Canadians in Afghanistan six times more likely to die than Americans in Iraq

[SlowwHand]

Oerdin, give up. They have grasps on things you don't even want to know about.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
No, they aren't. And I'm glad for the air support. I'm also much more understanding of the latest friendly-fire incident than the first one. In this case, there was enemy about. The pilot simply mistook one group for the other. The first incident was completely unacceptable.

When American pilots have been responsible for 25% of Canadian deaths, then there is a problem. When the U.S. Air Force refuses to do a complete analysis of the first incident, and refuses to have an open debate on the effects of pilots using uppers, then that is a problem.

The most recent case is more disturbing because once again, it seems like the American pilots were not aware of the Canadians on the ground. This suggests that there is a massive command control communication problem between the NNATO forces. Until that problem is solved, the Canadians would be better off relying on themselves.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Operation Medusa was largely a matter of spotters calling in the Artty and US/British fly boys to blow the hell out of anything in front of us that shows the slightest inclination to opposition.

Ah, no. The operation involved massive firefights on the ground. Our troops were the ones inflicting heavy damage, thanks to their training.

And you overlooked the major problem with 3c.

Originally posted by notyoueither
Yup, and our armed forces and governments asked to be in that hot zone.

No. When the decision was made to put the Forces in the southern region, we did not know that the Taliban would launch a major offensive in the region this summer. We knew it was an active region, but no one on the NATO side suspected that it would be this intense. This is why NATO is now moving more troops into the region.

[Dis]

Which begs the question.

When will it all end?

Can there be a resolution to Afghanistan? I don't see it.

The only reason to be there is to prevent terrorist training camps from popping up. But it seems like a lot of effort for little reward.

Couldn't we just bomb the **** out of the training camps when they pop up? I know this would require good intelligence, something the western countries cannot seem to accomplish. And I'm talking about massive air strikes, not that little baby bomb Clinton sent over in the 90's.

And yes there is the responsibility to the afghan people. But we can't fix every ****ed up country in the world.

[Tingkai]

Why does the international community have a responsibility to the Afghan people, particularly when the major industry in Afghanistan is growing opium?

And how do we bring peace to a country where violent retaliation and clan warfare is part of the culture?

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm glad most Canadians are nothing like Tingkai.

[Asher]

The NDP are, and they're a scary bunch.

The local NDP candidate here (for a provincial election) was telling me (at the subway station) how she'd vote for rent controls. I asked her if she was familiar with Vancouver's amazing experiment with rent controls and she said "Yes, but ours is different". She doesn't understand basic supply/demand and still wants to write laws. Amazing.

[SlowwHand]

We're not going to bring peace to them. When we leave, it will regress to the same as it's always been.

[Tingkai]

And working for an American newspaper, I know that most Americans are a lot more intelligent than Drake. Then again, most people throughout the world are a lot more intelligent than Drake.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Asher
The NDP are, and they're a scary bunch.

The local NDP candidate here (for a provincial election) was telling me (at the subway station) how she'd vote for rent controls. I asked her if she was familiar with Vancouver's amazing experiment with rent controls and she said "Yes, but ours is different". She doesn't understand basic supply/demand and still wants to write laws. Amazing.

Before you stick your foot in your mouth, you should learn about how rent control once operated in Ontario and how it was different from what was used in B.C.

[Tingkai]

nm

[SlowwHand]

Are you manic?

[Tingkai]

Nah, I just assumed you were making a stupid point and misread your post. Just jetlag.

[Dinner]

Back to the original topic. My understanding is that the Canadian military commanders wanted a tough assignment to prove the capabilities of the Canadian military while the civilian government, to its credit, simply followed the advice of its military commanders. That took balls both for the military leadership to conceive of this plan and for the politicians to let the military do what it thought needed to be done. Thus Canada now controls the heart of the Pashtun region where the Taliban originated and where people like Mullah Omar came from.

Further more the Canadian soldiers most certainly are working over time since they're covering an area which the Americans used to cover with more troops and the Canadian military commanders are launching offensives and attacking enemy strong points which the Americans just kind of left alone (falsely believing they didn't matter since if they got to uppity then they could just bomb the hell out of them and mop them up with the air cav). The Canadians are likely running more missions on a monthly basis yet doing it with fewer troops. Those guys must hardly get any rest.

I understand the Canadian military is chomping at the bit to get some real action though. They haven't officially been in a war since Korea and it is frustrating to continually train for a big event which never comes. What ever happens those guys do have bravado.

[Tingkai]

The Canadians moved into the Kandahar region several years ago (remember the first friendly fire incident). They were initially part of the U.S.-led coalition and then became part of the NATO task force.

To say that the Canadians were looking for a fight is incorrect.

The Canadian military ethos is that we will fight when we have to, and when we do, we'll fight like hell, but we prefer not to, thank you very much.