Sunday, November 9, 2008

Is Canada or US or no one in charge in Kandahar?


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As far as most Canadians are concerned, though you can correct me should you believe otherwise,  Kandahar Province in Afghanistan is the responsibility of the Canadian Forces stationed there.

Coming home too late to put together a Digest I indulged myself by going through links to articles about Afghanistan.  Two articles raise questions about our Forces status in Kandahar.

The first, "U.S. acknowledges 37 Afghan civilians killed in fighting last week" http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-afghan9-2008nov09,0,4542884.story states "The U.S. military acknowledged Saturday that 37 civilians were killed and 35 injured during fighting last week in Kandahar province between insurgents and coalition forces."

Questions arising are these: were Canadian Forces aware of the action that led to fighting between "insurgents and coalition forces" that led to these civilian deaths last week: were they involved or were they ignorant?

The second article, "Special Purpose MAGFT arrives in Kandahar" http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com/?p=716 raises these questions: are the "approximately 2,000 Marines and Sailors" of the Special Purpose MAGFT arriving in Kandahar going to be acting independently or in liaison with Canadian Forces; will they operate under ISAF or US rules of engagement which differ substantially in terms of actions in which civilians can be affected?

In that Afghans overwhelmingly will lay blame for actions negatively affecting them on all outlanders without differentiating between these being done by Canadians and Americans it is reasonable to seek and to obtain answers to the questions posed.

Is Canada in charge of Kandahar, the US, or do the forces of the two countries operate independently with no one in overall charge?

        Joe Hueglin
         905-356-3901

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