Through the Opera Glasses - 61 - Each Loss Hurts

It has been eight years since Canada has been engaged against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

During that time, Canadian news stations have routinely broadcast the national mourning of each and every returned soldier who gave his life or her life. As of this blog post, that means 150 repatriation scenes have played out before Canadians.

Sometimes the families assembled at the Trenton air base stand stoically as their loved one emerges from the airplane in a flag-draped coffin. Most often, the sight of the coffin causes the family members to buckle under the weight of the truth now set before them.

As I watched the news last week, it really struck me when the family of Sgt James MacNeil crumpled in pain amongst the others standing respectfully to attention.


Having dismounted from his armoured vehicle, MacNeil stepped on an improvised explosive device.

Sgt MacNeil was the 148th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.













CLICK HERE to watch the video clip of Sgt James MacNeil's repatriation

What gave so many Canadians pause was the immediate pain felt by so many in Sgt MacNeil's home community of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.


CLICK HERE to watch the video clip of Sgt MacNeil's funeral in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia



Cape Breton is a tightly-knit island region. What happens to one Cape Bretoner happens to every Cape Bretoner.

At this grim milestone, the raw reaction of this soldier's family, friends and community is a reminder to all of us that each loss hurts.

Travis Cody says Sgt MacNeil has my eternal gratitude for his service and his sacrifice, as do all the men and women who serve and sacrifice in the name of duty.

Akelamalu says The people of Wootton Basset, here in England,seem to spend all their time lining the streets paying their respects to repatriated soldiers these days :(

Thursday Thirteen - 134 - 13 Reasons Canada's Defense Minister Peter Mackay Should Man Up About Torture Allegations

1 - "A top diplomat’s account of the rampant torture and rape of Afghan detainees is not credible, Defence Minister Peter MacKay (shown with Gen. Natynczyk) said Thursday.

Under fire from all parties, MacKay dismissed testimony from Richard Colvin as second- and third-hand information from enemy sources.

'What we’re talking about here is not only hearsay, we’re talking about basing much of his evidence on what the Taliban have been specifically instructed to lie about if captured,' he said." - Kathleen Harris, Toronto Sun Photo by Andrew Vaughan












2 - "The mugging of Mr. Colvin's reputation showed the Conservatives' underside.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party has its own Frat Pack: a cluster of ministers and MPs who represent the sharp point of the party's attack machine. You could see it at work last week, with Transport Minister John Baird and others attacking the credibility of Richard Colvin, the civil servant who tried to alert the Canadian government to the torture awaiting Canadian Forces detainees sent to Afghan prisons." - Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail Photo by Chris Wattie



3 - "In December of 2005, while Canada was in the middle of the election campaign that brought Stephen Harper to power, then-Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier signed a deal establishing our detainee transfer protocol — an arrangement that did not provide for Canadians to monitor their prisoners.

According to Mr. Colvin, Canadian soldiers were rounding up large numbers of suspected insurgents and turning them over to the Afghan authorities, and then relying on the Red Cross and an Afghan human rights group to make sure they were not tortured." - Stephen Maher, Chronicle Herald Photo by Globe and Mail

















4 - "Inevitably in this kind of insurgency, where foreign troops sweep the countryside for guerrillas, some innocents get scooped into the same net as actual enemy fighters.

All three of the independent military commands at that point (in 2007) — the Canadian, Dutch and British — knew that under international law they were responsible for the well being of all Afghans they picked up, even after they were handed over to Afghan prisons and interrogation centres.

The Dutch were concerned enough to report immediately any handover to the local Red Cross officials. Britain acted within 24 hours.

But Canada?

When Canadian soldiers brought in the usually hooded and tightly bound detainee, our military police on the spot would first inform the colonels and generals in the Kandahar mission control centre.

But instead of alerting the Red Cross right away, like the Dutch and British, these commanders, following orders, sent the information to CEFCOM, the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa.

This information would then be passed over to Defence Headquarters and to Foreign Affairs.

Instead of CEFCOM sending word back to Kandahar to immediately engage local Red Cross officials, the file instead was forwarded to the Canadian Embassy in Geneva.

Only then did Canada inform the International Red Cross, suggesting that it check up on some Afghan civilians our troops had detained and handed over to Afghan interrogators.

It was while this odd Kandahar to Ottawa to Geneva to Kandahar shuffle was going on that detainees would be under the greatest threat of torture and other abuses. If you wanted to ensure your detainee was grilled to the hilt over days, weeks, or months, would this not be the kind of play-for-time system that you would devise?" - Brian Stewart, CBC News Photo by Musadeq Sadeq













5 - "Former warden of Sarpoza Prison, Abdul Qadar Khan Popal, told Canwest News Service 'Prisoners were kept several days in the custody of the NDS,' Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. 'It was not a matter of hours,' Popal said before detainees were transferred from the dilapidated NDS detention centre to Sarpoza. 'I myself have seen injuries on their bodies caused by torture by the NDS.' " - Matthew Fisher, Canada.com Photo by Natalie Behring-Chisholm











6 - "Colvin’s analysis came from interviewing hundreds of prisoners who had been transferred to the Sarposa prison, after allegedly being abused. In May 2007, the Globe and Mail’s intrepid, unembedded reporter Graeme Smith had ventured to the Sarposa prison and broke the same story of alleged torture. I happened to be in Kabul with colleagues when Smith’s expose hit the newsstands and, as a result, we were able to do some first-hand followup.

The head of the NDS acknowledged that the abuse issue could strain Afghan-Canadian relations and, as a gesture of good faith, he offered to grant us direct access to the notorious NDS detention centre in Kandahar.

When we interviewed the directing staff, they proudly admitted that to a man they had all received their training from the Soviets and were all former KGB officers." - Scott Taylor, Chronicle Herald Photo by Dene Moore


7 - "Colvin told a special Commons committee on Afghanistan Wednesday that Canada took vastly more battlefield prisoners than either the British or Dutch militaries operating in southern Afghanistan.

He said that those detainees were, by and large, innocent taxi drivers and farmers rather than Taliban operatives, and that abuse was the 'standard operating procedure' of Afghan authorities, regardless of the intelligence value of a prisoner.

The implements of torture were wire cables, electrical shocks and physical and sexual abuse, he said.

Once newspaper reports in April 2007 brought the problems to light, Colvin said he was instructed to keep quiet by David Mulroney, a senior official who had responsibilities to report on Afghanistan to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay and Gordon O'Connor, who was the defence minister before he became the first political casualty of the detainee scandal." - Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star













8 - "As far as anyone knows, no one has seen a Canadian soldier turn over a suspect to a torturer to be pistol-whipped, cudgelled, shocked or raped.

Yet Richard Colvin sent senior Canadian officials no fewer than 17 messages in 2006 and 2007 warning that Afghan interrogators used torture as 'standard operating procedure,' that Canadian troops were handing over 'a lot of innocent people,' and that could make them complicit in war crimes. He also copied more than 70 people.

As for Colvin's credibility, the Afghan human rights panel has just confirmed that there were indeed 232 cases of torture in 2006/07." - Editorial, Toronto Star Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly












9 - "The Foreign Affairs report, titled Afghanistan-2006; Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights, was marked 'CEO' for Canadian Eyes Only. It seems to remove any last vestige of doubt that the senior officials and ministers knew that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan jails.

The report leaves untouched many paragraphs such as those beginning 'one positive development' or 'there are some bright spots.'

But heavy dark blocks obliterate sentences such as 'military, intelligence and police forces have been accused of involvement in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, extortion, torture and extrajudicial killing.' " - Paul Koring, April 2007, Globe and Mail Photo by Canadian Press


















10 - "Whistleblower Richard Colvin joined Foreign Affairs 15 years ago, in his mid-20s, with the idea that – in the words of one source close to him – Canada might not be a major player but 'we're a force for good, we stand for something.' " - Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star Photo by Sean Kilpatrick














11 - "Counter-insurgency is an argument to win the support of the locals.

Every action, reaction or failure to act become part of the debate. In Kandahar, Canada needs to convince local people that we are better than the Taliban, that our values were superior, that we would look after their interests and protect them.

In my judgment, some of our actions in Kandahar, including complicity in torture, turned local people against us. Instead of winning hearts and minds, we caused Kandaharis to fear the foreigners. Canada’s detainee practices alienated us from the population and strengthened the insurgency." - Richard Colvin, House of Commons testimony, Macleans Photo by Tylere Couture
















12 - "I find it insulting to listen to the governing party in Canada trying to discredit someone who is standing up for the Canadian sense of human justice. I think the Harper crew is insulting everything that each and every Canadian soldier fought and died for - basic human rights. We are a country that upholds the human rights of all people, all the time. This government just celebrated Remembrance Day, and now it slaps the face of all who died for this great nation. Canada deserves better." - Rod Sarty, letter to the editor, Chronicle Herald













13 - " 'We inherited an inadequate transfer arrangement left in place by the previous government,' said Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

'There is something called ministerial accountability,' said Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh. 'You can't shut your eyes, your ears and your mouth to say "No, I didn't know." '

The opposition demanded to know the names of the officials who tried to shut down Colvin's reports and sanitize the reports of other diplomats.

'Who in this government issued that order?' asked Dosanjh. 'Why is this government creating a culture - an un-Canadian culture - of secrecy about an issue as abhorrent as torture?' " - Murray Brewster, Canadian Press Photo by Pete Williamson

Through the Sniper Sights - 10 - Fox News Red Eye Gives a Black Eye to Canadian Military

On March 23rd, 2009 - only last week - the bodies of four Canadian soldiers were carried from a military aircraft at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario. They made up the 113th, 114th, 115th and 116th Canadian soldiers to die in Afghanistan since 2002.


Clockwise from top left:

Cpl. Tyler Crooks

Trooper Jack Bouthillier

Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli

Trooper Corey Hayes






Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli's flag-draped coffin was carried down the ramp first, followed by the body of Cpl. Tyler Crooks. They served in the infantry with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Petawawa. Next came the coffins carrying Trooper Jack Bouthillier and Trooper Corey Hayes from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, an armoured regiment also based at CFB Petawawa.












Governor General Michaelle Jean and Defence Minister Peter MacKay were among the family members and friends for the sombre and highly emotional ceremony. The coffins were placed in a line of waiting hearses, which headed along the highway now known as The Highway of Heroes, where every fallen soldier is saluted by ordinary Canadians from an overpass running across this highway.












A week earlier, Fox News had aired its late night talk show, Red Eye, hosted by Greg Gutfeld. "On his show, Gutfeld criticized the Canadian military for planning to take a 'synchronized break' after its Afghanistan withdrawal. 'Meaning, the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white Capri pants,' he said.

'Isn't this the perfect time to invade this ridiculous country? They have no army!' he quipped.

Panelist Doug Benson, a comedian, replied: 'I didn't even know they were in the war. I thought that's where you go when you don't want to fight. Go chill in Canada.' " - AFP

Brandon Friedman served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq. The author of The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War wrote this scathing but hilarious post about the Red Eye broadcast on the VetVoice blog:

Fox News Mocks Service of Canadian Soldiers

In it he tells of retired Canadian forces infantry sniper Rob Furlong, whom I previously saw profiled on a CBC documentary. Newfoundland-born-and-raised Furlong "killed an al Qaeda fighter from 2430 m (a mile and a half away,) the rough equivalent of standing at Toronto's CN Tower and hitting a target near Bloor Street.

Part of the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Furlong was one of 900 Canadian soldiers deployed as part of the U.S.-led retribution for Sept. 11, hand-picked as Canada's contribution to Operation Anaconda.

It was March 3, 2002 - the Chinook helicopter carrying Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry, another sniper, twisted its way onto the mountain just before dawn. Within minutes, enemy fighters opened up, feeding the new arrivals a steady stream of small-arms and mortar fire. New Brunswick-born-and-raised Perry, hauling his rifle on his back, headed for higher ground. 'Anyone who says they are not scared is crazy,' he recalls. In that first hour, Perry fired at target after target, some as far away as 1,500 m. 'His shots were incredible,' says Sgt. Maj. Mark Nielsen, a veteran of America's 101st Airborne Division. 'One shot, one kill. If I had to send him a sweatshirt, that's what it would say.'

When the helicopter returned to the mountain a few hours later, dozens of US troops spilled out the side doors and onto the valley floor, scanning the horizon. As dusk approached, mortars and muzzle flashes lit up the sky, hammering the ground all around their position. Amid the onslaught, the Canadian snipers pummelled at least one enemy hideout. Everyone else took cover.

For the next nine days, the Canadian snipers disposed of rival fighters with diabolical precision. They became an all-star unit of sorts, shuttled from hill to hill as needed, sometimes by foot, sometimes by four-wheeler. Their bullets destroyed enemy lookouts, protected U.S. troops as they moved through the valley, and, in those moments when all hell broke loose, annihilated the source of fire.

'These guys were just excellent military professionals,' says Capt. Justin Overbaugh, the commander of a U.S. scout platoon that worked alongside one of the Canadian sniper teams. 'We didn't want to give them up. I would have brought them home with me if I could.' " - Michael Friscolanti, Macleans Magazine

" 'I don't need to remind Canadians of the actual facts, but Canadians are fighting extremely hard in perhaps the most dangerous part of Afghanistan,' said Michael O'Hanlon, a specialist on U.S. national security policy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

'And in addition to having suffered such severe losses, they are also to my mind the No. 1 ally most admired by American commanders when I hear them speak off the record about counter-insurgency application, military heroism and general combat skills.' " - Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press