The War in Afghanistan - Let's Cut the Crap, Shall We?

A police constable from Milton, Ontario allows an Afghan police trainee to admire a Canadian manufactured assault rifle. Mr. Harper has decided to extend "the Mission" past 2011, but he assures us Canadian personnel will only be ...heh, heh, training the Afghanis. No more combat pay for the Mounties. No more risk of suicides in barracks and lawyers engorging themselves on PTSD claims.

James Fergusson recently put his balls in the cross-hairs of the Americans who control the orbiting PREDATOR and REAPER drone aircraft which target and eliminate Taliban guerrillas. He visited Chak, a town "just 40 miles" southwest of Kabul which is garrisoned, taxed and administered by the Taliban - less than an hour jeep drive to where Canadians have been training the other Afghanis to march and salute their national flag. In his exclusive report published in the British newspaper THE INDEPENDENT he has plenty to reveal and it will only take five minutes of your time to read. My favorite anecdote records the personal best of a Taliban commander who destroyed 81 NATO gasoline tanker trucks in a single night ambush.

The Chinese are plenty busy in Afghanistan.... busy scooping up the rights to natural resources. Selling small arms ammunition, grenades and unguided rockets to the Taliban is just a sideline for Beijing. The real money is in metals and minerals. The Associated Press has an interesting story this week of an ancient site which archaeologists are rushing to excavate, because its sitting on six million tons of copper, and the Chinese have the exclusive right to scoop and run. It will only take you another five minutes to read CHINESE MINE IN AFGHANISTAN . Mes Aynak is only 20 miles south of Kabul. The Afghani National government has deployed 1,500 police to guard the Chinese mine site, as heavy equipment is starting to arrive. That is 1,500 cops trained at the $$ expense of Canadian taxpayers, folks. A regiment of cops has been mobilized to protect a Chinese government investment in strategic metals. Why, you may wonder, don't the Chinese deploy their own security force in Mes Aynak, as many Western resource companies do worldwide? Why should we Canadian taxpayers train, arm and fund the weekly payroll for the security zone around the Chinese mine? Because we are suckers, and always have been. The Copper King and the Crocodile. 1,500 Afghan police are deployed to patrol a security zone around a single Chinese mine site in Afghanistan.

Ottawa dubs KABUL "a calmer area" - and silly media parrots the sticky ministerial handout.

Canadian reporters are desperately scrambling to fall into step with the latest iteration of a Tory Afghanistan policy. The snippet exhibited in yellow above, is taken from a CBC web site. (The story is developing so fast today, that a link is worthless here.) Mr. Harper's plan for an orderly retreat is shredded.... literally. Establishment historians (UC and UT careerists) - thirty years from now, will find that very sensitive file heavily "weeded". Mr. Harper has decided to employ a variant of America's early Vietnam War strategy, which saw the American MACV posturing as an advisory force, but in actuality "kicking Charlie's ass" when the CBS camera boys were not looking. Yesterday a Harper henchman, termed "an official spokesman" by gullible reporters, was sucking and blowing about the new "Mission" plan - to reduce the Canadian Expeditionary Force to 950 uniformed bodies - 750 cops, and 200 clerk typists, cooks, etc. I guess that means the "iconic" Tim Horton trailer and coffee mama's will have to fall back to Kabul.

Colonel Geoff Parker was blown up in Kabul earlier this year. Not only was he Canada's highest ranking officer killed by Afghan guerrillas, he was Canada's 145th death in this WAR. How much armour will we transfer from Kandahar to Kabul to protect the "training" mission? No fricking way is Renfrew of the Mounted going to sport around a kill zone like Kabul in a Toyota RAV.

So let's get this straight... when our boys were getting their asses chewed off a few years back, the public was, with good reason, outraged. So to reduce the mauling, our government placed a RUSH order (cost plus bribes) for South African armoured vehicles, and hired Ukrainian Antonov aircraft to lift our Leopard tanks into A-Stan, for a whopping $$$1,000,000 per flight - so that "our troops have everything they need to get the mission done". Now we are pulling out the infantry, the armour and the drones... and we are going to leave our boys and girls naked in Indian country???!!! Not a fricking chance. Mr. Harper, you can lie to your Tory Faithful but don't lie to us. You are offering this stuff up out of political desperation, and the pity is we don't have a patriot like Stauffenberg joining you at the map table. Everything about this war, oops "MISSION," has been kept SECRET. The number of Canadian wounded and maimed, the number of Canadians who gave up army careers (1000 plus) rather than be sent to Afghanistan, the number of enemy we have have killed and wounded, and the true dollar cost of this, the greatest federal boondoggle.

THE U.N. GRAPHIC WHICH EMBOLDENED THE HARPER GOVERNMENT : UPDATE DEC. 27, 2010

This is the confidential UNITED NATIONS graphic which helped convince Prime Minister Steven Harper to commit nearly 1000 Canadian cops to an extended "mission" in Afghanistan. The map purports to show the national capital Kabul in a "low risk" area. As my article points out, with examples, Kabul is not a low risk zone, and some Canadians federal cops are going to be sent home in plastic bags as the "incidents" accumulated in 2011- 2013. The WALL STREET JOURNAL which published this map today, has a full explanation on why this graphic is so deceptive. - WSJ Story.

Mr. Harper Still Wants to Play War - Happy Remembrance Day!

Well ram a stick up my ass and call me a sucker! Thanks a lot Mr. Harper. I really believed you would keep your word, and pull the Canadian Forces out of Afghanistan in 2011. You are just the liar your political enemies say you are. Just a low down liar. And you compound the lie by announcing your decision during Remembrance Week! What a bastard you are. To use Remembrance Week, when we as a nation traditionally set aside our political views, to take one day to mourn our war dead... you know that the media and the political parties will stand down, loath to upset the greying Legionnaires, because this is their week. What a rotten trick. If there was ever a time RPC should rise again and kick some Tory balls, this would be it. But since the Tory Lawyers, Harper's lawyers, squat on the rights to the REFORM and "ALLIANCE" brands, that just won't happen.

Thanks a lot for humiliating us Stephen. This is the most egregious about-face since Chretien reneged on his GST promise. I was one of those citizen suckers with the SUPPORT THE TROOPS magnet on my car and wearing the YELLOW RIBBON ball cap to the shopping mall. I was a fool who engaged students and friends with positive, practiced homilies about "The MISSION," refusing to admit what it really is, a rotten, hopeless WAR. A war we sacrificed hundreds of lives and $$billions of dollars in taxes for, because you play politics, day after bloody day. You know not the concept of SHAME.

"If I die in a Combat Zone, box me up and send me home." They have not "fallen". They are obliterated. Maple wrapped, but not ready for a closeup, these Canadians died because Mr. Chretien thought he could sell A-Stan as a "Just Cause" and Mr. Harper thinks it plays well to aging Canadians who have no values at all, but like to think they do. One of Canada's best writers, Carol Shields wrote: "We cannot live without our illusions." It's too true!
For a healthy dose of reality read Canadian Forces casualties in Afghanistan on Wikipedia.


I'm giving thought to posting in the Blog photos of what obliterated Canadian soldiers look like. Ever since the C.E.F. went to France in 1915 the media have cooperated with the censors on NOT publishing photos of our dead. I think it's time that changed. We are also not allowed to see what Afghanis look like when they've been torn up by Canadian rifles, 20mm canon and claymores. That too must change. As of November 2010 A-Stan is no longer a Canadian "Mission". It is Mr. Harper's WAR. Chretien started it, but Harper owns it now. I would dislike sitting with a lying Tory constituency organization in the run up to the next Federal election. I wouldn't want to be saddled with selling Stephen's shit. It is has taken one titanic Tory lie to convert me to the anti-war movement. We can best support our troops by repudiating the scoundrel in Ottawa, and supporting any candidate but a Tory.

These four middle aged Afghan women were stuffed into army uniform and assembled for a "Photo OP" in Kabul, Sept. 23, 2010. Notice the NATO soldier in the background. HER embarrassment is so excruciating she turns her face away from the camera. Notice the masks carved into the wooden wall. The photographer who composed this photo has a great sense of the ironic.

The face of the Afghanistan guerrilla. This man will fight until he is dead or crippled. He does not waste time comparing his combat pay to regular wages. He doesn't lose sleep over the fact that he will never receive medals or a monthly pension. He hates the NATO invader and will kill him, or his sons will pick up the Kalashnikov and finish the job for him. He has many friends, including the Chinese, the Pakistanis and the Iranians. He is never alone in his beliefs and he is not on a "Mission" governed by strict "rules of engagement". He is a warrior fighting for what he values. He has already won.

Now I will post this unhappy piece and go to the TV to watch the memorial service at 11AM.

Dogs of War - improvements to early 21st Century Lethality

DOGS OF WAR - a British S.A.S. NCO in England (face digitally masked) demonstrates a HALO descent with special trained camera dog. The dog is trained to run into Taliban bunkers and ambush points to sweep their position with a head mounted video camera. Officially eight dogs have been shot and killed by Taliban irregulars but the attrition rate of on the dogs is probably higher.

A fascinating story in THE GUARDIAN today. All the scrapers are copying and pasting it to their own sites, but you can read the original story (here) HALO jumping (High Altitude Low Opening) is a technique used predominantly in special operations for inserting spies, saboteurs or elite combat teams into hostile territory. Is there any part of Afghanistan that isn't hostile?

The Austrian version of dog insertion by HALO drop. The dog is of course on pressurized oxygen and is also given a thermal vest to prevent its core temperature from falling. There is not doubt that Canada has been sharing in the dog/man HALO experiment, but we will not be informed lest it become a domestic political issue.

Now for you Gameheads who found this Blog article by keyword searching "HALO," the video game. Here is an amusing photo I scraped. Source unknown.

Our Troops in A-Stan Deserve DRAGON SKIN

The new DRAGON SKIN ballistic vest shown under fire. Multiple bullet impacts do not penetrate the titanium/ceramic composite plates, and ambushed soldiers have time to take cover. Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan deserve nothing less.

I have never purchased a bullet proof vest, nor have I had a personal need to own ballistic armour of any type. I do have relatives in Taiwan who occasionally wear vests when they have to transport their stock-in-trade, which is a high value commodity. Old issues aside, I may soon try to buy a protective vest for someone I love. That is, unless the Canadian government steps in and provides our troops with the best gear available.

Perhaps I should mention that since I was a kid I've had an interest in the design history and modern use of all types of military protective gear. I recall that in 1977 the American company, Second Chance, kindly sent me a sample panel of their Kevlar product. I was then a high school student in Saint John, New Brunswick. My brothers and I were not trained in conducting firearms tests, but we were always cautious. In that instance we simply pegged the sample to a one inch thick sheet of plywood. A round of Winchester 00 Buckshot punched the Kevlar sample through the plywood, and in the process made a mess of the yellow fiber weave. Still, our test was a success. The buckshot did not penetrate the folded layers of cloth, and the 00 load had flattened out into a palm full of Corn Flake shaped lead. We teens were impressed, and did what we could to test the remains of the damaged sample. By way of comparison we used a flak-curtain made for a WW2 American B-24 bomber. I don't recall where I got it.

In May of 2006 I participated in an online discussion thread on the topic of Canadian Cree snipers in WW1. In my enthusiasm I also contributed praise for the skilled snipers we currently have deployed in Afghanistan. I shared the URL of a video clip, captured in Iraq in 2005. It documents the moment when an American soldier was shot down by an Iraqi shooter. The urban guerrilla used a Soviet designed Dragunov sniper rifle, firing at street level, for an easy chest shot. It's a stunning video clip, and still available on the website of the manufacturer of the soldier's protective vest. You will witness the soldier knocked down, but responding instantly to his training. He jumps to his feet and takes a defensive posture. Then, realizing that he is fully exposed, he jumps to cover behind a Humvee. Take a look. http://www.pointblankarmor.com/news.asp

Coincident to my online conversation about Canadian snipers in WW1, my daughter, a captain in the Canadian Army, informed me that she might be deployed to Afghanistan in early 2008. That bit of family news rekindled my old interest in body armour. Call it a paternal instinct.

Just two nights ago (January 22), the Discovery Channel aired a superb program in its FUTURE WEAPONS series. What I saw on TV was simply jaw-dropping-amazing. The feature attraction was a new type of flexible vest called DRAGON SKIN. This product is not just an improvement on what we had, but an entirely knew concept. Have a look at this.

All other vests or jackets on the market require large metal or ceramic plates be inserted in pockets, in order to defeat rifle and machinegun rounds. Dragon Skin does not, and because it does not, it is truly flexible combat gear. Protection is built up with dozens of small composite plates, arranged like the overlapping scales on a reptile. These plates not only defeat armour piercing bullets, but spread the staggering force of impact across the vest surface. The soldier does not even suffer bruising, as with older Kevlar vests. http://www.pinnaclearmor.com/body-armor/dragon-skin.php

[Use of Logo authorized]

In the DISCOVERY program the DRAGON SKIN vest was subjected to automatic rifle and submachine gun fire, in single rounds and in bursts. No penetration whatsoever. Since the vest was already compromised in the test, with damage only to the sewn fabric which holds the plates in alignment, the host of the show, a former Navy SEAL, decided to submit the vest to the supreme torture test - a fragmentation grenade. Kaboom! While the fabric carrier was torn away in the blast, there was absolutely no fragment penetration. It is mind blowing to watch!

There are currently 23 companies in the U.S. which manufacture body armour, and I've read industry reports which suggest that they are all holding their breath, worried that the U.S. military might make DRAGON SKIN standard-issue. SECOND CHANCE, that company which was so generous to me in 1977, just recently came out of bankruptcy protective with help from the State of Michigan. DRAGON SKIN could knock that company down for the final count. Law Enforcement would continue to buy Kevlar vests, but military grade manufacturers would have to sub-contract to Pinnacle Armor.

As a stalwart supporter of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and mighty proud of the dangerous mission Canada has undertaken, helping the Afghan military, the national police, and Afghan civilians, I do care that our troops have the very best equipment. If my daughter deploys next year I want her wearing the best protection available, even if I have the manufacturer ship one to A-Stan at my expense. I plan to write to Canada's Minister of National Defence and urge that we provide our troops with this vital life-saving gear. Our soldiers deserve nothing less than DRAGON SKIN. I am also going to urge other service families to join with me in pleading this vital point.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in A-stan, wearing our standard issue vest. He looks a little nervous. A Kalashnikov could chew up that vest like Salisbury steak.

UPDATE: The U.S. Army has purchased thirty sets of the Pinnacle armour and put them through the same tests that all current kit have passed. According to a story I found on MILITARY.COM, dated May 21, 2007, "ARMY REFUTES DRAGON SKIN CLAIMS" (read here) the Army was dissatisfied. It seems that high velocity shots can displace the ceramic scales and, in the case of a burst, a following bullet can get through. Any carrier system rigid enough to prevent this problem, add excessive weight to the vest and make it so rigid that the soldier is impeded.