London attacks underscore Canada's need to be in Afghanistan: Hillier
at 15:41 on July 14, 2005, EST.
By STEPHEN THORNE
OTTAWA (CP) - Last week's terrorist attacks in London underscore the need for Canada and its allies to take the fight to the enemy in failed states where "murderous scumbags" have room to thrive, says Canada's top soldier.
Terrorists must not be allowed to feed on the instability of countries like Afghanistan lest that instability be allowed to "come home to roost here," Gen. Rick Hillier said Thursday. "The London attack actually tells us once more: we can't let up," Hillier told a media luncheon at National Defence Headquarters.
"There are those who might say that by doing that we make ourselves a target in Canada here for terrorists. I would come at it this way. ... We need to take a stand."
More than 50 people died and 700 were wounded when four terrorists detonated bombs on London's subway system and a bus July 7. Hillier said Canadian military assets were offered but not needed.
Headquarters also verified the readiness of its counterterrorism force, confirmed its Norad capabilities and alerted the navy on both coasts after the bombings, he said.
Canada has maintained a NATO force in Kabul since August 2003 and later this month will send 250 troops to establish a provincial reconstruction team under U.S. command in Kandahar, the new focus of Canadian operations.
The team will facilitate the work of aid groups, train police and help stabilize the area before a fighting force follows in the New Year.
Hillier said 1,500 Canadian troops will be in Afghanistan, mainly the south, by February. He said he expects at least two task forces and three reconstruction teams to rotate through Kandahar over the next 18 months.
Canada will also send a brigade headquarters for nine months, from February until October.
"We're not going to let those radical murderers and killers rob from others and certainly we're not going to let them rob from Canada," said Hillier, appointed chief of defence staff earlier this year.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden declared Canada a "legitimate target" in March 2004. Two months later, an internal RCMP risk assessment noted that Canada was the only country left on his list that had yet to be attacked.
Hillier, who commanded NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul for six months last year, said Canada has "a very big profile," regardless of what role its military plays in the Muslim world.
As a member of the G8, and as a highly rated Western society that values rights and individual freedoms, Canada already represents "the exact opposite of what people like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and those others want."
"These are detestable murderers and scumbags," Hillier said. "They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties."
He said they want power to dictate people's lives, money to maintain and expand their power, and immunity from responsibility for their actions.
"It doesn't matter whether we are in Afghanistan or any other place in the world. We are going to be a target in their sights ... and I don't believe being in Afghanistan changes one aspect of it."

Make The Voices Stop!

OTTAWA -- Canadians need to prepare psychologically for the strong possibility some of their soldiers will be killed in a new military operation in southern Afghanistan, says the head of the armed forces.

"Is there a probability that we're going to take casualties? Yes, of course," Gen. Rick Hillier said Thursday. "Can I give you a number of what we're going to take? Absolutely not."

Canada is sending a team of about 250 soldiers, along with Foreign Affairs officials, development workers and Mounties, to Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province. A small part of what's dubbed a provincial reconstruction team, or PRT, will begin deploying early next week, with the bulk of troops starting to move out, mainly from Edmonton, beginning the following week.

Afghan officials have warned that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network is planning Iraq-style attacks against soldiers in the region. Last month, an American PRT in Kandahar was struck by a suicide bomber -- in the same area where Canada's team will be deployed. Four soldiers were injured.

Casualties are a reality of military life, Hillier said, although he doubts Canadians are ready for that possibility.

"No, I don't believe they are," said Hillier, appointed chief of defence staff earlier this year. "But there needs to be an awareness across Canada that we're in a dangerous business."

Critics also question whether the public has the stomach for bloodshed coming from Canada's new role in Afghanistan.

"Kandahar will be the acid test of whether or not we can bear the price of our latest goal," Nic Boisvert wrote in an article published this week by the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century. "It is best to find out now if we don't have the royal jelly to handle the task. It is going to take moral courage and political leadership. Are we up to it?"

Despite the increased danger in Kandahar -- compared with the relatively safe haven of Kabul where Canada lost three soldiers in the line of duty -- the military doesn't plan to change the way it operates for the PRT.

"Same, exact strategy," said Hillier. "A three-block war" approach, where troops focus on small pockets within communities to avoid getting involved in large conflicts. We're going to prosecute some operations there and we're going to go after the Taliban in some cases. The Brits do it superbly, the Aussies do it superbly, we do it superbly."

In Kabul, Canada has seen success with a strategy of trying to win over the hearts and minds of local residents by providing security while aiding reconstruction projects. It remains to be seen, however, whether Canadians will be welcome in Kandahar.

"We're going to take absolutely every step possible to set up conditions for success and a reduced risk," Hillier said. "I believe we can put in place in Kandahar ... the best-equipped structure inside of Afghanistan.But we still can't reduce the risk to zero. It's still a high-risk area."

© Canadian Press 2005

Make The Voices Stop!

 OTTAWA (CP) - If Canadians were shocked that the head of their military called his enemy "detestable murderers and scumbags," they better get used to it. Gen. Rick Hillier has never minced words, nor is he likely to start any time soon.

His blunt assessment of terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere this week has the wholehearted backing of the prime minister.

"General Hillier is not only a top soldier, he is a soldier who has served in Afghanistan," Paul Martin said Friday in Nova Scotia.

"The point he is simply making is we are at war with terrorism and we're not going to let them win."

Defence Minister Bill Graham's office refused Friday to soften or explain the comments of its top soldier.

No "clarification" will be forthcoming, said spokesman Steven Jurgutis.

"I can certainly understand that there may be people who are concerned with the tone of his statements," said Jurgutis.

But he said Hillier "has certainly been a fairly straight-talking individual throughout his career.

"I wouldn't say this represents a change in attitude."

Defence analysts and soldiers alike lauded Hillier's appointment as chief of defence staff earlier this year as a fundamental shift in the Canadian military.

Known as a soldier's soldier, Hillier is the most operationally experienced commander to take the top post in many years, breaking the bureaucratic mould that seemed to dictate many appointments since the Cold War.

Born in the outport of Campbellton on Newfoundland's north coast, Hillier doesn't attempt to cover a Scottish-Irish lilt that turns "Afghanistan" into "haffghanistan" and "horse" into "orse."

One factor in Hillier's promotion was his fearlessness and penchant for calling things as he sees them.

The defence minister was looking for a new vision for the Canadian Forces and, in Hillier, he got it.

A defence policy statement released in April charted a whole new course for defence - much of it adhering to Hillier's direction.

His current list of requests for interviews is at about 50, so this week the general with the reddish-blond moustache held an informal, on-the-record media luncheon. Audiotapes were OK, cameras were banned.

Reporters familiar with Hillier's style barely flinched when he said all elements of the Canadian Forces need to be revamped, including the part where "you go out and bayonet somebody."

"We are not the Public Service of Canada," he declared. "We are not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people."

The terrorist bombings in London underscore the need to take the fight to the enemy in failed states where they have room to thrive, said Hillier.

As a Western society that values rights and freedoms, Canada is already in conflict with "what people like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and those others want."

"These are detestable murderers and scumbags," Hillier said. "They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties."

It's time for Canada to take a stand, he said, just as it did 66 years ago when it joined the Second World War against the Nazis, whom he described as "those despicable, murderous bastards."

The Polaris Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Ottawa, said Friday the defence minister needs to "clarify" Hillier's "very alarming" comments.

"His use of epithets such as 'scumbags' and 'killers' is reminiscent of language used by (U.S.) President (George W.) Bush and U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld," said project director Steven Staples.

Taken alongside recent defence policy changes and an increase in the defence budget, Staples said they "show an unmistakable trend toward the Americanization of the Canadian Forces."

Jurgutis noted that Canada was already listed as a terrorist target and he doubted Hillier's comments would change matters.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden declared Canada a "legitimate target" in March 2004.

Adrian Gordon, executive director of the Centre for Emergency Preparedness, gave a qualified endorsement of Hillier's blunt talk.

"Part of me agrees with that, part of me says that's true," Gordon said in an interview from Burlington, Ont.

"But at the same time, if we're really going to deal with this problem and have a hope of putting an end to terrorism, then we have to work towards understanding the root causes, which go much deeper than current events in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Make The Voices Stop!

Well, it's about time somebody said it. I read that book that you recommended "Who Killed The Canadian Military" and it was a depressing book. Canada can be more if it wants to than UN Peacekeepers.

I liked this bit too:

And this would be bad, how?

Gold Class 92-03

The Warrant Officer – an officer appointed by the Secretary of the Army based on a sound level of technical and tactical competence. The Warrant Officer is a highly specialized expert and trainer who by gaining progressive levels of expertise and leadership operates, maintains, administers, and manages the Army’s equipment, support activities, or technical systems for an entire career.

WTF? Who's Mr. Pillow Pants? - Clerks 2