Posts Tagged ‘Canadian Forces in Afghanistan’

The days are long and sometimes crazy, but without them the Canadian Forces would not be able to operate overseas or at home. For the most part, the men and women filling these days—and nights—work behind the scenes and rarely get recognized for turning seemingly impossible tasks into reality. All of them fall under the umbrella of the Canadian Operational Support Command (CANOSCOM) and they have been extremely busy helping to close out Canada’s five-year combat mission in Afghanistan. A major part of their work in the wartorn country involves bringing soldiers and equipment home, a massive undertaking that began months ago—well before the decision was made to switch Canada’s role from a combat mission, which will end in July, to a training mission. Over all, Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan stretches just under 10 years, an experience shared by thousands of military personnel and supported by CANOSCOM through everything from operational logistics, engineering, communications, equipment maintenance to health and military police services.

Over nearly five years of combat in Kandahar province, the Canadian Forces mission to defeat the insurgent Taliban has been called many things—‘the unexpected war,’ ‘the difficult war,’ ‘mission impossible’—but in the end it will be up to the historians, and history itself, to decide what it all meant. In the meantime, certain things are known: The counter-insurgency campaign waged in Kandahar province from 2006-2011 was the Canadian military’s first period of sustained combat in more than 50 years, since the Korean war. If nothing else, it was a test of military, political and democratic resolve. The effort to combat islamic militancy and international terrorism, borne out of the attacks of September 11, 2001, drew Canada and its military into some harrowing situations. The cost was high. What follows is a timeline of the mission’s Milestones.

HEARTS AND MINDS ON THE LINE This is part four of Legion Magazine’s story on the efforts of one small Canadian unit to win the hearts and minds of a town in the Taliban heartland last fall. First Platoon of Alpha Company, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry has been in Salavat for a week and a half, living in a small school compound on the edge of town, struggling hard to get a grip on the distrustful, slightly hostile little community in the centre of Panjwai District, the deadliest place for Canadians in all of Kandahar Province. Follow the links to read [...]

This is Part 3 of Legion Magazine’s series on the Canadian effort to win hearts and minds in Salavat, a restive community in Kandahar Province’s notorious Panjwai district.