CASR

Canadian
American
Strategic
Review

Afghan National Army  –  US Troops  –  Canadian Forces  –  Kandahar City  –  March  2010 Coming  Campaign  for  Kandahar  –  Troops  from  Canada, the US and the ANA will mount an all-out push to take and hold key areas Edited excerpts from article published  by the  CBC  News,  24  February  2010   [1]  This  winter ...  two  new  elements  have  had a  galvanizing  effect  on  the  international  Afghan  mission.  The  first  was   President  Obama's  decision  to  triple  the  number  of  US  combat  troops on  the  ground  in  Afghanistan   –   a  deployment  that  is  prodding  the  main allies ...  to  treat  the  war  more  vigorously.  ( In  Helmand province,  the largest  offensive   in   eight   years  is  now  underway.) The second  element  is  a palpable sense of  time urgency  –  the  next  six   to   ten  months  must produce a turning point for the counter-insurgency against the Taliban. The  current   military   leadership  is  convinced  that  it  must  absolutely  throw  the  Taliban decisively onto the defensive during 2010 in order to reverse the tide of  the war.  Everywhere our small group of visiting journalists went, senior Canadian and American officers impressed upon us the all-out,  win-or-lose  effort  that  they are embarking upon. "This is just like we're in the last inning of  the last game of  the World Series," one Canadian said. And there is much evidence around of a ramped-up war effort to back such eve-of-battle rhetoric. Airstrips are crowded with fighter jets, helicopters, and heavy-lift transport planes. Above all,  American troops  –  many  battle-hardened  in Iraq  –  are pouring into the restive Afghan South.  Nearly  9,000  US Marines are leading the current  hard-slogging offensive in Helmand province,  while another  20,000  [ US Army troops ]  are moving with  full offensive equipment into neighbouring Kandahar to link up with Canada's 2,800-member battle group. Kandahar, long under-resourced by the earlier NATO/ISAF command, is now front and centre for the crucial battles to come, and  Canada had better be braced.  The largest offensive since 2002 will take place within Canada's zone of responsibility  over the next three to four months. Think  the current,  weeks-long  fighting around  Marjah in Helmand province  is a hard slog ? This is just a dry run  for the far larger operations  now being planned  for the more populated areas of  Kandahar,  the Taliban heartland.  That includes  Kandahar city,  population 500,000, which has always been a primary object of the insurgents. What's more, this combined allied counterattack is to be undertaken by Canadian, American, and Afghan troops in the notorious heat of a Kandahar summer and on a scale far larger than what is currently going on in Helmand. American soldiers will take the lead, but expect a huge Canadian effort alongside. The US has even taken the extremely rare  move of  putting four of its battalion-sized units under the Canadian Joint Command in Kandahar. That gives Canadian Brigadier-General Daniel Ménard the comparative luxury of  5,200 troops to direct, instead of  the usual 2,800. His expanded group will fight alongside 20,000 US troops now pouring in for the offensive. The  Canadian  military,  meanwhile,  appears  to have  squeezed  every  able body  it can get from its reserves and regular forces to maintain the endless rotations of soldiers and support personnel to Kandahar. Whether you are for or against Canada's involvement here, it is hard not to admire the extraordinary professionalism and commitment that so many Canadians are putting forward,  and under such extremely demanding and often dangerous circumstances. Equally remarkable is that,  in reality,  the Canadian military is being asked  to gear up for two contrasting missions at the same time. First it must launch its largest military offensive of  the war this summer, likely a costly one, to chase out the Taliban. Then, officers must reverse course 180 degrees to pull off the complete withdrawal of all Canadian troops from the combat zone in less than a year, in accordance with Parliament's decree. Our  officers  and  diplomats  smile,  shrug,  and  change the subject when Canada's  July 2011 withdrawal  date  comes  up.  But  they do know it bothers,  even angers, those key allies who have been in the thick of  the southern struggle with Canada and  who plan to stay on despite their own casualties [ like the UK ]. One senior NATO official  we encountered  was bitingly crisp  when asked  about the planned Canadian pullout:  "An absolute disaster,  unless we can fill in the lost [ Canadian ] experience and that's bloody unlikely.  It's  bad campaign work,  and  it's bad alliance work." That  view  is  not  being  publicly  expressed.  But ... it  is making the rounds among our most important  allies.  It  is also more than  a  little disconcerting  to find that  we are already being judged so critically on our final act, the exit,  while the key drama still lies ahead  –  the coming campaign for Kandahar.      [1]   Article  written  by  Brian  Stewart  for  CBC  News,  24  February  2010.