MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – October 10, 2012
- Afghanistan (1) One academic’s take on why not much was said (other than by the Taliban) about the 11th anniversary of the “invasion” “…. eleven years is a long time. It is longer than two world wars combined (especially the US’s shorter involvements in those conflicts), but it is not as long as the American effort in Vietnam. More importantly, these comparisons are both instructive and confusing. They are confusing because the US has committed far less of its attention, its military capability, and everything else to Afghanistan. US forces briefly peaked at something over 100,000. The US had five times that in Vietnam ….”
- Afghanistan (2) “Kandahar: The Fighting Season - An exhibition of photographs by Louie Palu,courtesy Kinsman Robinson Galleries, presented by the Canadian War Museum – From 2005 to 2011, Canadian soldiers were deployed to Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. There they engaged in heavy combat with insurgents as part of an international effort to support the government of Afghanistan. Award-winning Canadian photographer Louie Palu accompanied soldiers in the most dangerous districts of Kandahar. He captured their world of firefights and exhausting patrols in an unforgiving landscape ….”
- Afghanistan (3) Meanwhile, higher up on the food chain…. “NATO is set to endorse a plan for the alliance’s post-combat mission in Afghanistan, where after 2014 a residual coalition force will remain as part of an effort to bolster the capacity of Afghan security forces, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday. “This new mission will not be a combat mission,” Rasmussen said during opening remarks of a meeting with NATO defense ministers. “Planning for that mission is well under way. “We will endorse the broad framework for that mission today.” At the same time, coalition forces will continue to draw down, though Rasmussen said that does not mean allies are heading for an early exit ….”
- Pakistan “Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird …. issued the following statement: “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of gunmen in Pakistan who shot a 14-year-old girl for speaking out against the Taliban and in favour of girls’ right to an education. On behalf of all Canadians, I extend our thoughts and prayers to her and to others who were injured in the shooting. Our shared humanity requires those who cherish freedom to speak clearly and with one voice: this type of savage violence and repression will not be tolerated ….” – more on the incident here.
- Safe sailing and flying, all “More than 1,000 personnel from Canada and the United States will be participating in a Task Group Exercise (TGEX) from October 9 to 22 off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. TGEX’s are designed to build and strengthen interoperability and effectiveness between Canada’s three military services and our allies. “Canadians and Americans share many values and interests in security and emergency preparedness. Exercising together ensures our forces are able to operate effectively when called upon,” said Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence. “Task Group Exercises strengthen Canada’s ability to work in a multi-national and joint environment on a wide range of potential operations and missions,” said Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison, Commander Royal Canadian Navy. Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Ottawa, Algonquin and Victoria will meet at sea with United States Ships Ford, Momsen and Yukon. The ships will be joined by a CH-124 Sea King helicopter detachment from 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron, and a CP-140 Aurora Long Range Patrol Aircraft from 407 Maritime Patrol Squadron ….”
- “Harper Government to Make Important Announcement About Financial Benefits for Veterans” today at CFB Valcartier and at an armoury in Ottawa.
- What the Vets ‘Budman did during a recent Toronto-area visit – soon to be headed to New Brunswick and Montreal.
- “A Petawawa soldier admitted Tuesday he sexually assaulted two women at the base over two years ago. In the two brazen attacks, Cpl. Christopher Chaulk entered a private married quarter (PMQ) and pulled his helpless victim from her bed, while grabbing another as she walked down a wooded pathway, a Pembroke superior court heard. The 28-year-old member of the Canadian Forces pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm, two counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count each of sexual assault, robbery, break and enter, unlawfully in a dwelling house and being masked while committing an indictable offence …. Cpl. Chaulk has been in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre since his arrest. Sentencing has been adjourned until Dec. 10.” You can read a bit more of the backstory here (via Milnet.ca).
- Way Up North “The scientist responsible for preparing Russia’s claim to seabed rights at the top of the world says Canada and his country are both poised to reap staggering economic benefits when a deal on who owns title to what in the northern ocean is finally struck. “Canada has a wonderful shelf and basin, so of course Canada can get very rich from this,” said Victor Posyolov, deputy director of Russia’s Institute of World Ocean Geology and the head of its Arctic research program. Poring over maps tracking the evidence that he is amassing for Russia’s claim, Posyolov estimated that his country, with the longest Arctic coastline, would gain rights to about 1.2 million square kilometres of seabed. He reckoned Canada would get about 800,000 square kilometres of sub-surface territory. That would be about twice as much seabed as the other claimants, Denmark and the United States, are likely to get. “The biggest shelves and basins are in Canadian waters and it will benefit the most. The U.S. and Denmark have modest sectors,” Posyolov said in a room dominated by a circumpolar map that Canada and Russia jointly produced in 1992 ….”
- Syria “Thwaiba Kanafani shuffles around her cozy east Toronto apartment, daughter Gazal trailing at her side, pulling at her pink and white fleece: “Mama, Mama,” she calls. The three-year-old girl clamours briefly into her mother’s arms, then settles at a toddler-sized plastic table to play with beads. Her daughter is too young to understand what Ms. Kanafani had been up to, but her seven-year-old son Omar does. “My son loves it. He understands,” she says. “Me and his father say that I’m going to go help other kids. So he loves that, he loves that mommy is helping other kids.” Up until three weeks ago, the 42-year-old engineer and mother of two was an active member of the Free Syrian Army, scoping potential targets in Syria, sleeping on the concrete floor of rebel bunkers, or co-ordinating rebel activities in nearby Turkey ….” – more on her backstory from the past summer – including how she says Syrian rebels told her they didn’t need women’s advice – at bullet eight here, and more on Syrians in Canada being asked to get into the fight here.
- Iran One Canadian think tank intern’s take “…. Why do so many people insist on making large-scale policy decisions about Iran, using ultra-specific intelligence findings that we have no sure way of verifying in advance? Given the U.S.’s history of nuclear intelligence failure, it is not inconceivable that Iran could obtain a bomb before Western intelligence indicates that it will. The implications of that reality are uncomfortable. Should we forgo the potentially important influence of intelligence on this, and some other security decisions? Should the West make a decision about whether or not Iran can work towards a nuclear bomb at all, based solely on principle, and act accordingly with a military strike or even harsher economic sanctions? The answers to such questions are up for debate, but one thing seems certain: It is in the interests of public accountability and good policy for political commentators to question the reliability of both U.S. and Israeli intelligence on Iran.”
- “Canada’s business deal with communist China makes Bob Dechert’s flirtatious e-mail exchanges with a female “Spy” and Canadian Border Services’ people partying with pro “agents” seem entry level. While the United States of America considers Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei a “serious threat” to “national security,” the corporation thrives in its Markham headquarters. One country’s security risk is another’s opportunity. “If I were an American company today, and I’ll tell you this as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers’ privacy, and you care about the national security of the United States of America,” Congressman Mike Rogers told 60 Minutes’s Steve Kroft Sunday. And a bi-partisan report released Monday urges America not to deal with Huawei, charging its roots — steeped in Red China’s militaristic past — cannot be trusted since “China has the means, opportunity, and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes.” It’s an American election-time shocker but Canada doesn’t appear concerned. And Ontario has invested $6.5-million in taxpayer grant money into the company ….”
