MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 8 Dec 10

• Tanks from the 12e Régiment blindé du Canada are covering Vandoos in Zangabad, and head off some ammo for the Taliban Info-machine:  “…. Farmers in this otherwise bucolic hamlet, long known for its support of the insurgency, vented their frustrations at the convoy of vehicles as it cut a swath across their land, making way for the area’s first major roadway.  “I was never told about this,” Abdul Rahman, a local land owner whose grape field is being cut in half by the new gravel road, said through a translator.  The road is to be eight metres wide, but the disruption is far wider: to discourage the Taliban from planting bombs, engineers have cleared 25 metres of land on either side of the project.  Rahman threw up his hands as mine-sweeping tanks churned up the field in front of him. “What am I going to do with that?” he railed. “They might as well take the whole field.”  It was up to the district governor to consult with residents, but Rahman and several other landowners who turned up at a meeting with coalition officers said they weren’t told the exact route.  Rahman said he tried in vain to convince engineers not to bisect his land, and even offered to allow his personal mosque to be demolished if it meant a different route.  The officer commanding the route clearing was mortified at the request and the optics it would have presented for the locals, to say nothing of the propaganda bonanza for the Taliban.  “It’s weird, but quite frankly I don’t want to have Canadian soldiers being seen levelling a mosque when there’s a clear option to go somewhere else,” said Maj. Eric Landry, the commander of the tank squadron ….” Good call.  Some CF-generated copy of the Afghan push supported by the Vandoos and others here and here, with a Wikipedia page already started on OP BAAWAR.
• Congratulations Robert & Heather! “A soldier returning from duty in Afghanistan proposed to his longtime girlfriend at a Windsor, Ont., airport on Monday. Sgt. Robert Bialkowski went to great lengths to ask his girlfriend of eight years (Heather Greene) to marry him in front of a cheering crowd of friends and family …. After a hello kiss, Bialkowski handed Greene an apple and got down on one knee. Her response: “Of course!” Friends and family shouted “It’s about time!” …. “
• How Canadian cash is helping keep Afghan jail guards on the job:  “…. A Sarpoza prison guard’s life away from the job is exceedingly dangerous. One of the warden’s lieutenants was killed in November, two guards have been targeted and killed in recent months, and night letters and threats are common.  It’s why the warden is praising a Canadian initiative giving his staff better pay in recognition of the risks. The threats and the fear were having a debilitating effect on Sarpoza’s staffing levels at a time when Correctional Services Canada mentors are preparing to exit Kandahar in the new year.  “You feel for them … but we were training people and they’d quit,” said Ian Chinnery at the Camp Nathan Smith reconstruction team in Kandahar City ….”
• Chaplains as religious mediators on the battlefield? The idea was discussed at a recent conference in Ottawa:  “…. Maj. Steve Moore, a United Church padre, organized the low-key meeting to probe the possibility of making connections between military chaplains and religious leaders in communities in the midst of the conflict.  “I’m getting some traction,” he said from his office at Saint Paul University. “It’s incremental.”  Moore began thinking about this project in Bosnia in 1993 with the Second Royal Canadian Regiment battle group, living in a compound amid the communities of Roman Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks and Orthodox Serbs.  “We weren’t in the conflict, but we weren’t far from it. It was nasty. For me, those experiences never left me. I had to do something.”  He worked with his Roman Catholic counterpart to get to know the religious leaders in Sarajevo. “In fact, they made the first move, inviting us for dialogue. We were invited into their homes.”  Political leaders had co-opted religion, inflaming the population. This left religious leaders torn. “They were worried about the kind of life they would leave for their children. Would (the children) think that religion was just a means of war?”  At first, the padres met only with the Muslim mufti, who oversaw 60 mosques, and the Roman Catholic priest. The Serbs weren’t interested. But when the tour of duty changed, the next two chaplains were able to build on what the first two had done. In September of 1993, all three religious groups, Serbians, Muslims, and Catholics, held an interfaith celebration for peace. Here in Canada, that would hardly be noticed. But there, in the midst of religiously fuelled war, “it was unprecedented,” said Moore ….”
• Some recent research indicates that American female war vets “have a suicide rate nearly three times greater than the general population of women”.  How’s this number compare to Canadian stats? We don’t keep them right now, but should know something soon, according to a Veterans Affairs Canada spokesperson responding to a question from Postmedia News:  “Unfortunately we do not have data similar to that used in the American university publication you referred to. Statistics regarding suicide rates amongst Canadian Veterans are not currently kept. However, Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Canadian Forces have commenced a “Life After Service Study”, to examine transition from the Canadian Forces to civilian life. One of the study components will have Statistics Canada link VAC and Canadian Forces data on CF members with service from 1972 to 2006 (2006 is the end-date as it matches the latest data in the national mortality database). This study will allow VAC to compare suicide rates between Veterans and the general Canadian population. Data is expected in early 2011 ….” More from National Public Radio in the U.S. about this research.
• This may be disappointing news to video game developers, but speaking at a public forum during a conference on special forces in Kingston this week, the head of Canada’s special forces says special operations work is NOT like the games:  “…. (Brig.-Gen. Michael) Day, who has been attached since it stood up in 1993, said the unit, described as a made-in-Canada response to terrorist threats and issues of national security requiring a nimble and highly trained force of specialists.  But it is not, as portrayed in wildly popular movies and video games, a collection of rogue operatives creating mayhem and destruction behind enemy lines with neither the knowledge or support of their commanders. With two teenage boys, Day is quite familiar with the popular portrayal.  “Very few special operations can be conducted without the support of conventional forces,” Day said, and noted that due to the high tempo and close relationship between special and conventional units in Afghanistan, army commanders understand and appreciate where his unit fits into the puzzle in a way they may not have a decade ago.  Day stressed that special forces are a complement to the conventional army and vice-versa ….” And how about calls for more public oversight for the special ops units? ” …. “Isn’t it ironic that on the very day some are calling for more oversight, I am standing up and introducing a public forum like this,” he said.  “And I certainly welcome the idea of having conversations about oversight.” …. “We’re trying to find a middle ground, somewhere between I’m not telling you anything and I’m standing here naked in front of you,” said Day ….”
• News flash – Postmedia News notices women with niqabs serving in CF:  “Wafa Dabbagh is many things. She is a tiny, bubbly bundle of energy who loves Zumba fitness. She prays five times a day, keeps an immaculate home and bakes a cake for her beloved neighbours each weekend. She has a bachelor’s degree, a master’s in business administration and a cancer diagnosis, the last of which she treats like a bothersome cold. Dabbagh is also a pioneer, the first member of the Canadian Armed Forces — and still only one of a handful — to wear a hijab, the Muslim headcovering for women. After almost 15 years in the naval reserves, she is now a lieutenant-commander, the equivalent of a major in the army. Dabbagh is certified to shoot a C7 rifle and a 9 mm pistol, and is in the process of studying to qualify for promotion to a command position. On Monday at Rideau Hall, Gov. Gen. David Johnston awarded the first Operational Service Medals to 50 recipients, including Dabbagh, who was recognized for her participation in Operation Proteus, a Canadian training mission in Jerusalem ….” One day, it won’t matter whether she’s wearing a niqab or not – a job well done is a job well done, full stop..
• Roger Clement, who said he firebombed an RBC bank machine in Ottawa “as a partial protest toward the bank’s policies toward the Olympics and the Alberta tarsands” gets 3 years, 6 months for the firebombing. More from the Canadian Press, the BBC and CBC.ca.  And it didn’t take long for the Liberals and NDP to put the boot in, either.
• Streamlining terrorism trials, better Witness Protection Program, hunting down terrorist money better and improving co-operation between cops and intelligence agencies. Those are some of the highlights of Canada’s new plan (more detail here) to prevent another Air India disaster.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch: Taliban Info-machine’s English-language site is back with claims of attacks in Kandahar and Zabul.