MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 26 Jan 11

• More on Canadian troops starting to pull back behind the wire this summer:  “Canada’s combat commander says his troops will begin to withdraw from Afghanistan by the middle or end of June and be out by the end of July. Lt. Col. Henri-Michel St-Louis told Postmedia News Sunday, Canada’s remaining combat troops in Afghanistan will pull back from “outside the wire” to Kandahar Airfield or to Canada. “I don’t have specific orders but what I have been telling my guys over the last couple of weeks is that we are now concentrating on that window,” said St-Louis ….”
• STILL no confirmation fm Taliban on now willing to educate girls.
• Can one win hearts and minds if they can’t get reliable electricity? “Kandahari cotton workers swore a few choice words of their own this month when U.S.-generated electricity blacked out and the mill’s machines shuddered to a dead stop. When the cussing and shouting subsided, several of the Al-Madina Factory’s skilled staff quit, other workers were laid off, and the owners went back to burning profits on fuel for their own, decrepit Soviet-era generators. Dozens of plants were idled, in a dust-blown industrial park on the city’s outskirts. Few were surprised by the latest episode in the recurring story of one step forward, two steps back, steadily eroding Afghans’ faith in foreign efforts to stabilize and rebuild their country after 30 years of war. Trust is hard to build when, in its 10th year here, a coalition of the world’s biggest military powers still can’t provide reliable electricity to Afghanistan’s second-largest city. Botched attempts only frustrate people more and that can be dangerous in a city where, despite improved security in recent weeks, insurgents’ assassination squads and bombers are still in Kandahar. And in this case, almost 10,000 people have lost their jobs as an ambitious American power plan founders ….”
• In Canada, one is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but if this is proven to have happened, I’m happy to see a hardcore punishment here:  “A Canadian soldier is facing charges of inappropriate behaviour after performing medical exams on female recruits. The Canadian Forces says Sgt. Christian Boudreau has been charged with five counts of breach of trust and five counts of behaving in a disgraceful manner. The military alleges the incidents took place while he was examining women at recruitment centres in Montreal and Rouyn-Noranda, Que. It says Boudreau is no longer conducting medical exams on recruits. The Canadian Forces have reassigned Boudreau to administrative duties at CFB St-Jean until the end of his case.” More from the Montreal Gazette here, and from the CF National Investigative Service here.
• “It’s time the better instincts of Canadians were pursued, and Canada sat down to negotiate Arctic disputes“
• Big $ announcements for new radar (for Cold Lake, Bagotville), new equipment for the Air Force, and a sewer upgrade for 17 Wing Winnipeg.  More from mainstream media here, here and here.
• While in Winnipeg, Canada’s Defence Minister also assured Manitobans that if the CF’s needed this coming flood season, it’ll be there to help. And if you believe the predictions, it’s likely to be needed.
• F-35 Tug of War:  “Political Squabbling in Canada Over Proposed F-35 Purchase Prompts Eurofighter To Launch PR Campaign for Typhoon“
• Commentary on how do-gooders want Canadian troops deployed all over (often in spite of opposing the mission Afghanistan):  “A “permanent (Cdn) expeditionary force always on a mission overseas”. Good grief.”
• Keeping track of the latest unpleasantness in Tunisia?  It seems some relatives of the outgoing president (some of whom are apparently permanent residents of Canada) flew to Canada on a private jet.  Canadian authorities are now looking into that.  “Canadian immigration authorities are investigating whether the relatives of Tunisia’s deposed president who arrived in Montreal last week are entitled to remain in the country, a department spokeswoman said Monday. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told CBC Sunday that some family members of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have permanent residency status in Canada, allowing them to enter the country freely. His department is now examining whether they have forfeited that status through a prolonged absence from Canada or for any other reason, spokeswoman Mélanie Carkner confirmed. Under Canadian law, permanent residents must live in Canada for at least two years within a five-year period. They lose their status and can be removed from the country if they fail to meet the residency requirement or if they are convicted of a serious crime ….” Also, it now seems that some of Canada’s latest arrivals from Tunisia may now be wanted by authorities back in the old country.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 24 Jan 11

• The “Get Outta Dodge” clock is ticking for Canadian troops outside the wire in Afghanistan. “Canada’s last combat troops in Afghanistan are to begin withdrawing from “outside the wire” between “the middle and end of June” and all of them will be back at Kandahar Airfield or in Canada “by the end of July,” says their commander, Lt.-Col. Henri-Michel St-Louis. “I don’t have specific orders but what I have been telling my guys over the last couple of weeks is that we are now concentrating on that window,” St. Louis, who leads the last of 10 battle groups that have rotated through Kandahar since the spring of 2006, said in an interview Sunday. “Obviously the date that the individual soldier is to go home is foremost on his mind. As the plan is finalized we will be informing the guys.” ….”
• 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron getting ready to head downrange.
• End of Canada’s combat mission =/= end to mental, emotional trauma.  “The combat mission in Kandahar will soon be over for Canadian soldiers, but the legacy of pain and suffering will last a lifetime for thousands of wounded troops. Afghanistan veterans return to Canada to fight a new battle on the home front. Some have lost limbs, skin, hearing or sight. Others are traumatized from witnessing bloodshed or encountering close calls with their own death. Most are grieving fallen friends. Lt.-Col. Rakesh Jetly, adviser to the Canadian Forces surgeon general on mental health and psychiatry, said one of the biggest challenges is helping these troops adjust to “the new normal” — and ensuring they don’t fall off the radar after warfare ends ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Attacks alleged in Kandahar, Uruzgan.
• Next stop for Canadian Forces:  Sudan? “A former Canadian diplomat to Africa said Canada’s next military deployment will likely be in war-torn Sudan. John Schram — who was Canada’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan from 1998 to 2002 — said now that Sudan has completed a referendum, big issues are being raised, and the fractured country will need international support to bring some measure of calm. Those issues include negotiations on frontiers and oil rights and revenues between country’s north and south, a second referendum in the oil-rich Abyei region and the ongoing peacekeeping/peacemaking effort to support the emerging state. The Canadian military’s presence in Afghanistan has prepared it for such a mission, he said. “We’re going to come under pressure from the Americans who have been in the lead all along,” said Schram, who is a senior fellow in international relations at Queen’s University and who spent almost four decades on the Africa file for the federal department of external affairs ….”
• What’s Canada Buying? Wanted:  a $150,000 prefab hangar for Kingston, Jamaica (via Army.ca).
• Wanted:  someone to move a load of RCMP crap.  “…. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has a requirement for the collection of horse manure and wood shavings from the RCMP Musical Ride Stables located at 1 Sandridge Road, Ottawa, Ontario. The Stables holds approximately 96 horses. Collection of waste will be done on an “as-and-when-requested” basis. The Contractor will be responsible for supplying two 20-yard containers to accommodate the waste; collection of the containers; disposal of the waste; cleaning of the containers; and returning the containers to the Stables …. ” Statement of work downloadable here (via Army.ca).  A hat tip to Postmedia News for catching this here.