Posted on 08/08/2003 4:33:39 AM PDT by Clive
KABUL (CP) - Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie motions toward the hazy outline of mountains north of the Canadian base camp, then sweeps his arm across the expanse of clay buildings in the left foreground.
"That," says the youthful head of Canadian military operations in Afghanistan, "is Wild West country." Home to between 750,000 and 1.5 million people, the southwest sector of Kabul will be the area of operations for about 3,800 Canadian troops sent here to protect the Afghan transitional government over the next year.
Deployed in two rotations of about 1,900 soldiers each, the Canadians will face the gamut of Afghan life as they wade into the teeming sea of humanity in the streets and alleyways of the Afghan capital.
A small contingent from the Third Battalion Royal Canadian regiment arrived in Kabul by Airbus early Friday.
The vast majority of Afghan people - up to 95 per cent, says Leslie - are "tired of war, tired of lawlessness and they just want to get on with their lives." Leslie, who is also deputy commander of the 25-country International Security Assistance Force, calls them the "silent majority" and says they are either supportive of what ISAF is trying to do or neutral.
It's the other five per cent the Canadian troops will have to worry about.
The Canadians' enemies include those Leslie says are "comfortable with the status quo" of a lawless state and the money it brings through black marketeering, drug smuggling, banditry, intimidation and other crimes.
There are also "those who actively want to kill us ... because we're not the same as they are," Leslie says. They include extremists and elements of al-Qaida and the Taliban who have regrouped and reorganized after they were scattered by the U.S.-led war on terrorism last year. Already, about 20 soldiers of the international force have died.
The Canadians' 250-member theatre activation team officially handed over the camp to the combat commander, Col. Mark Hodgson, during a brief flag-raising ceremony on Thursday.
As the first combat troops made their way from Petawawa, Ont., this week, Leslie surveyed the camp that sprawls between the ruins of the once-magnificent palaces of a former king, Amanullah Khan and his queen Suraya.
Destroyed during the Soviet war of the 1980s, they are nonetheless impressive, poignant reminders of a country that once was a crossroads of empire and now lies in disarray.
Leslie, who comes from a line of celebrated Canadian fighting generals, has no illusions about the task facing his soldiers - that of re-establishing "respect for the rule of law" in a land that has known only extremism or lawlessness for decades or more.
Leslie says earning that respect is not done by sitting in camp and looking out, nor by "roaring up and down the main street" in armoured vehicles.
Instead, his soldiers will enter the area on foot, walking what Leslie describes as a "maze of narrow streets and clay compounds, choked by people." They will be the first major ISAF presence in the area.
Beginning Aug. 21, they will interact with locals, scan the dust-choked district for problems, and give back what they get.
"It will be the bad guys' decision when to initiate hostilities," says Leslie.
When they do - and the general has no doubt they will - Canadian troops will be armed "with anything and everything a soldier can ask for." Those tools include unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, missile-seeking radar systems, 105mm artillery pieces and "extraordinarily robust" rules of engagement.
Even members of Canada's vaunted JTF-2 special forces unit are here, though the general and virtually everyone else in the camp steadfastly refused to discuss whether their role extends beyond routine security and escort.
Leslie says his options in the event of an attack include returning his troops to camp and hunkering down, absorbing losses and continuing patrols, or "flooding the area ... with even more patrols, more presence to show the bad guys that there is a cost to killing soldiers."
One can only guess what Leslie's decision will be.
"I fully expect pushback shortly after we start," he says. "People will want to test us, to test our resolve and they're going to try to test some of my soldiers to see how they react."
"I don't think anybody sent us to Afghanistan to sit in our camp."
"by Airbus?" Does this mean they don't have any transport aircraft of their own?
The first members of the 3RCR Battlegroup walk from their Hercules aircraft upon arriving in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday Aug. 8, 2003. 3RCR battlegroup will be the ones eventually patrolling the streets in Kabul as part of the International Security Assistance Force. (CP PHOTO/Tom Hanson)
Yeah they do...
The CC-130 Hercules is the workhorse of the air force's transport fleet, hauling freight and personnel throughout Canada and the world. Its ability to carry outsized loads makes the Hercules the air force's only heavy hauler in its inventory.
http://www.airforce.dnd.ca/8wing/squadron/squadron_e.asp
The 437 Transport Squadron is currently equipped with five CC-150 Polaris (A-310 Airbus) Aircraft, a familiar sight not only in the skies around Trenton, but also across Canada and around the world. The Polaris replaced the aging Boeing 707 in April 1997. The big difference is that it operates at about two-thirds the cost of the CF Boeing 707.
The replacement of the 707 fleet by the Airbus A-310 was driven by several factors, among which were included noise and cost. The 707 did not meet stage 3 noise reduction guidelines and therefore could not fly into the majority of the world's airports without waivers. In addition, the expected retirement date for the 707 was April of 1996 and to extend it would have meant major expenditures on hush kits, more economical engines, and replacement of avionics that were becoming economically unsupportable.
8 Wing Trenton is the home of air transport. The workhorses, the fleet of Airbus CC-150 Polaris transport Aircraft and 32 CC-130 Hercules, can usually be found front and centre in any operation where Canada has interests.
The Polaris is kept busy flying scheduled operations to resupply more than 2500 Canadian Forces personnel deployed abroad in such places as Bosnia, Zagreb, the Middle East Afhganistan, Africa and Italy.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/operations/current_ops_e.asp
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