MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 28 Mar 11

• Cpl. Yannick Scherrer, Royal 22e Régiment, R.I.P. A Canadian soldier was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated during a dismounted partnered patrol in the Panjwa’i district of Kandahar Province at approximately 12 p.m. (noon) Kandahar time on Sunday, March 27, 2011.  More from the Canadian Press here, Postmedia News here and the Globe & Mail here.  Statements from the Governor General here, the PM here and Minister of Defence here.  An Army.ca condolences thread can be read and posted to here.
• No Fly Zone in Libya (1) – NATO’s taking on the WHOLE Libyan job now. More from Al Jazeera English here, BBC here, Reuters here and AFP here.
• No Fly Zone in Libya (2) – Here’s what the first wave o’ cruise missiles looked like to some on the HMCS Charlottetown. “A small crowd is gathered on the port bridge wing of HMCS Charlottetown. Slowly heading west, the ship is following a shimmering path of light laid on the water by the full moon, now low on the horizon. The clear sky is full of stars from horizon to horizon, a sight rarely seen ashore. Warships ride the waves, visible only as dim shapes punctuated by the red and green dots of their navigation lights. Abruptly, a large plume of flame rises from the sea some distance to the south. After a few seconds of climbing, the bright glow vanishes as the cruise missile jettisons its booster and begins flying its programmed course. The first Tomahawk is on its way ….”
• No Fly Zone in LIbya (3) – So far, so good, according to the U.S. Secretary of State and Defense Secretary. “U.S. and coalition forces have accomplished the no-fly zone aspect of the United Nations mission in Libya, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a television interview …. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and discussed what coalition nations have achieved as actions in Libya enter a second week. U.S. and coalition partners have suppressed Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses in Libya and have not seen his planes in the air since the no-fly zone was put in place March 19, Gates said …. “
• No Fly Zone in Libya (4) – Some good questions from the Toronto Star: “…. Is a stalemate that lets Gadhafi hang on in a partitioned Libya a viable option? Should the world follow France and recognize the Benghazi-based rebel leadership? If not now, when? Finally, how will NATO react if Libyans who live in Tripoli or other areas under his control also rise up? At the end of the day it isn’t likely to matter much whether these essentially political questions are answered by the regular NATO club, or by the nominally wider “coalition of the willing” that includes such Arab states as Qatar and the Emirates. What’s important is that things be clarified, sooner rather than later ….”
• One CF wife’s story. “You don’t know what it’s like until you get in. It’s such a tight-knit community. Usually military families are friends with other military families. It was different at first to realize that you no longer control where you live, but it’s a lifestyle I would never give up. I love the closeness. I love that there is always someone there for you. Everyone watches everyone’s back.”
• A swack of senior Canadian officers are in line for big international jobs. “Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, who was chosen on Friday to navigate NATO’s immensely complex air war against Moammar Gadhafi’s Libyan regime, is not the only Canadian flag officer getting an immensely challenging international command. It is expected that a Canadian army general will soon be named to a big UN peacekeeping posting in the Middle East. These two developments follow by a few weeks the announcement that Maj.-Gen. Mike Day is to take over responsibility for training the Afghan army for NATO. Day joins Maj.-Gen. Stu Beare, who is to continue running Afghan police training for the alliance until he takes up a senior appointment in Ottawa this fall that will draw heavily on his overseas experience ….”
• Good point.  “In any other country, a spy chief revealing concerns that members of government are believed to be under “at least the general influence” of foreign powers would have been a wakeup call. In Canada, it resulted in calls for the senior spy’s head …. Richard Fadden wasn’t trying to fearmonger, he was raising a legitimate red flag about a threat to our national security. Hey, politicians, wake up! You may be doing another country’s bidding. He was also sending a very public message to the offending countries in question. Yes, there is more than one. Add Russia, Iran and several African, Latin American and western European countries to that list. Instead of waking up, opposition politicians decided to try to shut him up for doing his job — identifying a threat and challenging it head on …. For all the calls the opposition makes demanding more transparency in Canada’s security apparatuses, when they finally got it, they didn’t like it very much. But that’s the thing about the truth, sometimes it hurts.”
• F-35 Tug o’ War:  Ceasefire.ca wants the Joint Strike Fighter to be an election issue.
• Remember the Canadian in the U.S. Special Forces named last month to receive a Silver Star for bravery in Afghanistan (second last item)?  He’s received it.

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.