentoring" the Germans.

"We want this to be absolutely tangible to the 800 or 1,000 people in that community," said Brigadier-General Jon Vance, who commands Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

"We develop the district in governance and R & D [reconstruction and development], and re-establish the social, political and economic fabric of a town in a district, and then another town, and another and another."

Listen to the general. He sounds like the Premier of PEI talking about repairing bridges.

The project, which will, over time, be expanded to include many more communities across Kandahar province, is designed to show Afghans what they can do in a secure environment, and to push out the insurgents who threaten the communities and use them as a base of operations.

This is sounding very long term. Have they forgotten that we are ending our commitment over there in 2011?

Does nation building work as a strategy? The situation has gotten worse, despite all the money and effort. It depresses me that we just keep trying harder. The article mentions that the Canadian initiative bears resemblance to the "Hearts and Minds" campaign by the Americans in Vietnam. And that one worked out well for them.

This is Progress in Afghanistan?

When the US and NATO invaded and occupied Afghanistan, part of the rallying call was to stop the brutal treatment of women by the Taliban. The burka, which didn't even have eye slits, was held up as visual example of such oppression. I remember a year or so after the liberation, seeing news clip of Kabul and there were women wearing the same burkas. It didn't appear that any progress was made.

These days, after almost eight years of occupation, a woman's life is still a dog's life.

Canadian officials contacted the Afghan government Tuesday to express concern about controversial new legislation that would reportedly allow men to rape their wives.

The Canadian government reacted with outrage following reports that the Karzai administration has approved a wide-ranging family law for the country's Shia minority.

Various reports say the legislation would make it illegal for Shia women to refuse their husbands sex, leave the house without their permission, or have custody of children.

Boy, I'm glad we're doing good work over there and making a difference. What sick irony.

What's the point of nation building there? We're enabling this behavior. If it's going to happen anyway in that culture, why do we have to have a hand in it?

The "Red Eye" Scandal

I'm normally thick skinned when it comes to cheap jokes about Canada, but this pissed me off.



I'm not going to get on a soapbox and holler my lungs out. But, stupid little things like this makes me more adamant that Canada fully end our mission in Afghanistan in 2011 as planned.

If they can't figure out their next door neighbour, how the hell can they have the solutions for dealing with Afghans?

Fox News and Limbaugh types really are stupid, and apparently proud of it.

UPDATE: Frum chimes in on his site, calling it very dumb. If you scroll down to the comments, the vast majority are saying "f-you Frum. There's nothing wrong with what they said." Here's a sample, from a one Patty:

I'll refrain from mentioning you were born in Canada. You think Red Eye is dumb. I pity you. You have no sense of humor and are Canadian, so who cares what you think? I knew you were an angry little man when you stabbed President Bush in the back. Go away. Leave us dumb people alone to enjoy our Red Eye.

UPDATE II: From SDA, Canada's #1 conservative site: What's the big deal? Obviously Fox News trumps her own country for her loyalty.

Candid Harper on Afghanistan War

"We’re not going to win this war just by staying . . . we are not ever going to defeat the insurgency... My reading of Afghanistan’s history is that they’ve probably had an insurgency forever, of some kind."

- Prime Minister Stephen Harper, interviewed on CNN last week.

UPDATE: Critics, like Warren Kinsella, label this a flip-flop but that is ridiculous. It's called evolved thinking. Eight years on, and with the kind of reports he receives, doesn't the intelligent person constantly challenge their own beliefs? To begin with, this war had almost unanimous support. We wanted to hit the Al Qaeda after 9-11. (Kinsella's boss Ignatieff was certainly for it.) However, it has become something we haven't quite bargained for. The US have attempted nation building and are pretending Pakistan is an ally, when it is an enemy. You have to imagine Harper has been privately frustrated with the operation. He is doing the right thing now by talking about possibilities, instead of sticking to something that is clearly failing.

UPDATE II: John Geddes at Maclean's says Harper has been thinking about this since late 2007.

He certainly didn’t talk in terms of coalition forces securing some sort of decisive victory over the Taliban before pulling out. Here’s what I wrote in a Dec. 28, 2007, Macleans.ca piece we headlined “Not-so-happy New Year”:

On Afghanistan, the dominant defence and foreign policy file, Harper again looks ahead to tough choices. Rather than talking up the military mission in Kandahar as an inspiring undertaking, he used the year-end sit-down to vent frustration at slow progress in building a self-sufficient Afghan government. “You know, the United Nations and our allies will have been in Afghanistan 10 years in 2011. For God’s sakes, Germany was basically fully restored within four years; Germany joined NATO ten years after it was conquered.”

He does not seem to be willing to accept anything like an open-ended commitment in central Asia. “To say that Afghanistan would need decades and decades just to do the basic security work, I think is pushing credibility,” Harper said. “Not just pushing the patience of the Canadian public and the military, pushing the credibility of the effort. A sovereign government must, at some point, say, ‘We can actually deal with this on a day-to-day basis. We can be responsible.’”

Update III: I'm watching coverage of this on the news and it's driving me crazy. Don Newman on CBC is saying that he thought Harper didn't want to cut and run. They then show a 2006 clip of Harper saying this. Like this is a smoking gun of hypocrisy. He was saying that about the mission in Kandahar and Southern Afghanistan AT THE TIME. That Canadian soldiers came under fire and held tough. He didn't mean that we had to stay fighting this thing until 2050, no matter what new factors arise.

Time For Canadian Obama Supporters to Pony Up

I wonder how the popularity among Canadian and European allies for President Obama is going to hold up when he asks them to step up? NATO is helping the war effort in Afghanistan, including a major combat contribution from Canada. Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, appointed by the administration, has a bleak outlook of the situation.

"It's going to be a long, difficult struggle," Richard Holbrooke said at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.

"In my view, it's going to be much tougher than Iraq," he said. "I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited."

The mission in Afghanistan has gone on for eight years, and the US tacitly admits that it has no end in sight. Canada has put a firm date, 2011 to withdraw from Afghanistan, regardless of the situation. And the situation is clearly worse than we thought. But wait:

"We cannot afford failure in Afghanistan," Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, told leaders gathered in Munich.

"That's why the Obama administration will work closely with NATO and with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to forge a new, comprehensive strategy to meet achievable goals. This will be a shared effort with our allies. Afghanistan is not simply an American problem. It is an international problem," he said.

Looks like Obama will call on Canada to continue its commitment in that hellhole beyond 2011. We can't afford failure, and it's OUR problem too. Of course, all you Canadian supporters of Obama are good with that right? He won't steer you wrong! Hope and Change!

Death Penalty For Book Translation

It appears that the quest to re-make Afghanistan into a western style democracy has quite a way to go. The BBC reports a well intentioned man commissioned the printing of the Koran translated into the Afghan language. Big mistake, prosecutors in the courts want him sentenced to death. (story)

In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, 'Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,'" Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge's chambers waiting for a recent hearing.

Zalmai lost friends quickly. He was condemned by colleagues and even by others involved in the book's printing. A mob stoned his house one night, said his brother, Mahmood Ghaws.

Police arrested Zalmai as he was fleeing to Pakistan, along with three other men the government says were trying to help him escape. The publisher and the mosque's cleric, who signed a letter endorsing the book, were also jailed.

(...)

Sentences on religious infractions can be harsh. In January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for asking questions about women's rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison. His lawyers appealed again and the case is pending.

In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a puppet for the West for letting him live.

I thought we were getting rid of the Taliban for perpetrating these type of horrors? This is the system that replaced them? Our soldiers are risking their lives for these people?

The War on Terror Drugs

CBC reports that Canadian soldiers are going to go after drug dealers of Afghanistan opium. (story)

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told CBC News soldiers would indeed target drug traffickers and drug production facilities.

"We're not going specifically to eradicate poppy crops, but we would go after proven drug traffickers with operations linked to the terrorists," he said.

The opium trade is the only thing in Afghanistan thing that can make a regular person any money. From growing it to dealing it. There will always be someone who is willing to risk it for profit. So knocking off a few of these guys is not going to stop the drug trade.