Avoiding 'the big, bad Americans'
Afghanistan mission: Canadians to be housed elsewhere in Kandahar
Chris Wattie
National Post
Monday, April 25, 2005
Hundreds of Canadian soldiers preparing to deploy to restive southern Afghanistan this summer will likely be housed at a significant distance from a large, well-protected U.S. base ''for reasons of optics,'' military sources say.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they told the National Post the Canadians, part of a provincial reconstruction team bound for the southern city of Kandahar, have been told to establish their main base separately from a heavily fortified U.S. base at the city's airport.
''It's for reasons of optics -- political optics,'' said one senior officer. ''We don't want to be associated with the big, bad Americans ... so we're setting up shop somewhere else.''
The military has been told to base the Canadian mission in downtown Kandahar, not on the U.S. base on the outskirts of the ancient city. The American base is home to Task Force Bronco, a coalition force that is still hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts in Afghanistan's rugged hill country.
Gordon O'Connor, the Conservative defence critic and former general, said the Canadian team would still be operating under the U.S.-led task force and that setting up a separate base is not likely to fool anyone.
"They certainly aren't going to be able to hide the fact that we're allies of the Americans," he said. "And [a separate base] is certainly going to cost us more in terms of providing our own security and logistics."
He said adding a Canadian compound to the U.S. facility would be cheaper and probably safer. "They're balancing off the risks, I suppose ... but it's going to definitely be more expensive."
By late August, as many as 1,000 Canadian soldiers could be sent to create a provincial reconstruction team, or PRT, in Kandahar, the capital of the southernmost Afghan province and birthplace of the Taliban.
Two Canadian Forces reconnaissance teams have already scouted out the region, looking for potential sites for the mission's base and possible projects for its military aid operations.
A third, more detailed reconnaissance team of about 20 officers is leaving for Afghanistan next week to put the final details on the proposed mission, which could involve anywhere from 200 to 1,000 Canadian soldiers, combat engineers or support staff.
Military sources said some troops based in Ontario have been notified they could be on their way to Afghanistan this summer and have even begun training for the mission. But Captain Darren Steele, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces, said the operation is still in the planning stages.
"The government of Canada has not taken a decision on this yet," he said from National Defence headquarters in Ottawa. "But planning and preparation has to proceed -- you can't go into something like this from a cold start."
However, he said the exact number, composition and location of the Canadian team has not been finalized. "The numbers are very fluid at this point."
Howard Marsh, an analyst for the Conference of Defence Associations, said the order to base the Canadian mission apart from the Americans might have been supported by the generals for military reasons.
"There's a political dimension to that decision certainly, but there's also a military dimension," he said. "If you're too close to the Americans ... it can distance you from the locals, which cuts you off from the intelligence and all the relationships you are trying to develop with them."
Lewis MacKenzie, a retired army major general who now works as a defence analyst, said the Kandahar mission was the wrong choice: He believes Canadian soldiers should be out helping U.S.-led forces hunt down the last remnants of the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.
"The constabulary work in Afghanistan should've been shut down a long time ago," he said. "Canada should be with its allies, fighting the terrorists up in the hills."
Bill Graham, the Defence Minister, speculated last February that in addition to the PRT Canada could send a battle group -- between 700 and 1,200 troops -- to the Kandahar region early next year to join Task Force Bronco in combat operations.
A spokesman for the Minister said such a combat force is still one of the options under consideration.
The Canadian PRT in Kandahar will be only the latest of several such military-protected aid teams aimed at boosting stability in the Afghan countryside with projects such as building schools and clinics. Other nations, including New Zealand, Italy and the United States, have set up similar teams across western and southern Afghanistan.
But outside the major cities, the security situation remains tenuous at best.
Last Monday, Taliban rebels detonated a bomb next to a fuel tanker outside the U.S. base in Kandahar, setting off a chain of explosions that destroyed five tankers and injured three drivers.
In the past two months, Taliban fighters launched attacks in the region that left 19 dead, including 10 rebels killed by U.S. troops.
And in Kandahar, a U.S. soldier was wounded by gunfire last February while investigating a roadside bomb.
© National Post 2005
