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SOURCE: BY GARTH PRITCHARD
THE FINEST SIDE OF CANADA A VETERAN OBSERVER OF MILITARY MISSIONS ABROAD HAS NO DOUBT OUR SOLDIERS ARE OUR BEST EMISSARIES
I've just returned from Kandahar, where I was documenting the arrival of 250 Canadian soldiers who are part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to rebuild this area of Afghanistan.
They will be followed by some 1,200 Canadians now based in Kabul who'll be assigned to pacify volatile "enemy" regions to the south -- the "hunt-and-kill" guys.
Compared to their work in the capital of Kabul, Kandahar is the front line and potentially far more lethal, as it is here that the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida are more numerous and more daring.
Mark it down as unabashed nationalism if you will, yet as one who was in Kabul for the presidential election last October -- and before that with the Princess Pats in the Kandahar region when the Americans mistakenly bombed the Pats, wounding eight and killing four -- a huge reason for the success in democracy enjoyed by Afghanistan belongs to the Canadians.
REMARKABLY PEACEFUL
It was the same with the recent parliamentary elections in Kandahar, which, contrary to the expectations of various "experts," were remarkably peaceful and even joyful as Afghans came in droves to participate in their first taste of democracy.
Again, my pride in our Canadian soldiers is almost sublime. For example, unlike the Americans and others, our patrols in Kandahar go among the people, mix with them in the markets, talk to them and help them. Each patrol has scores of kids following them, laughing and joking.
Admittedly, the Americans are doing the heavy fighting in the hills in an effort to snuff out pockets of al-Qaida extremists and hopeful to one day nail Osama bin Laden.
But in Kandahar they don't mix with the people and are ever poised for violence.
I think the Americans and others are learning from the Canadians, who have decades of <peacekeeping> experience. Our soldiers always get involved with the people on foreign missions.
I've covered more of our military missions in the last dozen years than any journalist and have produced TV documentaries in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and Afghanistan. In every one, our troops have been effective humanitarians as well as conventional soldiers.
Let me cite one example in Kandahar. At the Canadian camp in Kandahar a while back, some locals came to the front gate wheeling a horribly burned child in a wheelbarrow -- a boy, maybe 5 years old.
They asked for help. They had no other recourse. The local hospital wouldn't take the child -- it had no drugs, no medicines, no way of treating burns. There was nothing they could do.
The American hospital wouldn't take the boy because he wasn't a casualty of war -- a gas stove in his home had blown up, burning the boy from the waist down and injuring his younger sister even worse.
These people -- we assumed they were relatives -- were appealing to the Canadians as a last resort, knowing our soldiers always try to help.
AGREED NOT TO SEE
To cut a long, unhappy story short, a patrol under Sgt.- Maj. Billy Boland and with medical assistant Warrant Officer Shawn Best, gathered what medication they could find and took the boy to his home, which was relatively close.
For the next few days, with no formal authority but with the higher command apparently agreeing not to see, a patrol went out with what medications they could scrounge in the way of salves, pain killers and dressings, to visit the boy and do what they could for him.
Of course, I went along with my camera. It wasn't easy for any of us. The house was a hovel, flies everywhere. Remove the sheet on the boy and the flies landed. We felt helpless.
These were tough infantry soldiers, many who are on their second tour. But we all felt personally involved -- especially on the second day, when the little girl died. They buried her in their backyard.
I think we all knew the boy's case was hopeless. Yet we all did what we could. Everyone in camp knew about it; everyone hoped against hope.
Sgt.-Maj Boland asked the boy what he wanted most. The lad said, through an interpreter, "a red and white football." I think we all knew he would never get to see it. Yet Boland phoned his wife in Canada to buy and send one.
A couple of days later the boy died. I guess all we did was ease the pain with medications, but it was as if one of our own had died.
When the red and white football arrived, Sgt.-Maj. Boland gave it to the kid's brothers. Maybe they'll remember him through it. We didn't even know his name.
But the boys' neighbours and the people in the district know that Canadian soldiers did what they could to help.
I still get choked up thinking of the boy. But you know, there are stories like this wherever Canadian solders are in the field.
They are our best emissaries, our best diplomats, social workers, humanitarians.
IGNORED BY MEDIA
Yet our media ignore their work -- especially the CBC, our self-proclaimed "public broadcaster," which seems only to honour our soldiers when they are accidentally killed by Americans. The print media aren't much better.
Our soldiers are most appreciated not by their country, but by the people they serve in foreign lands.
Garth Pritchard's TV documentaries are about the only existing record of the work Canada's soldiers do. All have won prestigious awards -- when he can find a TV channel that will air them.
THE FINEST SIDE OF CANADA A VETERAN OBSERVER OF MILITARY MISSIONS ABROAD HAS NO DOUBT OUR SOLDIERS ARE OUR BEST EMISSARIES
I've just returned from Kandahar, where I was documenting the arrival of 250 Canadian soldiers who are part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to rebuild this area of Afghanistan.
They will be followed by some 1,200 Canadians now based in Kabul who'll be assigned to pacify volatile "enemy" regions to the south -- the "hunt-and-kill" guys.
Compared to their work in the capital of Kabul, Kandahar is the front line and potentially far more lethal, as it is here that the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida are more numerous and more daring.
Mark it down as unabashed nationalism if you will, yet as one who was in Kabul for the presidential election last October -- and before that with the Princess Pats in the Kandahar region when the Americans mistakenly bombed the Pats, wounding eight and killing four -- a huge reason for the success in democracy enjoyed by Afghanistan belongs to the Canadians.
REMARKABLY PEACEFUL
It was the same with the recent parliamentary elections in Kandahar, which, contrary to the expectations of various "experts," were remarkably peaceful and even joyful as Afghans came in droves to participate in their first taste of democracy.
Again, my pride in our Canadian soldiers is almost sublime. For example, unlike the Americans and others, our patrols in Kandahar go among the people, mix with them in the markets, talk to them and help them. Each patrol has scores of kids following them, laughing and joking.
Admittedly, the Americans are doing the heavy fighting in the hills in an effort to snuff out pockets of al-Qaida extremists and hopeful to one day nail Osama bin Laden.
But in Kandahar they don't mix with the people and are ever poised for violence.
I think the Americans and others are learning from the Canadians, who have decades of <peacekeeping> experience. Our soldiers always get involved with the people on foreign missions.
I've covered more of our military missions in the last dozen years than any journalist and have produced TV documentaries in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and Afghanistan. In every one, our troops have been effective humanitarians as well as conventional soldiers.
Let me cite one example in Kandahar. At the Canadian camp in Kandahar a while back, some locals came to the front gate wheeling a horribly burned child in a wheelbarrow -- a boy, maybe 5 years old.
They asked for help. They had no other recourse. The local hospital wouldn't take the child -- it had no drugs, no medicines, no way of treating burns. There was nothing they could do.
The American hospital wouldn't take the boy because he wasn't a casualty of war -- a gas stove in his home had blown up, burning the boy from the waist down and injuring his younger sister even worse.
These people -- we assumed they were relatives -- were appealing to the Canadians as a last resort, knowing our soldiers always try to help.
AGREED NOT TO SEE
To cut a long, unhappy story short, a patrol under Sgt.- Maj. Billy Boland and with medical assistant Warrant Officer Shawn Best, gathered what medication they could find and took the boy to his home, which was relatively close.
For the next few days, with no formal authority but with the higher command apparently agreeing not to see, a patrol went out with what medications they could scrounge in the way of salves, pain killers and dressings, to visit the boy and do what they could for him.
Of course, I went along with my camera. It wasn't easy for any of us. The house was a hovel, flies everywhere. Remove the sheet on the boy and the flies landed. We felt helpless.
These were tough infantry soldiers, many who are on their second tour. But we all felt personally involved -- especially on the second day, when the little girl died. They buried her in their backyard.
I think we all knew the boy's case was hopeless. Yet we all did what we could. Everyone in camp knew about it; everyone hoped against hope.
Sgt.-Maj Boland asked the boy what he wanted most. The lad said, through an interpreter, "a red and white football." I think we all knew he would never get to see it. Yet Boland phoned his wife in Canada to buy and send one.
A couple of days later the boy died. I guess all we did was ease the pain with medications, but it was as if one of our own had died.
When the red and white football arrived, Sgt.-Maj. Boland gave it to the kid's brothers. Maybe they'll remember him through it. We didn't even know his name.
But the boys' neighbours and the people in the district know that Canadian soldiers did what they could to help.
I still get choked up thinking of the boy. But you know, there are stories like this wherever Canadian solders are in the field.
They are our best emissaries, our best diplomats, social workers, humanitarians.
IGNORED BY MEDIA
Yet our media ignore their work -- especially the CBC, our self-proclaimed "public broadcaster," which seems only to honour our soldiers when they are accidentally killed by Americans. The print media aren't much better.
Our soldiers are most appreciated not by their country, but by the people they serve in foreign lands.
Garth Pritchard's TV documentaries are about the only existing record of the work Canada's soldiers do. All have won prestigious awards -- when he can find a TV channel that will air them.
