MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 14 Jul 11

• Afghanistan (1)  Title of Canadian Ambassador’s statement on the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai is one word longer than the statement itself:  “Canada strongly condemns the killing of Kandahar Provincial Council Chair Ahmad Wali Karzai and extends its condolences to his family and to President Hamid Karzai.”  Am I the only one thinking of this Dilbert cartoon when reading a statement this brief?
• Afghanistan (2)  CF Info-Machine’s take on the Vandoos packing up Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan, including three days of ceremonies.
• Afghanistan (3)  One of the other victims?  “Dodging bullets from children, stumbling across a boy with his face blown off and grasping a dead friend in his arms — the horror was more than Stefan Jankowski could bear. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hooked on prescription drugs, the 25-year-old Windsor soldier returned home from the war in Afghanistan to face a losing battle with his own demons. His family said he died Saturday from a prescription drug overdose, after getting little help from the military he dreamt of serving from boyhood. They want answers, saying the military “washed their hands of him” and didn’t give Jankowski the help he needed after he was discharged ….”
• Afghanistan (4)  Canadian Senator, again, points out how he thinks the mission was not a success.  “…. the UN says 2,579 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001. UN figures show that 8,832 Afghan civilians have been killed as a result of military operations since 2007 (nobody had deemed it essential to count before then). I don’t think this adds up to success. Then again, if you believe that it is important to look at this war through rose-coloured glasses to make everyone feel better, I guess we should just forget about all these repugnant little numbers ….”  Note to the Senator:  on this stat alone, let’s remember that between 7 and 8 out of 10 of the civilians killed were killed by the Taliban – more on that here and here.
• Libya Mission (1)  “Media are invited to attend a video-teleconference (this morning) with the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, and Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, Commander, Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) Op Unified Protector, the NATO-led effort to impose on Libya the arms embargo and no-fly zone authorized for the protection of civilians in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 ….”
• Libya Mission (2) “As part of Canada’s “enhanced engagement strategy” in Libya, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will for the first time Friday meet with allies dedicated to mapping out the political future of the embattled North African country. Baird announced Wednesday that he’s headed to Istanbul for the fourth meeting of the Contact Group on Libya — a body that includes foreign ministers from Western and Arab countries, Libyan rebel leaders as well as representatives from the United Nations, NATO and various non-governmental organizations. “We need to maintain political and military pressure on the regime to end its violence against civilians as well as to continue to demonstrate international solidarity in support of the Libyan people,” Baird’s spokesman Chris Day told Postmedia News ….”
• Ministers of Defence, Public Safety:  Thanks, troops, for the hard work in the Manitoba floods.  “…. A total of 375 Canadian Forces members, drawn from the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and Land Force Western Area Primary Reserve courses, assisted the Province of Manitoba in their operations to mitigate the effects of the flood, including the reinforcement of existing dikes and water embankments in the general vicinity of Souris. More than 1,800 Regular and Reserve Force personnel from the Navy, Army, and Air Force earlier assisted Provincial authorities by conducting extensive repairs to both the Assiniboine River dikes and the Assiniboine Diversion dikes, monitoring dikes on the ground and from the air, evacuating affected residents, producing more than 167,000 sandbags and placing more that 48 per cent of the total of 891,000 sandbags produced in the Province. More than 160 private residences were protected from flooding as a result of CF efforts …. On behalf of our government and all those Canadians who have been helped by Canadian Forces’ efforts this spring, we thank the men and women in uniform.”
• More details about Canada’s (at least proposed) plans for the Arctic?  “It is costly to operate in the vast and inhospitable Arctic. But the Canadian military is exploring a way to cut costs and speed up the movement of troops and equipment by building several new northern bases. Along the way it could help to strengthen the country’s Arctic sovereignty claims by placing additional boots on the tundra throughout the year. The plan, sketched out in a study that was commissioned by the force’s operational support command, is a variation of the one put in place for overseas operations. Barebones transportation hubs — essentially a suitable landing strip and storage facility — at strategic spots around the globe make it more efficient when soldiers are called out to a global hot spot in a pinch …. The military is looking at a domestic variant of those overseas hubs. The plan could result in remote bases and a small-but-permanent military presence in far-off communities. Locations could include Alert, Inuvik, Whitehorse, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit or Nanisivik, according to the technical memorandum prepared by the research wing of the military last year ….” The Canadian Forces says no decision has been made to go ahead with the construction of new hubs. That could change. “The hub concept referred to in this report is just one of many ideas being examined at the time to enhance our capabilities up in the North,” said Navy Lt. Greg Menzies….”  Since the Toronto Star isn’t sharing the full study, here it is (150 page PDF) if you’re interested (or here if the other link doesn’t work), and here’s a call from earlier this year (second-last bullet) for someone to summarize Canadian military research done in the Arctic.
• F-35 Tug o’ War  This from “prolific blogger” Mark Collins: “Boeing is trying to take advantage of F-35 production delays ….”
• Troops of Canada’s Army of the West prepare to practice mountain warfare.  “With its mountainous terrain and warm climate, Kamloops is an ideal place for the Canadian Armed Forces to conduct training exercises in anticipation of duties overseas. Which is why soldiers from the Third Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry will be in the region from July 17-28 to conduct mountaineering training. Capt. Tony Meier of 3 PPCLI said about 60 troops will form a base camp near the New Gold Mine site, west of Kamloops, but the majority of training will take place at Roche Lake. The contingent will grow to about 180 troops for a major exercise north of Lac Du Bois from July 24-28 ….”
• The CF’s apparently having trouble recruiting Chinese and other visible minorities.  “More new Canadian citizens hail from China than almost any other country in the world, but military brass in Ottawa are facing an uphill battle in persuading a significantly greater proportion of Chinese-Canadians to embrace a career in the armed forces. Chinese-Canadians are among the fastest-growing visible minority groups in the country, and the People’s Republic of China has ranked first or second as a source of new citizens in recent years. But getting Chinese Canadians to don a uniform isn’t easy – part of the same challenge the military faces with all visible minorities even as the country becomes more ethnically diverse ….”
• “A send off parade was held today at the Canadian War Museum to mark the upcoming participation of a contingent of 205 Canadian Forces (CF) members in the 95th annual International Four Days Marches Nijmegen, to be held from July 19 to July 22. Canadian military contingents have participated in this prestigious long-distance marching event, held in the Netherlands since 1952 ….”  More on the March here.
• What’s Canada Buying?  R&D sought for a new coastal radar facility (maybe two) in Nova Scotia and someone to cook/pouch LOADS (as many as “a minimum of one million pouches of entrées and fruit pouches totaling two million pouches within a six (6) to eight (8) month period”) of ration packs.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 30 May 11

• Karl Manning, 5 RALC, R.I.P.:  On his way home as family, colleagues wonder – more here.
• Afghanistan (1):  “An organization that keeps track of threats to aid workers in Afghanistan is bracing for a tough, desperate summer and warns of an “escalating stalemate” as it says the Karzai government is losing its grip on northern parts of the country. A new report from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office suggested insurgent forces are growing in areas that have previously been assessed as calm. We anticipate 2011 will be the most violent year since we have been keeping records,” said the organization’s quarterly report, which was released over the weekend ….”  Afghanistan NGO Safety Office site here, latest report mentioned in story here (PDF).
• Afghanistan (2):  “The Canadian-funded textbooks and computers aren’t overly expensive — certainly not compared to the price Afghan women risk having to pay for using them.The sort of mundane learning most westerners have long taken for granted carries a persistent and very real threat for female students in southern Afghanistan: injury or death at the hands of the Taliban. For the determined, however, it’s no deterrent. “For sure, I am afraid,” says Heena Tariq, a teenager who’s taking an online accounting course at a school in Kandahar city. “It’s not fair we are afraid and stay home. We have to be brave. We have to study for the future and brighten our lives.” Tariq is one of about 700 women who have defied custom and the threat of insurgent thuggery to attend the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Attacks claimed in Kandahar, Uruzgan.
• Libya Mission (1):  One opinion.  “…. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said from the start that Canada was at “war” and Defence Minister Peter MacKay allowed that the mission “… isn’t without risk, let’s put it that way.” Canadians from coast to coast to coast, as they say, have a vested interest in the Libyan mission. And Harper recognized that when he committed Friday to consult Parliament on his wish to extend the Canadian military mission in Libya beyond the three-month limit approved by the Commons in mid-March …. But the need to draw all MPs into the debate isn’t founded on differing party philosophies alone, it’s also based on geography. Bombardier Karl Manning of Chicoutimi, Que. was the latest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, apparently as a result of suicide. An inordinate number of soldiers from Quebec and Atlantic Canada seem to have died in Afghanistan, likely reflecting the overall makeup of the Canadian military. So, it’s imperative that the voices of the MPs from those regions are heard, no matter what their party affiliations are ….”
• Libya Mission (2):  Another opinion. “…. When Canada first committed military resources to support the UN-authorized intervention in Libya, all four political parties backed the proposal but agreed to review our participation after three months. While there was virtually no debate about Libya during the recent election, let’s hope that the lack of purpose and progress to date will be enough to convince the Harper government to abort this ill-fated venture before we get dragged into yet another costly unwinnable quagmire like Afghanistan.”
• “Environmental and funding concerns are adding years to the construction of an Arctic naval port considered crucial to enforcing Canadian control of the Northwest Passage. The Nanisivik port in Nunavut was originally supposed to be at least partially up and running by next summer, following a promise made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007. But no construction is planned for this summer and defence officials admit that the refuelling station, intended to give the navy a permanent presence at the eastern gate of the contested passage, won’t be operating for years. “Construction work at the Nanisivik Naval Facility will begin in 2013,” said a defence department spokesman in an email. “It is forecasted that the (facility) will be operational in 2016.” Officials weren’t immediately available to explain why. But correspondence with the Nunavut Impact Review Board, which is conducting the project’s environmental review, suggests the extra years have been added to the project through a combination of bureaucratic delays, funding problems and environmental liabilities lingering from the site’s previous life as a lead-zinc mine. “There are many challenges operating in the North and DND now has a better understanding of the site condition,” wrote the spokesman ….”  Environmental screening documents on the project are available via the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s web page here.
  
• F-35 Tug o’ War:  “Everything is bigger in Texas — the cowboy hats, the belt buckles, the steaks, and the factories. Lockheed Martin’s production line here, where the U.S. defence giant manufacturers the F-35 stealth fighter jet, is actually more than two kilometres long. And putting aside the mounting concerns of the program, the F-35 and the factory here have a very high cool-factor. If it weren’t so restricted, a visit to the facility should definitely be on the to-do list of anyone who’s ever had a fighter jet poster on his wall. But critics aren’t swayed by the cool quotient, and are sounding the alarm bells that the jets’ price will skyrocket ….”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Round two of “we need Large Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device Disrupter Systems”.  More on round one from March 2011 here and here (bullet #9).