From a member of the Canadian Forces (slightly edited);

It has been an eventful month so far and I have been doing pretty much the same thing as last month with one major difference. It’s even hotter now, we hit +39 C yesterday and it certainly takes your breath away. The low temperature at night is now around 24-25 Celsius and they have finally gotten air conditioning units into our work areas and tents so it’s a little easier. It’s only when I’m on the road where it becames brutally hot and I find that I’m drinking 6-7 litres of water per day now. Luckily they give us free gatorade crystals so there’s lots of electrolytes being pushed.

I must admit that time has been literally flying by for the last month and I haven’t noticed much of a change in the countryside other than where it is now green in this area. Kandahar province has (had) extensive irrigation projects throughout the region and it is actually a significant producer of fresh fruit and in a country where the average income is pretty pitiful they had a profit of more than $27 million on fruit exports last year so something is working in this country. Unfortunately a large amount of the irrigation systems were destroyed during all of the time in conflict and they are slowly recovering. It is absolutely amazing to see green things growing in the middle of a barren brown field where temps push +100 Fahrenheit.

One of the more rewarding things that I got to do a few days ago was to participate in a humanitarian aid convoy. This is where we load up blankets, packaged food, bulk bags of rice, clothes, some kids toys and go out to a local village. The one I visited was Morgan Kacheh and is around 20 km away from here. The trip was with the Romanian White Sharks so let me tell you that it is very weird travelling around Afghanistan following the old “Evil Empire’s” worn out armoured personnel carriers. The trip was quite exciting and was really the first chance I had to meet the locals in their own environment and the kids were a lot of fun. The village elder is invited out to look at the truck and decide whether or not he would like to receive the goods (bit of a no-brainer really as the village was very hard done by) and then it is all put onto the ground. The actual distribution of all of the goods is conducted after we leave and the village elder is the man in charge.



The kids were very curious about us and were all wanting to get pencils and gum and everything like that. And if you know any uppity kids back home the treatment of the ones who act up a bit is a little different than Canada. A kid who was around 12 years old looked like he was back-talking one of the elders and before you could say anything the old guy had grabbed the kid and gave him a couple of smacks to the head. It looked like the kid was pretty used to it and broke away running and the old guy just grabbed a couple of rocks and chucked them at him as he was running away. Certainly a different culture that’s for sure. On the whole though they were very appreciative of all of the supplies and it looked like it would go a long way. The village was also quite different as all of the huts had actual mud roofs on them and were quite well designed as I only saw two or three of them that had collapsed. All in all a very rewarding expedition though.


I’m getting very close to vacation now and can definitely need the break as it looks like I won’t be out of here till early September now.

These guys are working their asses off in difficult conditions, and as we were today reminded – at significant risk. Take a minute sometime this weekend, click on the “Write A Soldier” icon on the sidebar, and let them know we appreciate what they’re doing.
(There are more photos accompanying this report, along with earlier ones I’ve been sent from friends serving in Afghanistan in this directory.)

Afghan and coalition forces have launched one of the largest offensives since removing the Taliban;

Military officials in Afghanistan said Operation Mountain Lion is part of the coalition’s ongoing series of offensives that aim to disrupt insurgent activities, deny them sanctuary and prevent their ability to restock.
“This operation is helping the government of Afghanistan set the security conditions so democratic processes can take root,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Allen Peck, deputy air component commander for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. “Our job is to bring airpower to bear on the anti-Afghan forces and support the coalition troops on the ground.”
Operations today began with predawn air-and-ground assaults in the Pech River Valley, an area notorious for terrorist activity, Combined Force Command Afghanistan officials said.
Soldiers from 3rd Brigade of the Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps are fighting alongside servicemembers from the coalition’s Task Force Spartan, made up of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division and 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Marines from Task Force Lava.
More than 2,500 Afghan National Army and coalition forces are involved in the operation.
“We’re taking the fight to the terrorists in their own backyard,” said Army Command Sgt. Maj. James Redmore of Task Force Spartan. “They gave their victims no sanctuary. They’ll receive none from us.”
Coalition leaders described the operation as a comprehensive effort to kill, incapacitate or capture terrorists operating in the region. It will continue as long as necessary, they said.
“Together, with our ANA brothers-in-arms, we’re eliminating the enemy’s remaining sanctuaries in Kunar province,” added Army Col. John Nicholson, Task Force Spartan’s commander.

Via Powerline.
Now, for something just as revealing, though, ultimately discouraging – examine which media outlets actually carrying this news item, according to today’s Google News – and how many are conspicious in their absence.

Picking up where Arthur Chrenkoff* left off, Bill Crawford has pulled together a collection of under-reported “good news” items from Iraq for National Review. Read it all (especially those of you confused by my criticism of CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme).
A few exerpts;

In addition to taking over battle space, Iraqis continue to take the lead in more security operations. Operation Cobra Strike was lead by soldiers of the 8th Iraqi Army Division. The operation was planned, and conducted by Iraqis, with U.S. soldiers in support.

139 Iraqi soldiers recently graduated from commando school, and are ready to fight:

39 of 45 planned border forts along the Iran-Iraq border are complete. The border posts are manned by Iraqis.

In another raid, a senior al Qaeda operative was killed. Abu Umar was the terror groups “ambassador,” and was charged with forming relationships with other groups in Iraq. Umar was an associate of Osama bin Laden. More than 115 top al Qaeda operatives have been killed or captured in Iraq over the last few months.

This item about a new anti-RPG force field system for the US military caught my eye;

The Trophy active protection system creates a “force field” that literally surrounds the protected vehicle. An APS has three basic elements, including threat detection and tracking of approaching projectiles, the launching of and Interception of the projectiles.
Trophy’s “force field” consists of a barrier of invisible energy fragments (perhaps light particles charged by lasers) can sense incoming threats by recognizing heat signatures. RPG rockets and guided missiles give off heat as they approach their targets. These charged fragments are designed to destroy any incoming threat with low collateral damage, minimizing injury to troops and citizenry.

Defense Review has more on Trophy, including link to video.

BBS has links to Lisa LaFlamme’s W5 report, Outside the wire.

“I would do it again because I think there is an undertold story here. We report on the military, we report on the Department of National Defence in Ottawa, Canada’s role in peacekeeping. But we don’t tell the story of these guys and their devotion to the mission,” she said.

Well, if reading from the pages of the New York Times from behind the wall in the Green Zone can be called “reporting”. I’m no fan of LaFlamme’s foreign affairs work – prior to this she’s been unwatchably superficial. Let’s hope this is a sign of better things to come out of CTV.
A commentor at BBS has it right though; “What’s more, maybe we should ask why journalists who cover security crises don’t have more military experience to begin with.”
Indeed.

“After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut ‘er off.“

Via INDC

Cliff May;

Some generals may have said that, but it�s wrong. It�s what is said by generals who love to train and parade and buy expensive weapons systems and then retire to cushy jobs at Lockheed. The fact is we have to win both militarily and politically.
We have to learn to fight and win a war against terrorist and insurgent groups. If we have a military that can�t win this kind of war, then Iraq will be only the first of many defeats–Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan will soon follow. What would prevent that?
If we have a military that can�t fight and win a war such as this, then we have a military that is close to useless, because this is what war is going to look like in the 21st century. We�re not going to have a chance to fight Rommel in the desert again. We�re not going to send tanks into Poland.

An interview with Lieutenant D.M. Thorlakson, stationed in Kandahar, is scheduled for this evening on Global National. Be sure to catch it.

A reader just back from a Port Security training exercise with the Navy Reserve sends along this photo and explanation (click to enlarge);

Port Security RHIB completing high-speed turn. These are also the same boats carried by our ships in the Persian gulf and used for armed boarding parties. The comm/radar arch is an add-on for our purposes.
We didn’t issue weapons, combat dress, or body armour for this exercise, partly because it was in Vancouver harbour. Can’t have…Soldiers…With guns…In Canadian cities…

That photo belongs on a Navy recruitment poster!

Discussion in the comments of the magnet “ribbons” displayed all over the US prompted a reader to email privately with information on where you can get your own. (I had to look for one in North Dakota a couple of years ago).

A few places you can order them in Canada; Military Family Resource Centre Meaford and Royal Canadian Regiment Kit Shop, Or contact your local Royal Canadian Legion. A few private businesses also offer them – I would guess that if you’re interested in helping out by offering the magnetic ribbons at your own place of business, the Legion is the place to start.

A small gesture, no question – but in a country where such displays are rare, I suspect they are appreciated.

The CBC focuses on the casualties in their coverage of the death of Pte. Robert Costall, and only hints at the outcome of the firefight;

The Canadians, along with U.S. helicopters and British planes, had been repositioned to a base in the area in response to an incident on Tuesday in which eight Afghan army soldiers were killed. The region is a flashpoint for insurgent activity and the illegal drug trade.
Fraser said Taliban insurgents attacked the base with mortars, grenades and small arms fire early Wednesday.
The firefight lasted for several hours, he said, adding that a “significant number” of Taliban members were killed during the battle. U.S. military reports say as many as 32 insurgents died.

As much as we mourn the loss of any soldier, those killed in combat deserve a media that reports not only on their sacrifice, but on their achievements. This reporting is incomplete, for it fails to directly advise us as to whether the base was successfully defended.
Instead, we are reminded (at the end of the item) of previous Canadian casualties – including those killed in accidents – as though this information is directly relevant.
The liberal-left media has little interest in understanding military culture. Yet, as they do on so many other issues in which they are woefully underinformed, lack of knowledge is no barrier to interjecting their world view into the reporting – in this case, forgoing the outcome of the battle to revisit an incident of a taxi hitting a light armoured vehicle in Kandahar. True to the liberal-left “war wouldn’t happen if we were in charge of the world” ideology, modern war reporting begins and ends with counting the losses.
Pte. Robert Costall was not in Afghanistan to sacrifice his life – he was there to serve his country by accomplishing the missions set before him. To report on only his loss while remaining silent on the achievement (or the failure – after all, we are not told) of his unit in defending their base, is not only journalistic malpractice, it is a disservice to every member of the Canadian Forces.

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Upon further reflection – perhaps the time has come to send sports reporters to war zones. It seems to be one of the last refuges of journalism in which a) reporters have basic knowledge of the subject matter they’re assigned to, and b) they’re expected to report the details and outcome of the race, even if a contestant is injured or dies during competition.
It’s astonishing that the same country that still celebrates the envelope pushing performances (and near-death experiences) of the “Crazy Canucks” downhill ski team, hasn’t figured out that covering a war in the context of body counts is the sports journalism equivalent of limiting Olympic coverage to the daily injury reports of the various countries in competition.

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Update – Missing details, and more at Defense Link. h/t to Maz2 in the comments.

The Canadian flag is now flying over Kandahar. About time.
h/t Neale.

Via email from a Canadian Forces member in Kandahar, from a couple of weeks ago;

Hi, it’s Thursday afternoon in sunny Kandahar. Temperatures are pushing +30 again today and it’s pretty quiet now. It’s been a pretty tough week with the rollovers and the suicide bombing last week. Things are much better this week and spirits are improving day by day. I’ve spent a fair amount of time out on the ranges in the last week and got to do a lot of shooting.

In addition, we blew up an IED (Improvised Explosive Deer), it was a 3D archery target that we used for training. It’s a pretty sobering range as we were only 150m away from where the four Canadians were killed in 2002 by the American bomb. A very unsettling place as you can see the base right from that location — it’s only 3 km outside of the wire. There are continual reminders of war in this country with the destroyed houses and ruined villages everywhere you go.

The amount of activity around here is always amazing. I’m still living 150m away from the runway where helicopters, C17 Globemasters, Hercules, Apaches, Chinooks and Ilyushins take off and land all around the clock — can’t say that I even notice it anymore. I’ve moved into new accommodations – (well, a new tent anyway) but there are concrete floors and they’re partitioned off inside so they’re pretty decent. A little bit of privacy from all of your neighbours goes a long way.
It’s been six weeks now since I arrived in country and the time is still going by very quickly. There is generally too much to do during the day so I’ll admit that while the days are long the weeks have flown by. We had a bit of a monsoon yesterday – out of the clear blue sky a great big cloud came by and opened a torrential rainfall.

There was even a bunch of hail coming down so I was able to throw a couple of snowballs at +30. Good for a laugh anyway. The rain lands on the ground and then there isn’t any drainage into the soil as it’s basically blasted clay. Very weird, the water just lays on the ground until the sun evaporates it.
Two days ago we had the biggest sandstorm – it’s definitely out of the bible. If you’ve seen ‘The Mummy’ and you watched the wall of sand coming it is exactly like that. Except there wasn’t any demonic head appearing in the middle of it and the small screen just doesn’t do justice to 1000′ high brown curtain coming towards you. I’ll try to find one of the photos that some of the guys took to give you an appreciation. Visibility dropped to 50m in less than 1 minute. We’re actually only a few kms from a desert that runs almost 1500 kms to Iran so that’s where the wind had picked up all of the crap.

This place is so desolate – very much like the far side of the moon I would imagine.
Although I don’t think anyone shoots at you on the moon.

If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering what our soldiers have to say about any number of things, but particularly about the mission itself – it’s purpose(s), it’s challenges, it’s rewards & it’s heartbreaks.
I stumbled across Dave’s blog a few weeks ago while surfing (I’d hat tip someone, but I forget how I clicked through to him), and bookmarked it for that very reason. The comments are moderated (good call!) so won’t show up until they’ve been checked for stupidity, but I highly recommend you stop by regularly for updates.
His current post is brilliant (he’s apparently working on a rebuttal to the buttheads that think we should bail, I’m looking forward to that) and explains the intricacies of the Afghan culture. It’s a response to an email asking whether sending him pencils for schoolchildren was a good idea. Here’s a sample:

“…But let me tell you about other factors that you�re probably not aware of.
Afghanistan is peopled by many different cultures. In the north live Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkmen. In the middle of the country, there are the Hazara, possibly the descendants of Ghengiz Khan�s Mongol Horde, Nuristanis, and Baloch. And in the south, there are the Pashtuns. Ethnic divisions are not clear-cut – nothing is in Afghanistan – and sizable populations of Tajiks live in the south and Pashtuns in the centre and so on. But each province has its ethnic makeup, and in Kandahar, like in Waziristan across the Pakistani border, the Pashtuns predominate.
Pashtuns form the largest tribal society in the Islamic world. They view themselves as the natural leaders of Afghanistan, and despise peoples like the Hazara as a sort of underclass. Their relations with one another are dominated by a tribal code called pashtunwali, which values above all honour, hospitality, loyalty, bravery, revenge, and fierce individualism. This code has some pretty inexplicable facets – it is perfectly acceptable under pashtunwali, for example, to change sides in the middle of a battle for a bribe. You don�t have to understand it, but if you are doing business here you have to deal with it.
Pashtuns are hardly monolithic either. One is not simply a Pashtun, one is a Durrani or a Ghilzai; and one is not simply a Ghilzai or a Durrani, one is a Popolzai or a Barakzai or an Alikozai or an Ishaqzai Durrani Pashtun, or a member of one of dozens of other tribes. It doesn�t end there; families come next. And it is a vast understatement to call the interrelationships complex. Don�t try building a road through a Barakzai area using Alikozai labour, unless the Barakzai of that area have just concluded an agreement with the Alikozai families. And be prepared for it all to go pear-shaped in a heartbeat, for reasons you will never fully understand…”

Go read the whole thing. It’s fascinating.

The Galloping Beaver has a great post that explains, in detail, the timelines and FACTS around how we ended up in Afghanistan, and more to the point, why we have to STAY.
“…If Canada were to suddenly withdraw because Canadians at home are getting squeamish, those who would have us do that should be aware that Canada would be forever viewed as an unreliable ally; not by the US, but by NATO. Canada relies on collective defence treaties to keep defence affordable. Withdrawl would result in no treaties, no collective defence and a huge price to pay in going it alone…”
It’s also cross-posted at The Torch.
UPDATE: Ooops, I forgot to h/t Cerebrus. Sorry about that.

Candace at Planet X writes;

I’ve received an email from MaryAnn in Germany (Soldiers Angels) and she has been speaking with the Canadian Captain responsible for our guys in Germany. This past week has been a particularly rough one, and messages from Canadians would certainly cheer them up. Currently we have Captain Trevor Greene who was brutally attacked this weekend as well as Pte. Miguel Chavez & Sgt. Darren Haggerty injured in the accident last week. The accident victims are in stable condition and on regular wards.

Head on over to Planet X and see what you can do.

There was a detectable level of sanctimony injected into the reporting of this story back in early February;

CTV News has learned Canadian diplomats — including the charge d’affaires in Iraq — had a close call in Baghdad on Tuesday, coming under friendly fire from U.S. troops.
The soldiers opened fire on the vehicle after it reportedly wouldn’t stop, apparently fearing a suicide car bombing.
None of the four passengers in the car — which included Stewart Henderson, Canada’s charge d’affaires in Iraq — or its driver were injured.

Thank goodness – otherwise we’d still be knee deep in detailed re-enactments and news magazine special reporting – because there’s no Canadian so mourned by our liberal left media as he who falls at the hands of a trigger-happy American.
But, I digress… let’s fast forward –

In the past few days, one Canadian armoured vehicle has overturned in an accident with a taxi, another has been the target of a successful suicide car bombing. Can anyone explain why there wasn’t a little self-defensive gun play by our guys before those vehicles got close enough to do damage?
Despite the misinformation floating around in the media suggesting otherwise, the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is not peace keeping. Was it lack of opportunity, or do they have rules of engagement that prevent them from taking pre-emptive action?
This is not a criticism – it’s a question.

Skippy has some familiarity with the LAV-III;

The CBC report that the LAV-III has a “history of rollovers” is misleading, because in fact all military vehicles have a history of rollovers. These vehicles are operated on poor quality roads in all kinds of weather, by drivers whose visibility is often restricted by armour protection. M113 APCs have a “history of rollovers,” as did the AVGP Cougar and Grizzly vehicles. At least one Canadian soldier, to my recollection, was killed in a rollover accident in Bosnia, involving an M113.
Vehicle accidents do happen, and in fact are more likely to happen where traffic laws are effectively nonexistent and roads are poor. Vehicle accidents are a fact of military training and a fact of military operations. The question is not whether the LAV-III has rolled over in the past, but whether it is especially prone to rollover accidents.

The rest at the Torch.

Courtesy reader “Reid”, who describes it as “a pretty nice tribute to our guys who didn’t make it back from Afghanistan.”

CBC;

O’Connor says the new government’s defence policy can be summed up in a few words.
“It’s about having a three-ocean navy, a robust army and a revitalized air force,” he said in Ottawa on Thursday. “Increasing the strength of the Canadian Forces to at least 75,000 regular force personnel is a clear priority. We will also intend to increase the reserve force by 10,000.”
Under this plan Canada will eventually have more than 100,000 full-time and part-time soldiers.

Damian Brooks is “impressed by both the content of the speech and the clear language”;

Integration is not submission, and those who paint it that way are either dishonest or uniformed. A seamless game plan for Canada and the United States focusing on areas of common interest that lays out who exactly is responsible for what is, without question, in Canada’s best interest.

Posted at the new military group blog – The Torch. Check it out.
Other reaction at Canadian Sentinel and Strong Conservative, Send a trackback if you have more.

Would the words “abandon ship” have been that hard to say?
(link fixed!)