Dr. Sean Maloney, who peruses these pages (he lurves the Whazits) and occasionally drops from the rafters to comment, is a stealth source of news of things Canadian for Castle Argghhh!. Of course, even though I've offered to quadruple his $0 (Canadian) salary if he'll post this stuff here, he chooses filthy lucre he can actually spend (and enhance his CV with) instead. Ah, well - as Bill amply demonstrates, I get what I pay for! So, what did MacLean's pay for? Here's the opening paragraph:
You can (and should) read the rest by clicking here.
The grey-uniformed Afghan police, accompanied by Canadian soldiers from the Police Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (POMLT), were working their way on a patrol through the crowded market in Bazaar-e Panjwai. The market, lined with stores selling everything from oranges and pomegranates to colourfully embroidered bicycle seats, runs along both sides of the town’s main road, anchored in the west by the main Canadian and Afghan base, and stretching in the east to the dangerous IED-plagued highway that runs to Kandahar city. As the patrol greeted the shopkeepers and watched the children head down the road to the school, a robed man approached. He suddenly raised his arms, shouted “Allahu akbar!” and pressed a trigger that was attached to his bomb vest. The device refused to detonate as he madly mashed the trigger down again and again. The four Canadians opened fire with their assault rifles while the Afghan police moved the terrified crowd back. Even as the terrorist lay bleeding to death on the ground he was still trying to detonate the bomb. His batteries, it turned out later, were dead. According to one soldier, it was as if the pink Energizer drumming bunny had frozen in place at the end of the commercial.
You can (and should) read the rest by clicking here.
Keen insights and well written, showing the value of historians being involed in reporting and recording military events in real time, not just from old records decades later.
Especially revealing is the last page which discusses the (all too familiar) aspects of lack of support by other agencies needed to exploit military success, and to deal with issues outside the military mission scope.
The many contributions and excellent success being achieved by our brave neighbors to the north are shamefully unreported and unrecognized, and therefore under appreciated by U.S. citizens. And likely the new administration as well.
Thank you, my Canadian friends!