OH MY GOD! CANADIAN TROOPS WILL BE FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN

Thomas Walkom of the Star (along with most of the Canadian media) is slow on the uptake.

Canada is slowly and incrementally getting itself involved in a major conflict overseas — not as a peacekeeper but as a combatant.

Yet, no one talks about it. The government keeps quiet. So do the opposition parties. The media, when they do deal with Afghanistan (which isn't often) seem confused, unsure of whether to be worried or proud that Canadian troops there are operating in mortal danger.

In an election campaign that seems bereft of issues, this very real matter of life and death does not come up.

Walkom is dead wrong that the government has not been talking about it. Remember Gen. Hillier's "scumbags"?

National Defence Minister Graham made a major speech on Afghanistan in Vancouver, Nov. 9. It's not his fault the media paid little attention.

What the government has not talked about, and what the Canadian media have also ignored (including Walkom), is the controversy over who will command the combat forces around Kandahar. A Canadian "battle group"--what the Canadian Forces are calling it--will be operational in February 2006. Initially it will be under the command of US Operation Enduring Freedom. In fact the Canadian troops now in the Kandahar area are already under overall US command

In May the UK will take command of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. DND says the Canadian troops, and the brigade HQ that Canada will supply to command our battle group plus British, Dutch and Australian troops, will then "transition" from US to overall NATO ISAF command.

Except some NATO members, notably France and Germany, do not want ISAF to command forces that will engage in combat. Whether ISAF will in fact be in command of Canadian and other forces around Kandahar will be a key issue at a NATO meeting in Brussels next week.

One imagines the Canadian government would be very embarrassed if NATO cannot agree to take on this command and our troops remain under Operation Enduring Freedom.

See also the Nov. 24 post: ARE THE CANADIAN PEOPLE READY FOR THE BODY BAGS?

Posted by markc at December 3, 2005 03:02 PM | TrackBack