A briefing on Canadians and their role in peace.
BY KARLI VEZINA
THE FIRST FIVE YEARS
Soon after the September 11th attacks, the HMCS Charlottetown, HMCS Iroquois and supply ship Preserver left Halifax for the Arabian Sea where they joined U.S. and British forces already there. This was Canada’s contribution to Operation Apollo.
Photo by Spc. Justin French
In January of 2002, Canada re-established diplomatic ties with Afghanistan. Ottawa severed ties in 1979 after the Soviets invaded the country to back the Communist regime in Kabul. The first major wave of Canadian soldiers began to land in Afghanistan the following month. Officials said the 750 soldiers are on the ground in Afghanistan would be pulled out by August of that year. Air, sea and Special Forces would remain.
In February 2003, Defence Minister John McCallum announced that Canada would send more than 1,000 soldiers to join the international security force in Kabul. The first elements of an 1,800-strong Canadian contingent arrived in Afghanistan that May, to maintain order in the Afghan capital.
Come 2004, nearly 2,000 Canadian troops from CFB Valcartier, Quebec, went to Afghanistan in January to replace the first wave of troops at the end of their six-month tour. In April, Afghan authorities lead a team that included Canadian soldiers in a raid of a compound outside Kabul. Six people were arrested, including a wanted member of a militant group. By July, 600 troops from Western Canada went to Afghanistan to replace a battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment. Some of the soldiers were members of the original Canadian deployment to Afghanistan, Operation Apollo.
The Canadian Forces recapped their deployment saying they “completed 3,500 patrols with no casualties and finished 154 ‘do-good’ projects that spent $400,000 on schools, orphanages, roads, culverts, water and other projects.”
February 2005 brought a new six-month tour for 700 Canadian troops in Kabul. In August, Canadian troops shut down Camp Julien near Kabul to move to a new mission near Kandahar, where the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous.
2006: A PIVOTAL YEAR
March was a busy time for the Canadian troops. “Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected the idea of a debate on Canada’s presence in Afghanistan and said any attempt to pull them back would be a betrayal.” Harper said it wasn’t right to run at the first signs of trouble.”…I expect Canadians to support those troops,” he said.
Harper went to Afghanistan on an unannounced visit. He toured a military operations centre and spent the night at Canada’s main base. “There will be some who want to cut and run, but cutting and running is not my way and it’s not the Canadian way,” he told about 1,000 troops at the Kandahar airfield.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay made a surprise visit to Canadian troops in Afghanistan that May, after recent polls suggested support among the Canadian public dropped below 50 per cent. MacKay met with Canadian soldiers and Afghan leaders to reaffirm Canada’s commitment to the mission. Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan captured 10 suspected Taliban fighters that same month. Based on a tip that a group was hiding in a compound, soldiers moved in, but didn’t fire a single shot. The suspects were handed over to Afghan national police. After a six-hour debate, members of Parliament voted to approve a two-year extension of Canada’s military mission to Afghanistan.
That summer, Coalition and Afghan forces killed at least 19 Taliban militants during an insurgent attack on a police headquarters in the Helmand provincial town of Nawzad, in southern Afghanistan. Two planeloads of Canadian soldiers, mostly from Manitoba and Ontario, landed in Kandahar, the first wave of replacements for soldiers who had served in the region since February. About 2,000 replacement soldiers were expected to arrive in total.
In September, Ottawa pledged to send between 200 and 500 additional troops and a squadron of Leopard tanks to Afghanistan. The Department of National Defence called the extra soldiers and equipment “a necessary response to the Taliban.”
Afghan president Hamid Karzai spoke to MPs and Senators in Ottawa during a state visit to Canada. He said Canada’s presence in Afghanistan “is a must.”
Canadian troops and Afghan police killed 22 suspected Taliban militants in Zhari district in Kandahar province two months later.
“For six months ending in November 2006, Canada held the command of one of the main military forces in the area called Multi National Brigade for Command South,” reports the CBC. It was then that Operation Medusa, a major offensive against insurgents in Kandahar province, was launched. Violence increased and did the numbers of the dead. Come January 2008, the Canadian military death toll was at 77.
In October 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for an independent panel to analyze the situation in Afghanistan and assist with a future plan. Former Liberal deputy Prime Minister John Manley was chosen to head this group.
THE FUTURE OF CANADIANS
John Manley’s report was released in January 2008. The report recommended that Canada’s military should remain in Afghanistan longer than February 2009, on two conditions:
1) An additional battle group of about 1,000 soldiers be assigned to Kandahar by NATO and/or other allies before February 2009.
2) The government secure new, medium-lift helicopters and high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance before that date.
According to icasualites.org, Canada sits with 97 soldiers killed, compared to the USA’s 626 and the UK’s 122. One can only hope that the numbers stay as low as possible until the men and women of our proud country come home. Whether you understand this war or not Dear Readers, let us all take a moment to thank those Mothers and Fathers, sons and daughters who are and have risked their lives to make peace and build stability. IT!
OTHER READINGS
*With files from cbc.ca “IN DEPTH: AFGHANISTAN – Timeline of Canada’s Involvement” http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/timeline.html
*Also “IN DEPTH: AFGHANISTAN – Canada in Afghanistan
What the Mission is, and Where it Might Go Next”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/canada.html
*http://icasualties.org/OEF/ByNationality.aspx
KARLI VEZINA has been writing TWW’s oldest column for close to two years. Livewire covers a variety of topics from Karli’s personal experiences in South Korea to important world issues that really matter to the modern-day traveler.
Copyright © 2010 · Open Reel Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved ·
