EvanL
11-07-2005, 02:03 PM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A Canadian general is to take command early next year of all coalition forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents in the treacherous mountainous terrain of southern Afghanistan.
Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, currently based in Edmonton, is to replace an American commander. He will oversee 2,200 Canadian troops being deployed to Kandahar, an elite fighting brigade that will include more than 4,000 U.S., British, Dutch and Australian troops, and warplanes from the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands.
To prepare for their mountain missions and other counter-insurgency operations, infantry from the Alberta-based 1st battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, are to undergo special high-altitude training in Western Canada.
Senior Canadian officers already in Afghanistan preparing for Brig.-Gen. Fraser's arrival and the new multinational brigade emphasized that what lay ahead is not at all traditional peacekeeping as it is understood by most of their countrymen.
Nor is it only given the task of finding Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and their supporters.
The enemy Brig.-Gen. Fraser's troops will go after include other insurgents with different loyalties and ambitions and drug warlords and bandits, some with their own private armies, who threaten the security and the political stability of Afghanistan.
"Will we be involved in offensive operations? The answer is an unequivocal yes, but it will not be unilateral. We have chosen to support the government of Afghanistan," said Col. Steve Noonan of Ottawa who currently commands Task Force Afghanistan.
"I would characterize the force that we are putting in place as robust and capable of full spectrum operations. When we identify the enemy, we will work with the Afghan army to take them out. Our goal will be to kill or capture those elements."
Defence Minister Bill Graham and Defence Staff Chief Gen. Rick Hillier have in recent months repeatedly warned Canadians about the mortal dangers that will come with Canada's very different military role once it takes over the lead in fighting terrorism in southern Afghanistan from the Americans. While their words have helped create greater public awareness of what is at stake, Col. Noonan's personal opinion is some Canadians still have not heard the message.
"Canadians perhaps do not yet have a full understanding of what we are getting into," Col. Noonan said. "It is only fair to tell Canadians that this is dangerous stuff and that people may be killed in the attainment of our national will."
Brig.-Gen. Fraser will report to an American major general from the 10th Mountain Division based at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. His command, which is slated to last nine months, will include an undecided number of U.S. special forces troops, pilots and ground crew for fighter jets and assault and transport helicopters.
The 3,000 British soldiers and airmen moving into southern Afghanistan will be led by a Royal Marine commando.
The Dutch are contributing more than 1,000 troops, many of them to fly and maintain Chinook transport helicopters and Apache gunships.
The Australians are sending SAS commandos. New Zealand may send some elite SAS troops, too.
As well as having Brig.-Gen. Fraser lead the multi-national brigade, Canada will supply half of his staff officers and most of his communications specialists. Canada military doctors will also lead the surgical team.
The Canadian fighting component is being built around the Princess Patricia's and an unannounced number of Joint Task Force 2 commandos. They will be augmented by a squadron of armoured reconnaissance vehicles from Lord Strathcona's Horse in Edmonton and a battery from the 1st Regiment of Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which is being equipped with a potent new M577 gun that is accurate to within 10 metres at a range of up to 40 kilometres.
To prepare for battle, Canada is already embedding officers with U.S. and Afghan army units in the area.
There are also intense talks about who is to do what at NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, and Central Command's forward headquarters in the Gulf emirate of Qatar.
One issue that has been decided is that Canada will share an ammunition dump with the British and Dutch at Kandahar Airfield, a 10-square kilometre patch of sand and pavement that is similar in size to the Canadian Forces air base at Trenton, Ont.
By turning the ammo dump into a tri-lateral venture, rather than going it alone, Canada will save about $1.7 million U.S. according to the task force's engineer, Lt.-Col. Paul Fredenburg of Toronto. Other savings worth millions have been made by building some of the barracks out of sea containers. Although savings have also come from using Afghan labourers and materials when possible, the total bill for the installations that Canada is building at the airfield will still be more than $9 million U.S.
"This the largest foreign operation since Canada began to do peacekeeping," Lt.-Col. Fredenburg said.
The huge construction project is slated to be completed by March 1, although the colonel conceded: "It is difficult in this environment to put a firm date on it. This is not Canada. There are cultural and supply issues. You have to sometimes accept an 80-per-cent solution because if you strived for 100-per-cent you would never get anything done."
The frantic building is taking place as other Canadian soldiers pull down Camp Julian, near Kabul, and move much of the gear from there south 500 kilometres to Kandahar in convoys running along Afghanistan's dangerous Highway 1.
"The logistics train is extensive within a security environment we have to accept as a matter of fact," said Lt.-Col. Al Benson of Elkford, B.C., the top Canadian logistician in Afghanistan responsible for keeping the vast pieces of equipment moving in the right order so the battle group can be up and fighting in a little more than three months.
"There are lots of challenges to being in a landlocked country with a harsh environment that is tough on equipment. This is bigger than anything I have ever done."
Speaking above the almost constant din created by U.S. fighter jets and helicopters, Col. Noonan, who has previously served in Bosnia, Croatia and Germany, said: "What we are doing now is setting the conditions for success for follow-on forces by building life support and command and control systems and an intelligence architecture.
"This is a continuation of what the Americans have done here. But the Americans will readily admit this is still in its nascent stage. We are trying to fully understand the battle space so Gen. Fraser can hit the ground running."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005
------------------
Kiwis, Aussies, Limeys, and Canucks! Looks like the commonwealth is back to kickin some arse.
Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, currently based in Edmonton, is to replace an American commander. He will oversee 2,200 Canadian troops being deployed to Kandahar, an elite fighting brigade that will include more than 4,000 U.S., British, Dutch and Australian troops, and warplanes from the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands.
To prepare for their mountain missions and other counter-insurgency operations, infantry from the Alberta-based 1st battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, are to undergo special high-altitude training in Western Canada.
Senior Canadian officers already in Afghanistan preparing for Brig.-Gen. Fraser's arrival and the new multinational brigade emphasized that what lay ahead is not at all traditional peacekeeping as it is understood by most of their countrymen.
Nor is it only given the task of finding Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and their supporters.
The enemy Brig.-Gen. Fraser's troops will go after include other insurgents with different loyalties and ambitions and drug warlords and bandits, some with their own private armies, who threaten the security and the political stability of Afghanistan.
"Will we be involved in offensive operations? The answer is an unequivocal yes, but it will not be unilateral. We have chosen to support the government of Afghanistan," said Col. Steve Noonan of Ottawa who currently commands Task Force Afghanistan.
"I would characterize the force that we are putting in place as robust and capable of full spectrum operations. When we identify the enemy, we will work with the Afghan army to take them out. Our goal will be to kill or capture those elements."
Defence Minister Bill Graham and Defence Staff Chief Gen. Rick Hillier have in recent months repeatedly warned Canadians about the mortal dangers that will come with Canada's very different military role once it takes over the lead in fighting terrorism in southern Afghanistan from the Americans. While their words have helped create greater public awareness of what is at stake, Col. Noonan's personal opinion is some Canadians still have not heard the message.
"Canadians perhaps do not yet have a full understanding of what we are getting into," Col. Noonan said. "It is only fair to tell Canadians that this is dangerous stuff and that people may be killed in the attainment of our national will."
Brig.-Gen. Fraser will report to an American major general from the 10th Mountain Division based at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. His command, which is slated to last nine months, will include an undecided number of U.S. special forces troops, pilots and ground crew for fighter jets and assault and transport helicopters.
The 3,000 British soldiers and airmen moving into southern Afghanistan will be led by a Royal Marine commando.
The Dutch are contributing more than 1,000 troops, many of them to fly and maintain Chinook transport helicopters and Apache gunships.
The Australians are sending SAS commandos. New Zealand may send some elite SAS troops, too.
As well as having Brig.-Gen. Fraser lead the multi-national brigade, Canada will supply half of his staff officers and most of his communications specialists. Canada military doctors will also lead the surgical team.
The Canadian fighting component is being built around the Princess Patricia's and an unannounced number of Joint Task Force 2 commandos. They will be augmented by a squadron of armoured reconnaissance vehicles from Lord Strathcona's Horse in Edmonton and a battery from the 1st Regiment of Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which is being equipped with a potent new M577 gun that is accurate to within 10 metres at a range of up to 40 kilometres.
To prepare for battle, Canada is already embedding officers with U.S. and Afghan army units in the area.
There are also intense talks about who is to do what at NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, and Central Command's forward headquarters in the Gulf emirate of Qatar.
One issue that has been decided is that Canada will share an ammunition dump with the British and Dutch at Kandahar Airfield, a 10-square kilometre patch of sand and pavement that is similar in size to the Canadian Forces air base at Trenton, Ont.
By turning the ammo dump into a tri-lateral venture, rather than going it alone, Canada will save about $1.7 million U.S. according to the task force's engineer, Lt.-Col. Paul Fredenburg of Toronto. Other savings worth millions have been made by building some of the barracks out of sea containers. Although savings have also come from using Afghan labourers and materials when possible, the total bill for the installations that Canada is building at the airfield will still be more than $9 million U.S.
"This the largest foreign operation since Canada began to do peacekeeping," Lt.-Col. Fredenburg said.
The huge construction project is slated to be completed by March 1, although the colonel conceded: "It is difficult in this environment to put a firm date on it. This is not Canada. There are cultural and supply issues. You have to sometimes accept an 80-per-cent solution because if you strived for 100-per-cent you would never get anything done."
The frantic building is taking place as other Canadian soldiers pull down Camp Julian, near Kabul, and move much of the gear from there south 500 kilometres to Kandahar in convoys running along Afghanistan's dangerous Highway 1.
"The logistics train is extensive within a security environment we have to accept as a matter of fact," said Lt.-Col. Al Benson of Elkford, B.C., the top Canadian logistician in Afghanistan responsible for keeping the vast pieces of equipment moving in the right order so the battle group can be up and fighting in a little more than three months.
"There are lots of challenges to being in a landlocked country with a harsh environment that is tough on equipment. This is bigger than anything I have ever done."
Speaking above the almost constant din created by U.S. fighter jets and helicopters, Col. Noonan, who has previously served in Bosnia, Croatia and Germany, said: "What we are doing now is setting the conditions for success for follow-on forces by building life support and command and control systems and an intelligence architecture.
"This is a continuation of what the Americans have done here. But the Americans will readily admit this is still in its nascent stage. We are trying to fully understand the battle space so Gen. Fraser can hit the ground running."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005
------------------
Kiwis, Aussies, Limeys, and Canucks! Looks like the commonwealth is back to kickin some arse.