Michael Yon was recently, er, terminated unexpectedly as an embed with the British Army at Helmand. He now takes on the matter, and other issues regarding Afstan, all barrels blazing. He is especially outraged by the answer to a Parliamentary question by Bob Ainsworth, the Secretary of State for Defence, an answer that would appear exceptionally economical with the truth. The whole piece is a must-read, an excerpt that should really give Canadians pause to consider:
…This dispatch is being written in downtown Kandahar City and I have not seen a soldier in days. The Taliban is slowing winning this city. There have been many bombings and shootings since I arrived in disguise [more here and here]…
Update thought: Seeing as Canadian media at KAF rarely go outside the wire anymore [see Globe and Mail pieces here]–busy on the death watch and all that you know, far too few of them from our cheapskate media organizations–we have to rely on foreign media to get much feel about what it is like in the field, especially combat [e.g. this link and this]. Besides which most members of the Canadian media know so little about things military and are so inexperienced in covering conflict that they could never hope to come close to the reporting of many American and British journalists.
Typical CYA behaviour.
The CH-47 helos are useful in avoiding excess IEDs when partrolling/supplying FOBs in “Taliban country”.
The CH-47D/F is particularly useful in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan where high altitudes and temperatures limited the use of the Black Hawk.
Of course the Canucks sold the Canadian version of the CH-47 to the Dutch and never replaced them, save for our recent order Sept 3, 2009.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5htKnxACNQzK6ZtCnQts0KfHHhGUg
“It took National Defence three years to sign a sole-service contract to buy CH-47 Chinook medium-heavy-lift helicopters with Boeing.”
No wonder Patreaus is on a tear in getting, according to Yon, more helos by the ‘fist full’.
The mid level Media Ops in some cases are quite the bureaucratic comedians.
Interesting article.
I always laugh when I think of “Baghdad Bob”; but “BS Bob” is coming pretty close.
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht-Commander in Chief
Army Group “True North”
1st St. Nicolaas Army
That vexation to the soul was a Major….really???
Usually the rank of Captain means you have reached your level of incompetance….
Captains and corporals….usually the result of tenure rather than merit….
But then maybe that is just my perception/experience.
Kate: I’d humbly suggest we as a community begin an e-mail campaign moving to get Yon embedded with the Canucks.
Good idea, JAW, but maybe even better, how about having Michael Yon give an intensive briefing to the the PM and Cabinet, AND to our top military commanders?