MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 18 Jan 11

• One can hope.  “Hope for the best. Expect the worst. So goes the philosophy of the man leading Canada’s battle group into one of southern Afghanistan’s most treacherous areas, with the spring fighting season just around the corner. A winter of raiding Taliban redoubts for hidden weapons has Lt.-Col. Michel-Henri St-Louis feeling optimistic that the insurgents won’t be able to muster the fierce attacks of years past. “We are hoping,” said St-Louis, who is in charge of the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Regiment combat team, based at CFB Valcartier. “The intent is to have the spike in violence either diminished, lulled or taken away. That will obviously make things better.” “I cannot stand here and say for sure in January that there will be no spike in violence, because the insurgent has a vote, and we will see how he reacts.” ….”
• On how sometimes, capturing bad guys may lead to worse bad guys getting into power.
• Former OMLT-eer Bruce Ralston highlights this story about how it appears a southern Afghanistan village had to be leveled in order to get rid of the Taliban. He points out the only Afghan unit with the group in question was an Afghan Border Police unit – no Afghan army.  Hmmmm…..   More “WTF?” commentary on the original article here, here, here and here.
• Reaction to Jack Layton’s latest on Afghanistan (1):  Historian J.L. Granatstein’s “Layton’s Spurious Comparisions of Wars Past and Present“.
• Reaction to reaction to Jack Layton’s latest on Afghanistan (1):  “Uhm…Harper compared Kandahar deaths to Vimy in ’07“.  Here’s the text of the PM’s speech (apparently edited before delivery).
• Reaction to Jack Layton’s latest on Afghanistan (2):  “A rapid ISAF withdrawal would lead, in very short order, to …. vicious civil war“
• What’s Canada Buying? Chest wound bandages for Afghanistan (ASAP), automating the integration of all-source intelligence, sandbags for CFB Suffield and shootin’ simulators.  More on the shootin’ simulators here from the Ottawa Citizen..
• From Suzanne Steele’s warpoet.ca, “guest haiku (British Army!)“.
• “A review of charges laid against soldiers and civilians inside the defence community conducted after Russell Williams’s arrest has raised troubling questions – concerns the military’s top cop has told Forces brass to investigate further. The Canadian Forces Provost Marshal told senior officials in July that figures analyzed by his office suggest Canada’s defence community – soldiers and civilians connected to the military – has a “noticeably and disturbingly higher per capita rate of sexual violations against children, including child pornography,” than the rest of the country’s population. Its findings have puzzled the military – and the report prepared by Provost Marshal Colonel Timothy Grubb’s staff says as much, suggesting repeatedly that there may be differences from the civilian world in the reporting, investigating and recording of offences that are playing havoc with the Forces’ figures ….”
• Considering Mexico for a “break up the winter” vacation?  Well, according to security analyst Mercedes Stephenson, caveat emptor (or viator).
• A must-read for Canadian politicians (and the Globe & Mail) before considering any commitment of Canadian troops to Congo:  “…. By sending a contingent to the Congo, the Canadian government would be exposing its troops to an endlessly frustrating and thankless mission with no end in sight, and this in a country replete with dangers, corruption and disease ….”
• Latest in the “Let’s Get the F-35 – Let’s Not!” fight:  listen to that guy Eisenhower.  “…. As Eisenhower said 50 years ago, “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Some things never change.”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  More attacks alleged in Kandahar, Zabul.