Jorock12
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ca...har-in-2011-overseas-commander-102094698.html
OTTAWA - The shadow war fought in Afghanistan by Canada's ultra-secret, special forces will also end next year when the army ceases combat operations in Kandahar, says the general in charge of the country's overseas command.
It is a significant, if somewhat unrecognized, milestone for a force whose exploits have been blanketed in secrecy for almost a decade.
Much of the public attention on the end of the combat mission has focused on the battle group of nearly 3,000 soldiers who, since February 2006, have fought to keep Kandahar from slipping back in to the grasp of Taliban militants.
Those troops have fought largely under NATO command, but a separate, concurrent war was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom, whose counter-terrorism mission since 2001 has been to hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, the head of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, said it's often not recognized the parliamentary motion to halt combat operations by July 2011 also applies to the special forces, who were the first to hit the ground in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The special forces are an entity of the Canadian Forces (and) the direction from the whole of government applies to the special forces," Lessard said in an interview this week with The Canadian Press. "Absolutely, it applies to every, every element."
How many special forces soldiers are in Afghanistan is classified, but they are thought to number in the hundreds
There are some in military circles who'd expected Canada to quietly maintain a token contingent of commandos on a rotational basis, even with the withdrawal of regular troops, but Lessard said there is no plan to leave any forces behind.
"There's absolutely no planning, and I can tell you because I'm the one doing it, for any type of residual force — or any type of new mission; there's no planning at all," said Lessard, who spent the better part of 2008 as commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.
He said Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the defence chief, has given clear orders: ''We're not to engage in any planning whatsoever."
The directive is all-encompassing. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information show that even the staff officers at NATO's field headquarters in Kabul will be withdrawn, along with the combat troops and special forces.
"Staff and headquarters positions for which the CF is currently responsible will not cease in July 2011 but be maintained, but not beyond December 2011," said a Dec. 9, 2009 warning order from Lessard.
The Opposition has floated the idea of having Canadian troops stay on to train Afghan forces, but this appears to have been rejected by the Conservative government. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly conceded last week that the government was grappling with how to protect Canadian diplomats and aid workers after the army withdraws.
Bringing home the special forces, will have a significant impact on the Allied forces, said retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie.
"They'll be missed," MacKenzie said Thursday. "They were a valuable source of intelligence, not just to us, but to the command by way of tracking high-value targets and identifying high-value targets. Therefore it is a loss."
One of the few bright spots of the latest bloody summer in Kandahar has been the success of U.S., Canadian, British and Australian special forces, who were largely responsible for killing or capturing more than 365 insurgent leaders, according to NATO figures released this week.
Canada's special forces are made up of two distinct groups: the elite JTF-2 commandos and the Canadian Special Operations Regiment.
The acronym JTF-2 is probably more widely known to Canadians. Its mission, similar to that of the U.S. Delta Force and British Special Air Service, is counter-terrorism — or "whacking the bad guys" as it's described in army lingo. The special operations regiment functions more like U.S. Army Green Berets and leads counter-insurgency fighting with troops who try to blend in with the countryside and understand cultural nuances.
About 40 JTF-2 soldiers landed in Afghanistan in December 2001, but the Liberal government of the day never announced their deployment and the force's accomplishments throughout the war have never been recognized.
The troops were awarded in 2004 a U.S. Presidential Unit Commendation for actions in Afghanistan.
JTF-2 has only ever acknowledged the loss of one member in a combat operation. It happened in April 2007 when Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer fell off a communications tower in Kandahar.
There you have it, sorry mates to all still serving or rotating into the sandbox that we can't be there to help. Keep "whacking the bad guys".
OTTAWA - The shadow war fought in Afghanistan by Canada's ultra-secret, special forces will also end next year when the army ceases combat operations in Kandahar, says the general in charge of the country's overseas command.
It is a significant, if somewhat unrecognized, milestone for a force whose exploits have been blanketed in secrecy for almost a decade.
Much of the public attention on the end of the combat mission has focused on the battle group of nearly 3,000 soldiers who, since February 2006, have fought to keep Kandahar from slipping back in to the grasp of Taliban militants.
Those troops have fought largely under NATO command, but a separate, concurrent war was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom, whose counter-terrorism mission since 2001 has been to hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, the head of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, said it's often not recognized the parliamentary motion to halt combat operations by July 2011 also applies to the special forces, who were the first to hit the ground in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The special forces are an entity of the Canadian Forces (and) the direction from the whole of government applies to the special forces," Lessard said in an interview this week with The Canadian Press. "Absolutely, it applies to every, every element."
How many special forces soldiers are in Afghanistan is classified, but they are thought to number in the hundreds
There are some in military circles who'd expected Canada to quietly maintain a token contingent of commandos on a rotational basis, even with the withdrawal of regular troops, but Lessard said there is no plan to leave any forces behind.
"There's absolutely no planning, and I can tell you because I'm the one doing it, for any type of residual force — or any type of new mission; there's no planning at all," said Lessard, who spent the better part of 2008 as commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.
He said Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the defence chief, has given clear orders: ''We're not to engage in any planning whatsoever."
The directive is all-encompassing. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information show that even the staff officers at NATO's field headquarters in Kabul will be withdrawn, along with the combat troops and special forces.
"Staff and headquarters positions for which the CF is currently responsible will not cease in July 2011 but be maintained, but not beyond December 2011," said a Dec. 9, 2009 warning order from Lessard.
The Opposition has floated the idea of having Canadian troops stay on to train Afghan forces, but this appears to have been rejected by the Conservative government. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly conceded last week that the government was grappling with how to protect Canadian diplomats and aid workers after the army withdraws.
Bringing home the special forces, will have a significant impact on the Allied forces, said retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie.
"They'll be missed," MacKenzie said Thursday. "They were a valuable source of intelligence, not just to us, but to the command by way of tracking high-value targets and identifying high-value targets. Therefore it is a loss."
One of the few bright spots of the latest bloody summer in Kandahar has been the success of U.S., Canadian, British and Australian special forces, who were largely responsible for killing or capturing more than 365 insurgent leaders, according to NATO figures released this week.
Canada's special forces are made up of two distinct groups: the elite JTF-2 commandos and the Canadian Special Operations Regiment.
The acronym JTF-2 is probably more widely known to Canadians. Its mission, similar to that of the U.S. Delta Force and British Special Air Service, is counter-terrorism — or "whacking the bad guys" as it's described in army lingo. The special operations regiment functions more like U.S. Army Green Berets and leads counter-insurgency fighting with troops who try to blend in with the countryside and understand cultural nuances.
About 40 JTF-2 soldiers landed in Afghanistan in December 2001, but the Liberal government of the day never announced their deployment and the force's accomplishments throughout the war have never been recognized.
The troops were awarded in 2004 a U.S. Presidential Unit Commendation for actions in Afghanistan.
JTF-2 has only ever acknowledged the loss of one member in a combat operation. It happened in April 2007 when Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer fell off a communications tower in Kandahar.
There you have it, sorry mates to all still serving or rotating into the sandbox that we can't be there to help. Keep "whacking the bad guys".
