Posted on 02/25/2006 1:45:32 PM PST by 68skylark
Canada is set to expand its combat role in Afghanistan very soon, and this is generating press in Canada (some of it negative). I like these pictures that show their soldiers doing their job.
Photo: Michael Den Tandt / The Globe and Mail
Private Chad Wiley of the Provincial Reconstruction Team playing a game of hands with one of the younger boys at the orphanage, which is under threat of burning by Taliban insurgents.
Photo: Michael Den Tandt / The Globe and Mail
A group of children at Kandahar's Karzai orphanage.
Photo: Michael Den Tandt / The Globe and Mail
Incoming soldiers of the new Canadian battle group in Kandahar practise with their weapons on the firing range at Kandahar airfield.
Photo: Sgt. Jerry Kean/DND
Captain Kerri-Ann Iwanonkiw talks to some young school students prior to giving them bags of craft supplies.
Photo: Sgt. Jerry Kean/DND
Members of the Afghanistan National Police look at the motorcycles they are about to receive prior to a day's training on the bikes. The American military purchased 17 Honda motorcycles to give to the Afghanistan National Police, while the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team volunteered, through Canadian Soldiers, to provide the ANP with a days training and familiarization on the new bikes.
Canadian soldiers are among the very best in the world, and I think they've gotten a bad deal in the past from their politicians (and their voters). Hopefully that will get better under the new government.
It seems that the liberal press wants to keep up a negative message. For example: Majority opposed to Afghan mission. But their day is fading fast.
Agreed.
Just click the link above for the other shots.
Amen!
ping
God bless our Canadian friends and heartfelt thanks to their military.
one of my first thoughts was, thanks to the US the people in Afghanistan are scared to death of white soldiers. LOLOL these are such great pics. thanks! :)
Or are you saying that the bad guys are scared of us, because they know they'll lose?
sorry, i was being sarcastic, that first pic with the smiling kid...he looks scared to death. lol
They remind me of some photos I like showing the U.S. military. The first shows us helping to provide shoes in Iraq. The other involves school supplies in Afghanistan.
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Lovely smiles all around.
pure terror. poor little children...LOL
Canada Ping!
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Proud Bump
When I put myself in that kid's position, I see him as laughing harder than he has in a long time, seeing the camera, trying to control the happiness, and not doing very well at hiding it.
I laughed with him! Cute kid!
that soldier seems to be enduring the misery well too. lol wonderful pic!!!
Smiles, all around!
:-D
I hope those smiles stay on those faces for the duration, both soldiers and children. The Canadian Army has not been in a real serious shooting campaign for some time (since the Korean War) and I do not think Canadians are prepared for the suffering of their soldiers and loved ones, as we in the USA have been patriotically.We know all too well the personal aspects of sacrifice.
As an aside, I get a laugh out of the name of the Canadian Force, a generic," Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team." The"reconstruction team" only has about 150 personnel:
[http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/cdnunits.html]
" About 80 personnel assigned to Kabul to various civilian and military organizations.
About 2,000 assigned to a battle group at the Kandahar air base, an old airfield built up by the United States after the invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. For the first part of 2006, this will include the headquarters group commanded by Brig. Gen Fraser. ( Note, these are the Princess Patricia Rifles)
About 150 assigned to Camp Nathan Smith, a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) based in the city of Kandahar." The fighting and dying, if necessary, will be done by the 1st Btln. of the Princess Patricia Rifles, a regiment affiliated with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders of Scotland.
If the force had a French Canadian tradition such as the Vingt Deuxieme Regiment of Quebec( Royal 22nd regiment, Van Doos), it's French name would be plastered all over the news instead of the generic" Provincial Reconstruction Force." There are also very few French Canadian family names in the Princess Pats, for a reason: These men and women of the Pats will fight and die ( We pray not!) if necessary and modern French Canadians have very little tradition of bleeding for Canada since the 2nd World War, and then grudgingly. The commanding officer in theater is Brigadier General Fraser, also of Scots ancestry.
I Prefer to call it what it really is: " The Canadian Princess Patricia Rifles Anti-guerrilla Force" Here is a photo of the band of that regiment. May God bless them all and keep them safe! Alba Go Bragh ( Scotland Forever)!
And here is a photo of General Fraser, a tough soldier's soldier, for a tough job:
May God Bless them all and keep them all safe. Next time Canada wants cannon fodder and bomb targets, send the Vingt Deuxieme Regiment from Valcartier , Quebec. Forgive me for pointing out the spin in this article. The majority of the force is made up of the Princess Patricia Rifles, and their regiment, their traditions rooted in Scotland, and their forming the backbone of this force was not mentioned.
Yeah, I agree with you -- that photo is the best of the bunch. (I also like the photo of the female Captain with the school girls. I like it because I think it's good for girls in that part of the world to see a female in the military -- doing "unconventional" things, and not wearing a head scarf either. I hope it will help them to see past the oppression in their society. At my FR home page I have a couple of photos of U.S. troops in Afghanistan that make the same point.)
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