Snippets from the news sources lately. cover stories like the Major Push expected any day within Kanadahar province. This will be a joint operation under command of the Canadian Troops. US, British and Afghhani forces are also part of this major offensive.
Then in another news story they state that Drop out rates in the Afghan Army will affect Canada's movement in 2011. I feel to solve that would be to send them new recruits from our Jails to the Afghan Army a period of two years service would count for a five year sentence. (Shades of the Dirty Dozen) this will surely generate comments. However what I am trying to say is that our Professional Military people will be leading the proverbial charge in Kandahar and I wish them God Speed and safety in their mission.
The detainee question is still being bandied about by the opposition and I feel that they should keep quiet as this only looks like we are at loggerheads within our selves. Yes the taliban no doubt have ears in Canada and will play us against one another at will. Canad should be UNITED behind our troops and be concerned for them. Not for for an insurgent captured in battle!
Final snippet of the DAY:
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - One of the most important trade routes in Asia was closed last week while a boyish-looking man everyone calls the general showed around the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
General Stanley McChrystal clambered to the top of a roof, where the general -- officially a colonel in the Afghan Border Police -- pointed out the area where NATO forces plan to build a new $20 million border station.
U.S. forces are not allowed near the teeming border when it is open, so they have never seen quite how Colonel Abdul Razziq, the 30-something Afghan border police boss in Spin Boldak, single-handedly rules over billions in international trade.
They say he has done a good job keeping the border moving and secure. They also believe he is, as one senior military official put it, a crook.
In an interview after meeting Razziq, McChrystal said fighting corruption is crucial because it is what drives Afghans into the arms of insurgents. But he declined to address specific accusations against Razziq and Ahmad Wali Karzai.
To the degree that (corruption) is one of the causes of the insurgency, it worries me more than the insurgency itself, McChrystal said. We can fight the insurgency: we can defeat the forces of the insurgency, the ground forces and whatnot. But if we don't have effective governance, credible governance, than you don't defeat the cause of the insurgency. This is what we're good at: building stuff and projects, McChrystal said. We're not so good at the cultural stuff.
All I can say for now is watch this space I am sure the name Colonel Abdul Razziq will be in Forbes magazine one issue as one of the world's newest Zillionaires??? Who said Crime does not Pay???
On this Red Friday I leave you with a great letter from a very old friend who happened to be my first ever platoon Officer in The RCASC (A) company in 1960. then known as 2/Lt E M S Deneumoustier now known as Denny. Thanks for the story amigo.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
