We at home have just spent most of the Easter Weekend and the ensuing warm days, cleaning up our yards, chatting to friends over a coffee or a beer. Washing the car and generally enjoying the sunshine. I was looking over the latest news from Afghanistan and came across a great article from CTV. This article certainly shows that our troops are not enjoying the fine weather and relaxation time that most of us have.
They are Vigilant always and as some of them are living within the Afghan Villages, they have a lot to look forward to upon their safe return home. I do have to ask where , other than with fellow soldiers, veterans will they be able to speak about things that they have seen and done. The younger soldiers may meet up with old High School friends but after the first few hellos, how are ya's. The soldiers lives will rarely be discussed by old friends. Why you may ask well in my opinion I feel that the ones who choose not to join nor to serve cannot understand these young men , who left home less than a year ago as bright eyed boys. But came back as steely eyed veterans of the world and it's Woes. We must offer our hands, our ears and indeed our thanks to these brave men and women who enlist to fight the good fight on our behalf. Here are some excerpts and a link for the full story.:
An Afghan shepherd tends his flock as a Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) driven by Canadian soldiers from Task Force 3-09 Battle Group passes, at the start of operation Tazi, a village search and securing operation in the Dand area of Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan Monday, Jan. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
HAJI BABA, Afghanistan The patrol set out along a graveled road and changed course to the lumpy paths worn into the fields. As they did most days, the soldiers of Delta Company headed toward the tree line to the southeast. The tree line is where they fall from sight and beyond it is where trouble begins.
Everything here is IEDs, said Warrant Officer Bill Grady as he watched the patrol grow more distant. Nobody is really shooting at us here but we're playing IED dodgeball.
What Grady calls here appears on most Canadian military maps as Combat Outpost (or COP for short) Shakir in the village of Haji Baba. It is a mud and grass-walled compound that belonged to a drug lord before the Taliban acquired its coveted view of a coalition operating base down the road.
When the soldiers of 1PPCLI took over the compound in November they instead dubbed it COP Tombstone'. That the front lawn is the village's sprawling graveyard is only part of it. This district, Nakhonay, is shaping up to be the Wild West of Kandahar province. Only hundreds of metres from the Canadian post is where Taliban territory begins.
This is where I'm planning to fight the insurgents during fighting season, said Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, the commander of Canadian Forces. It will be at my time, my place.
Yet every day when the infantrymen of Delta Company suit up and head out they find overwhelming evidence to the contrary. IEDs are tucked in roads, paths, culverts, and fields. Devices are crude creations of old artillery shells or yellow plastic jugs packed with fertilizer and fuel. They recently discovered a weapons cache in a 45-gallon drum buried in the graveyard. The insurgents' tactics or materials are not any more sophisticated but they are proving more cunning in how they hide the explosive devices.
The unit has lost three men in three months. An officer acknowledged that each death was traumatic for the younger infantrymen. How does that impact a soldier living among Afghans? Is every Afghan scrutinized as being a possible player in their friend's death?
There is always that, admitted the officer. We are dealing with young men ages 20 through 25. But they get over it.
So the orders of every patrol are repeated as mantra: Do not become a casualty. Keep eyes to the flanks, the rear, the front. And while it's all heart and minds and stuff do not give anything to the kids because they will swarm and mess up the security zone.
The troops settle back into the hum of platoon house life. The bomb-sniffing dog barks for attention from his pen. The pantry is well-stocked and the fire pit is breathing smoke to cook the evening's meal. A few free weights and an exercise bike make for a basic outdoor gym. There is an Internet tent in the compound's courtyard though the most welcome advance at Tombstone was the recent inauguration of the real' shower.
So it goes in the middle of Afghan nowhere, but at the edge of what is next. Tomorrow they will patrol again. And soon, when the generals say it is time, they will fight in what is expected to be a crucial summer for Afghanistan and Canada's role in shaping it.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100224/kandahar_column_100224/20100224?hub=World
Karzai makes threats;On Sunday, the president said the sweep would not proceed if locals didn't want it.
In remarks to Afghan parliamentarians last week, Karzai accused the U.S. and other western governments of wanting a puppet government in Afghanistan and alleged they engineered widespread fraud during last fall's corrupt national elections.
He later dropped another bombshell, telling a number of Afghan members of parliament that if foreigners continued to meddle in Afghanistan, he'd be forced to join the Taliban.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/06/taliban-support-poll.html#ixzz0kP8M3sJE
I would ask that you think of these soldiers and the job that they are doing, should Canada pull out completely or remain with some mentors etc? This is a very serious question for both our Government and for all Canadians. The Afghan Ambassador to Canada Jawed Ludin says:
Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says there is no question that Afghanistan wants Canadian troops to stay in that country past 2011. Ludin also responds to comments made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai about joining the Taliban:http://watch.ctv.ca/news/power-play/april-6/
Please Support our Troops
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
