by Ray Wiss
First, the country must be independently militarily secure. To achieve this, the Coalition must maintain a robust force on the ground until the Afghan army is able to hold the Taliban at bay on its own. What I saw in 2009 confirmed what I had come to believe in 2007–08: the ANA would reach an acceptable level of competence in 2012. I feel our military pullout, therefore, to be a year earlier than it should be.
Second, the educational system must be nurtured and protected. This war will be won in the Afghan classroom, by giving the rural poor economic alternatives more attractive than a Taliban paycheque and by giving ordinary Afghans a world view that rejects extremism. The Taliban realize this, and will continue to do their utmost to destroy schools and intimidate, maim or kill teachers and students. They must be prevented from doing this.
Third, an Afghan leadership must arise that is worthy both of the Afghan people and of the sacrifice of the Coalition nations. Results in this area have been disappointing, to say the least. A flawed election was followed by a run-off election that was cancelled when the challenger felt he would not have a fair chance at victory. Everyone is questioning whether President Hamid Karzai is willing, or even capable, of curbing the corruption that plagues his government.
The political process did have a significant positive aspect, but it was one the media largely overlooked. The main challenger for the presidency was Abdullah Abdullah, the former minister of foreign affairs. Upon withdrawing from the run-off election, he committed himself to oppose President Karzai politically. This is a sea change for Afghanistan. For the past thirty years, any leader who has been pushed out of power has retreated to his ethnic power base and led an armed struggle against those who had forced him out of Kabul. Despite the weak mandate President Karzai obtained, not a single person who ran against him for the presidency has taken up arms. This lack of violence does not mean the political opposition is being docile. The country’s parliament rejected 70 per cent of Karzai’s first slate of ministerial candidates, forcing him to submit a second, more broadly acceptable list. It has blocked his attempts to gain more control over the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, which exposed much of the fraud in the August elections. At this writing, it is also fighting to retain control of the procedures for the Parliamentary elections scheduled for September 2010. All in all, the political opposition in Afghanistan is behaving much like a vigorous opposition in any other democratic country.
Could this be the beginning of a more peaceful Afghanistan? If Abdullah Abdullah and the other opposition leaders can agree to work within the political process even after they feel that they have been cheated of the presidency by fraud, perhaps many of the Afghans who oppose the government with violence can be convinced to enter into dialogue and negotiations, and give up armed resistance. Taliban supporters are not a monolithic mass. Many of them hunger for moral and coherent leadership, just like the rest of their countrymen.
Canadians will therefore watch events unfold in Afghanistan over the coming years with concern and trepidation. But regardless of the outcome, and regardless of how individual Canadians might feel about this war, all Canadians would do well to remember the names of Zhari, and Panjwayi, and Arghandab, and Shah Wali Khot. The men and women in uniform that you have met in these pages, and so many more in stories that have yet to be told, did Canada proud in those places. Canadians must be proud of them in return.
CAPTAIN RAY WISS, M.D.
Medical Officer, Second Battalion, Irish Regiment of Canada*
Emergency Physician, Sudbury Regional Hospital
* A reserve infantry regiment based in Sudbury, Ontario.
Glossary of Abbreviations, Acronyms and Initialisms
ANA Afghan National Army
ANP Afghan National Police
BIP Blow in Place
CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CCP Casualty Collection Point
CDS Chief of the Defence Staff
CF Canadian Forces
CFB Canadian Forces Base
CIA Central Intelligence Agency (U.S.)
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CIMIC Civil Military Cooperation
CNS Camp Nathan Smith
CPO Chief Petty Officer
CT Computerized Tomography
CPR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
DOW Died of Wounds
EDE Emergency Department Echo
EOD Explosive Ordnance Disposal
ESL English as a Second Language
ETA Estimated Time of Arrival
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation (U.S.)
FLQ Front de Libération du Québec
FOB Forward Operating Base
FOO Forward Observation Officer
GP General Practitioner
HLTA Home Leave Travel Allowance
ICU Intensive Care Unit
IED Improvised Explosive Device
ISI Inter Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
IT Information Technology
IV Intravenous
KAF Kandahar Air Field
KIA Killed in Action
LAV Light Armoured Vehicle
MASCAL Mass Casualty
MMU Multinational Medical Unit
MRE Medical Rules of Eligibility
MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MS Master Seaman
MULLE Mobile Unit Light Logistics Element
MWO Master Warrant Officer
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCO Non-Commissioned Officer
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NIS National Investigation Service (CF)
OMLT Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team
OP Observation Post
PA Physician Assistant
PBW Patrol Base Wilson
PPCLI Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
PPE Personal Protective
PRT Provincial Reconstruction Equipment Team
PTSDPost-Traumatic Stress Disorder
QRF Quick Reaction Force
RCMP Royal Canadian
Mounted Police
RIP Relief in Place
RMC Royal Military College
RPG Rocket-Propelled Grenade
SAS Special Air Service (U.K.)
SEAL Sea Air Land (U.S. Navy)
SWAT Special Weapons and Tactics
TCCC Tactical Combat Casualty Care
TOC Tactical Operation Centre
UMS Unit Medical Station
UN United Nations
USD U.S. Dollars
VIP Very Important Person
VOIED Victim-Operated Improvised Explosive Device
VPS Vulnerable Point Search
VSA Vital Signs Absent
WIA Wounded in Action
WO Warrant Officer
The Fallen
THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW and on the following pages are of Canadian soldiers who were killed in action and who are mentioned in this book.
SERGEANT ROBERT SHORT
KIA October 2, 2003
, Infantry
CORPORAL ROBBIE
BEERENFENGER
KIA October 2, 2003, Infantry
CORPORAL JAMIE MURPHY
KIA January 27, 2004,
Infantry
Above are the official photos released by the CF when these three men were killed. These photos are lifted from impromptu photos taken by friends. They are low-resolution images, which become extremely blurry if I try to magnify them.
It was only when we came to Kandahar, and our dying became more frequent and predictable, that the CF began taking the formal, high-resolution pictures of our soldiers that appear on the following pages.
That is the picture I absolutely did not want to have taken of me.
CAPTAIN NICHOLA GODDARD
KIA May 17, 2006, Artillery
TROOPER MARK WILSON
KIA October 7, 2006, Armour
CAPTAIN JONATHAN SNYDER
KIA June 7,
2008, Infantry
WARRANT OFFICER GAËTAN ROBERGE
KIA December 27, 2008, Infantry
SAPPER SEAN GREENFIELD
KIA January 31, 2009, Engineer
TROOPER KARINE BLAIS
KIA April 13, 2009, Armour
PRIVATE ALEXANDRE PELOQUIN
KIA June 8, 2009, Infantry
CORPORAL MARTIN DUBÉ
KIA June 14, 2009, Infantry
CORPORAL NICK BULGER
KIA July 3, 2009, Infantry
MASTER CORPORAL CHARLES-PHILIPPE MICHAUD
DOW July 4, 2009, Infantry
MASTER CORPORAL PATRICE AUDET
KIA July 6, 2009, Air Force
CORPORAL MARTIN JOANNETTE
KIA July 6, 2009, Infantry
PRIVATE SÉBASTIEN COURCY
KIA July 16, 2009, Infantry
CORPORAL CHRISTIAN BOBBITT
KIA August 1, 2009, Engineer
SAPPER MATHIEU ALLARD
KIA August 1, 2009, Engineer
MAJOR YANNICK PÉPIN
KIA September 6, 2009, Engineer
CORPORAL JEAN-FRANÇOIS DROUIN
KIA September 6, 2009, Engineer
PRIVATE PATRICK LORMAND
KIA September 13, 2009, Infantry
PRIVATE JONATHAN COUTURIER
KIA September 17, 2009, Infantry
FOR THE FALLEN
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
LAURENCE BINYON
At the going down of the sun
(Photo courtesy Master Corporal Ken Fenner)
We will remember them
(Artwork by Silvia Pecota)
CAPTAIN RAY WISS, M.D., is an emergency medicine specialist from Sudbury, Ontario, and a member of the Canadian Forces Reserves. In 2008, he was awarded the YMCA Peace Medal and the Ontario Medical Association Career Service Award. In 2010, he received the Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Award at an event headlined by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Also in 2010, he was selected to be the keynote speaker at the North York General Hospital Emergency Medicine Update, Canada’s premier emergency medicine conference. FOB Doc, the book he wrote about his first tour, was one of Amazon.ca’s “Editors’ Picks: Top 100 Books” of 2009.