Have We Got Enough Room For “Perfections And Monsters”?

Posted by on September 29, 2007

It’s yet another beautiful morning here in the lovely city of Toronto.

And I gotta tell ya – I love the fact that we got such a great country to live in here. I think really we’re all blessed. I’ll always make mention of that obvious observation because I think the day you forget it, or ignore it, is the day it’s time to mail it in.

But I’m in a funk.

Why are you in a funk Pitt?

I feel guilty sometimes about it you know? I feel guilty because this world has so many dark pockets to it other than what’s going on here. Sometimes I just wanna sit in a dark room with a tall glass of whiskey and forget I exist

I mean we got politicians arguing in Ontario right now. We got politicians arguing in Parliament – but you know, that’s what politicians do. At least nobodies dying. At least there’s no explosions or snipers on the way to Mucho Burrito for lunch.

And, after a nasty week like this, I regret that Matt decided to cut back on his writings of operations in the ‘Stan. I’m not calling him out, or backing up the bus on him or anything.

He got some pretty harsh emails and I respect his decision – but his observations were pretty good you gotta admit – and it’d be nice to see him “come out of retirement” on the subject.

But like Kyle Rayner I’m your guy till he comes back. Which I think he will.

Nobody asked me but…

Even if the sun wasn’t shining, and the Jay’s weren’t playing their home closer tomorrow, and the dollar wasn’t at parity – it’d still be a relatively good day compared to virtually 60% of the inhabited planet.

Let’s look over the last week what’s gone down.

We lost another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan in a mortar attack.

My thoughts and prayers to the loved ones of Cpl. Nathan Hornburg – a 24-year-old reservist from the King’s Own Calgary Regiment.

24 Years old. I can’t imagine.

It’s a shame – and based on an interview he gave prior to departure he seemed like a real team player.

Hornburg had known of the threat, but would not be deterred from what he believed was an important mission.
“We know it’s a mess and that’s why we’re there,” he told the Calgary Sun in July, before deploying to Afghanistan in August.

We got a bit of uncertainty going on in Afghanistan where NATO and US forces – according to a recent protests – killed two religious leaders in a raid in Zhari district.

The result saw the protesters literally chanting “death to Canadians”.

About 500 protesters shut down the main highway out of Kandahar city about 7 a.m. local time with some chanting “death to Canada” and “death to foreigners” and calling on foreign troops to leave the country….Anger was also directed at Afghan President Hamid Karzai for allowing the international presence in the country, and protesters condemned Afghan intelligence officers for corruption and extortion

It should be noted that the verification of the allegations is still pending.

Zhari district is the birthplace of the Taliban movement and an area where Canadian forces have been concentrating recent operations on re-establishing control….The international coalition says the Taliban has falsely reported civilian deaths in order to discredit foreign troops and undermine their efforts with the public.

Regardless – it’s not exactly a step forward to winning hearts and minds – which is critical to the reconstruction aspect of the operation as a whole.

I think we’re moving away from this…These…future “terrorists”. (?)

Though it could be argued when you have two separate objectives under two distinct commands – that is hunting/killing terrorists with the independent US command in addition to a two-tiered objective of the same in addition to provincial reconstruction under NATO (which also has US sub-units within it’s organization) – such challenges are to be expected.

And with those challenges comes civilian deaths I suppose – and if you take the UN’s tally on that count it’s as high as 600 this year.

Would a more robust UN presence be welcomed or worth considering at this point? Say what you will about the speed of the progress of the UN in the former Yugoslavia – but it did seem to move ever forward from the early ’90’s-to the present.

I mean there was still war fighting – There was the Battle of the Medak Pocket.

There were divisions of ethnic nationalism – through the Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, and Albenians in Kosovo.

I know that’s not the same thing as the dozen or so tribal organizations in the ‘Stan but – it’s something the UN is relatively familiar with.

There was reconstruction. There was NATO involvement.

The two situations might be similar enough to start considering lessons learned from one and applying them to the other. What worked there – might work here so to speak.

Many in the military community (Americans) view Peace Keeping Operations or Military Missions Other Than War (MOOTWA) as for the weak and completely lacking in effects base.

Well – what is the measure of success to this point in Afghanistan?

I always gotta ask that. What is the measure of success and failure? Where are we headed? How do we know we’re getting there?

Instead of answers to questions like that we get warnings of the worst case scenario. Of terrorists coming to Canada – from Karzai and the MND – and this most recent incident will likely reinforce that warning.

However, if memory serves me correct – nobody was chanting “death to Canadians” in Afghanistan when we weren’t there.

I’m not necessarily for the immediate exit from Afghanistan at this point. I’m not sold on a defined time line either. I’m not necessarily for a withdrawal in 2009.

I’m taking the cowardly step here and sitting uncomfortably on the fence.

I’ll be honest – I never signed the petition either.

“What Pitt?!” says the few hard right politically aligned that visit this site. (I get emails from a few readers that this might surprise.)

“But this site is all about the left! How could you not be such a single minded lefty here? You say anything not left of centre and you get chewed up on this site!” They might say.

That’s right! You heard me. I never signed the “out now” petition.

Stop the press!

It had nothing to do with me disagreeing with it. I just didn’t think it was the best solution.

I liked the idea of a cessation of combat operations. I like the idea of reinforcing operations with a view to winning hearts and minds.

I just think that all decisions should be based on an effect and not tied to a time line.

I think there are some groups of locals in Afghan that have come to rely on the reconstruction efforts of the CF and the civilian- military co-operation. I think it would be unfair to abandon those efforts based on time versus an achieved effect.

I also believe those efforts are worth risking the lives of soldiers. Though the meas have to be considered to serve those ends primarily and not the ventures of a greedy government.

So I’m not pro- out by 2009. I’m pro change tactic, and pro making progress. I’m not pro reinforcing negative effects however and it does appear that that is the case recently.

Unfortunately, the currency, beyond money, of politics is absolutes – black and white- so that is my deep funk.

As usual Scott Taylor comes up with a solution I support – I’m really digging the cut of this guy’s jib.

Everyone now claims that the best exit strategy is to invest in the training and equipping of the Afghan security forces so they can become self-sustaining and competent. In a perfect world, a modern equipped, well trained and well-disciplined Afghan army could gradually replace the U.S.-led coalition forces and ensure the stable environment necessary for international civilian aid workers to assist in the rebuilding of this war-ravaged country. Unfortunately, whenever the training of either the Afghan military or police force is demonstrated to the western media, it reveals the nearsighted and imperialistic manner in which we are approaching this program….Representative of Afghan society, more than 60 per cent of the Afghan recruits are illiterate. While Afghan National Army recruits receive a mere three months of basic training, police trainees are processed in as little as two weeks. Recent news footage of Afghan police recruits being trained by Canadians showed a group of grinning volunteers wielding plastic shields and riot batons.

The army battalions — or kandaks — that are processed through the Kabul Military Training Centre under international supervision are grouped together without consideration of Afghanistan’s diverse linguistic or ethnic identities….The uniforms provided are surplus U.S. Cold War-era combat clothing with a wide variety of footwear and helmets….The police fare even worse when it comes to uniforms and equipment. For the most part, they report to either local governors or tribal chiefs, often don’t wear any uniforms and all too frequently use their authority to abuse the local citizenry….Let’s bring in educators and ensure that every one of these recruits can read and write with a basic knowledge of fundamental skills at a secondary school level. Teach them in their own language a history curriculum that will instill a collective pride in their Afghan heritage. In our old British imperial history texts, the Afghan tribes were denounced as “fuzzy-wuzzies,” but even Rudyard Kipling saw fit to immortalize their unparalleled fighting prowess.

Before simply training them to wield plastic shields and batons or assault rifles, we need to take the time to make them understand what they are fighting for.

All of this education may take more time and cost more money than the international community wishes to dispense in the creation of an Afghan security force. However, if we don’t begin by laying a solid foundation first, whatever we churn out on the quick and cheap is bound to collapse the minute we stop propping it up.

Not bad.

It’d be a start.

Discussion: What’s your exit strategy?

What’s your direction? Complete out? Would that cause more harm than good?

Is a time line for exit as proposed fair to the locals?

Do you even think that’s feasible?

For the three of you still reading I won’t end you all on negative note.

I know I’m long winded.

I hope Frank Thomas somehow clears 100 RBIs on the year. I like that those boys of summer haven’t mailed in the season. I’ll miss Jay’s games over the winter.