MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 5 Dec 10

• Remember Captain Trevor Greene, who overcame pretty long odds after an Afghan youth planted an axe in his head at a shura in 2006? Kudos to CTV News for letting Trevor share his story in his own words here.  More on his story from Canada’s Afghanistan page here.
• Ottawa Citizen Defence Watch’s David Pugliese raises an interesting question about using uniformed CF members as backdrops:  “the Conservative government has been under fire from veterans, not happy with the charter. Blackburn held a press conference to announce that some changes would be made. Behind him were uniformed members of the Canadian Forces. But some Defence Watch readers have raised the point that when former Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran wanted to have injured serving vets at his press conference to highlight how their lives were changed by their injuries, CDS Gen. Walter Natynczyk refused his request. NDHQ officials say the refusal was based on the fact that the press conference was getting into the political area …. some Defence Watch readers have raised the question about why serving Canadian Forces members are told to stand behind the minister during what was an overt political announcement. kind of like political window-dressing. Why this one and why not Stogran’s press conference?” they ask. Isn’t the Canadian Forces supposed to be “apolitical” they wonder. Or is the situation different when the government is making the announcement?….”
• Canada’s government seems to be relying more and more on the private sector to do government stuff, including military security. Other things the private sector is doing for the military include training drivers, running bulk fuel storage facilities, teaching high-altitude-high-opening parachuting, and running/maintaining facilities in the high Arctic.
• Ottawa’s picked a contractor to do a swack of infrastructure work at CFB Esquimalt:  “…. Canada announced that Preview Builders International Inc. of Chilliwack, British Columbia has been awarded a construction contract that it is estimated to create 100 jobs in and around the local community. The contract for the construction of the new base fire hall and emergency response centre is valued at $18.5 million …. It is anticipated that construction work could be complete by spring, 2012 ….” Here’s what was announced in September for Esquimalt, with more details here and here.
• Some recent Canadian military research – “NATO Transformation and Operational Support in the Canadian Forces,“ Part 1 and Part 2 (both PDF):  “Although a degree of political and economic uncertainty prevails at the time of writing, one can expect that the (NATO) Strategic Concept coupled with some difficult budgetary decisions in allied capitals with lend clarity to the Alliance’s grand transformation project, and illuminate the challenges and opportunities that await the Canadian Forces and its operational support practitioners. The issues raised herein should be explored further in the wake of the upcoming NATO summit.“ Plain English?  As NATO’s plans to reorganize/transform become clearer, we should look at how the CF should change, too.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch: Taliban claims “America was instigated into attacking Afghanistan by other regional powers, and Americas presence in the country served their interests more than it served America’s interests”