Posted on 08/13/2004 7:17:39 AM PDT by NorthOf45
Major embarrassment - Canadian soldiers frustrated at having to abandon Afghan trainees due to delay on Ottawa's part
By Stephen Thorne / The Canadian Press The Halifax Herald Limited Friday, August 13, 2004
KABUL - In what they see as a blow to their credibility in Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers have to abandon the Afghan army battalion they trained for more than seven months, just as it deploys, because of a delay in Ottawa.
Soldiers from Valcartier, Que., and, more recently, Edmonton have been nurturing bonds with the 4th Kandak, or battalion, of the Afghan National Army since last winter.
They were to accompany their trainees on their first two-month deployment but had to inform them on Thursday - the day they were supposed to leave on a reconnaissance mission - that American troops would be going instead.
"The past three or four days have probably been the most embarrassing I've ever had in my career," a veteran member of the Canadian embedded training team told The Canadian Press. "Our vehicle was packed and ready to go.
"Trust is now gone," said the soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Americans are pissed off. The ANA guys were ecstatic that Canada was going with them; you could see it in their faces. Now they're crushed.
"There is serious disappointment. These guys work off of respect, honour, loyalty and we're turning around and saying 'We don't respect you, we're no longer loyal.' A black mark is an understatement."
Defence Minister Bill Graham was expected to sign an agreement last week committing Canadian army trainers to Afghanistan through 2008, the first long-term undertaking Ottawa has made to the war-ravaged country.
The deal would also permit the Canadians to leave the NATO operations area around Kabul on extended deployments with their trainees.
However, officials in the Prime Minister's Office and in the office of the deputy chief of defence staff have delayed the signing, forcing the 16-member training team to adopt a new battalion that will remain in Kabul through Afghanistan's Oct. 9 presidential election.
Ironically, Kabul is expected to be more dangerous than the region to which they were to have deployed, soldiers said.
After the reconnaissance mission, members of Edmonton's 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were expecting to move with their trainees by Sunday. However, the battalion the Canadians have been training since last winter was turned over to a U.S. officer Thursday.
It is at least the fourth time since last September that Canadians have been forced to abandon their trainees before a deployment, frustrating the Americans, who are in charge of the program, and forcing them - in this case at least - to make last-minute plans.
The sergeant-major of the 4th Kandak, Asadullah Barkzai, was disappointed at the news, delivered by the new embedded training team commander, Maj. Brian Hynes of Comox, B.C., Thursday morning.
"It is very bad news for us," said Barkzai. "They trained us very well and we would like to stay with them. Unfortunately, the Canadian government won't allow them to stay with us.
"It hurt a lot. We were a team. We didn't think of them like Canadians and we are Afghan. We were one, working as a team. It is very hard for us that they are leaving."
"There are obviously requests for Canadians to assist in training all over," said the new Canadian contingent commander, Col. Jim Ellis. "The senior leadership of the military and the government are looking at that. They have all the paperwork right now.
"We should hear one way or the other later on. However, it doesn't mean our commitment to the forces here in town is going to change. It's a bit tough for our guys because they've taken their troops to this point."
Small groups of Canadian soldiers have been embedded with Afghan and U.S. troops since last fall, training two battalions. Several Canadian-trained ANA units have since been involved in heavy fighting south of Kabul.
"The whole team was very frustrated" by previous roadblocks to missions with the trainees, Maj. Sylvain Rheaume, the Quebec-based officer who commanded the training group for six months, said last week.
"We have trained these soldiers to do a job and when it was time to do the real stuff, we were not allowed to be with them. We developed a really good relationship and trust and it was very, very difficult to let them go."
The long-awaited deal with the U.S. military and Afghan government would "repackage and redefine a whole new mandate custom-made for this work," Col. Alain Tremblay, Ellis's predecessor, said July 27.
Tremblay said training a national army and breaking the 1,400-year dominance of Afghanistan's warlord culture is probably the most critical element of the country's reconstruction.
"No central government will be able to survive in such an environment without the proper institutions - the judicial, the military," he said.
"It took us six to eight months to . . . convince Ottawa of the strategic value and return investment of getting into that initiative."
Until now, Canada's role in the U.S.-led training program has been ad hoc, based solely on Ottawa's relatively short-term commitments to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.
However, the program, which aims to train the first 70,000 ANA troops, is independent from NATO and its Canadian Operation Athena. Called Operation Archer, it is only the second time Canada has been involved in large-scale training of a foreign military force; Sierra Leone was the other.
"It's not a short-term commitment," Tremblay said. "It takes a long time to bring them to a proper and decent level of efficiency as a modern military force.
"You cannot think that you can be playing at this on a six-month to six-month basis. It cannot work that way."
Just under 15,000 soldiers are so far enrolled with the Afghan National Army, which is slowly shoring up its numbers as the country's disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program retires regional militias.
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, you can criticize our lib government all you want. However, our military does an excellent job with what they are given.
yup, Political Correctness F~cks up good people again.
Canada has a military? What for? Their butts are protected by that neighbor to the south.
All Canada needs is a one-man army consisting of one man in a jeep who is fluent in French and English who has a rifle he can't fire. So he may not be good at defending the country but he projects a sound multi-cultural image. Priorities matter - Canada will have the best politically correct military in the world.
Yet more good news from our brilliant Masters in Ottawa.
I guess this is what sensitive war-fighting looks like.
You gotta do better than that ... rookie. ;)
If the libs had THEIR way.
Do you see what we have to put up with. Best of luck to Bush in Nov.
You just nailed it.
Agree ... Canadian military may be small but is very professional. Government functionaries in Ottawa need to stop taking their lead from the totally incompetent gang that infest the U.N. in New York.
Back off with the Canadian troop bashing, people. I served along-side Canadian units - they are good to go.
Its their government thats screwed.
Semper Fidelis
It follows the lib mantra of "Canadian soldiers are peacekeepers". What a crock.
LOL...pot, meet kettle.
The Canadian Military has been a huge help with the conflict in Afghanistan since October 2001. It is a shame their leftist govt continues to do whatever they can to discredit their own military.
Thank God at least that Canada still has Men willing and able to go into Harms way to protect the lives and freedoms of others.
Now ya'll just need to get those boys home and go clean out the REAL enemy.
You're own Govt.
Our people do an outstanding job on whatever task that they are assigned but they get sabotaged at every turn by the Liberals.
This kind of embarrassment is totally undeserved.
"These guys work off of respect, honour, loyalty ..."
This is something our government knows NOTHING about.
Yeah but we have amazing Gay Pride parades (funded by the CDN gov't!) and amazing welfare services. Day care? second to none!! Military support? Third world standards!! That's right Canda has its priorities figured out.
America I am sorry to tell you but we as a nation only give lip service to helping out. We are a small country with a small mindset. I am ashamed of being Canadian!!
NEVER be ashamed of being Canadian. The lib government in NO WAY truly represents what Canada was, is or can be. They are an embarrassment to Canada and an insult to all that is good in this country. I just wish more Canadians would come to realize this.
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