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More troops at risk, general warns

Ottawa says CF-18s ready for Afghanistan

Paul Koring, Globe & Mail, 31 Oct 06

Article Link

 

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — More Canadian soldiers will be killed but the cost in blood must be paid in Afghanistan unless Canadians want to fight Islamic jihadists at home, Brigadier-General David Fraser said yesterday as he prepared to hand over command of NATO and Canadian forces in war-torn southern Afghanistan.

 

His comments came as Canada has begun to consider increasing its contributions of military hardware, such as buying protective gear for Afghanistan's police force, as well as readying tanks, helicopters and CF-18 fighter jets for possible use in the country.

 

"I don't want my sons to be doing what I'm doing here on the shores of Canada," the general said in an interview.

 

"This is the home of the Taliban, the Taliban are a threat to nations around the world, including our own," Gen. Fraser said.

 

It's "naive of us to think that Canada is not a pathway to get to America and that Canada would not be the next objective," he said, insisting that Canada risked its national security unless its soldiers fought in Afghanistan.

 

Gen. Fraser, who took over command of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in southern Afghanistan in February, said he is intensely proud of the combat prowess demonstrated by Canadian soldiers, who have seen more combat in the last six months in Afghanistan than in the last half century.

 

"I look back and say these men and women have stepped up to the plate, they have gotten on to the ice and they have played the game of their lives," Gen. Fraser said. "Canadians should actually do something very un-Canadian-like and pound their chests and be proud and tell everyone, because all the other nations down here are talking about Canada."

 

NATO is struggling to defeat a violent Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan. Hundreds have been killed, including 42 Canadian soldiers, by far the largest combat death toll since Korea. Military commanders and political leaders forecast it will take years, maybe decades, before foreign troops can leave an Afghanistan secure from Islamic jihadists, opium warlords and criminal militias -- what Canada's top soldier, Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, has collectively labelled "scumbags."

 

In Ottawa yesterday, Canada's Defence Minister admitted under questioning from an opposition MP that CF-18 fighter jets are being readied for use in Afghanistan.

 

"Recently we made a commitment to NATO that we will have six CF-18s ready for NATO if they require us," Gordon O'Connor told the House of Commons during Question Period. "That is why the money was spent to fix up these CF-18s."

 

Mr. O'Connor stressed yesterday that there was no plan currently in the works to send the jets overseas. "They will not be deployed unless there is an operational requirement, and at this time there is no operational requirement," he said in response to a question from New Democrat MP Dawn Black.

 

The news yesterday about the CF-18s followed government denials that the military was sending in Leopard tanks to help rout the Taliban and that sailors and aircrew personnel could be rotated into the mission. Both reports were subsequently proved true.

 

Soldiers about to deploy to Afghanistan trained last month on five of the navy's geriatric Sea Kings stripped of their anti-submarine gear and equipped with troop seats, army radios and global positioning equipment, The Canadian Press reported recently, raising questions, in spite of government denials, about whether the troublesome helicopters are eventually bound for Kandahar.

 

And the Foreign Affairs Department has taken the unusual step of purchasing basic equipment for roughly 2,000 Afghan National Police officers, and amended its contract with the maker of the navy's new Cyclone helicopters to ensure that the choppers can take on a wide variety of different roles -- including potential air support for the army in Afghanistan.

 

The recent developments prompted Ms. Black and Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh to accuse the government of providing misinformation on Afghanistan and to suggest that Canada's involvement in the conflict is being escalated.

 

Mr. Dosanjh said the government deliberately obfuscates when it comes to Afghanistan.

 

"I am concerned about the escalation of our role in Afghanistan with the possible deployment of CF-18s, whether asked for by NATO or not," he said.

 

Gen. Fraser rejected the notion that Canada could have avoided being targeted by Islamic radicals had it opted out of the war in Afghanistan, as it did the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. His multinational command, including thousands of British, Canadian, Dutch and U.S. soldiers, has faced the bulk of the fighting in Afghanistan this year.

 

For Gen. Fraser, the leave-taking is a moment of both pride and sorrow, reflection and optimism. Tomorrow, he turns his NATO hat over to Dutch Brigadier-General Ton van Loon and his Canadian command to Brigadier-General Tim Grant.

 

Among Canada's dead are four of the general's own personal security detail, killed when a roadside bomb tore their lightly armoured G-Wagon apart. The toll weighs on him, but he insists that even the families of those killed remain unwavering in their support of the mission. He is undeterred by mounting anti-war protests in Canada and the political debate heating up over the balance between war-fighting and reconstruction.

 

"The families of the fallen . . . have written to me and they still believe in the mission, . . . they are fully behind it and with their support, we are going to see it through," he said.

 

Canadians spearheaded the major NATO combat operation west of Kandahar, which, NATO contends, killed more than a thousand Taliban fighters and effectively defeated them in a conventional battle. Since then, the Taliban have largely avoided major battles, switching instead to traditional guerrilla tactics and using suicide bombers and roadside bombs to inflict a steady stream of NATO and civilian casualties.

 

Gen. Fraser remains torn by the media focus on casualties, arguing that the combat represents only a portion of the broad NATO effort to secure and rebuild Afghanistan. It irks him that his command spent $20-million on development in the past few months, but "got zero air time" for it.

 

Yet he also worries that individual Canadian casualties will become, as they have in the United States, not especially newsworthy.

 

"I don't want our Canadian casualties to ever be taken for granted," he said. "We not talking about body bags here, we're talking about people, we're talking about husbands, wives, brothers, sisters; we're talking about Canadians here, and Americans and Romanians and Australians."

 

There will be more Canadians killed and injured, the general warned. But he said he is confident that the casualties won't erode support for the war-fighting dimension to Canada's three-pronged strategy of defence, diplomacy and development in Afghanistan.

 

"Canada has a long history of peacekeeping and not backing away when the going gets tough," he said. "I don't see Afghanistan any differently. It is more dangerous than some other missions, . . . but this is the new reality."

 

The general also challenged those in Canada who oppose the war-fighting part of the national effort in Afghanistan.

 

"I would encourage those people who have differing opinions to come and visit and find out what their fellow citizens are doing over here to help those less fortunate than us," he said.

 

With a report from Gloria Galloway in Ottawa

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