July 6 - When the US asked Canada to to extend the tour of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan so they could help provide security during that country's September elections, the answer was "no."

There is a critical lessons in this, one which is especially relevant for Americans who believe that having the U.N. and/or NATO inolved would therefore bring significantly increased military assets: while we do gain more "allies" who demand a voice at the table, they won't or can't commit military or monetarily to do what it takes to see the mission through.

Major-General Lewis MacKenzie (ret.) explains real reasons behind the Canadian refusal (Political excuses disarm military morale):

Unfortunately, it was left to a junior Defence department spokesman to explain why Canada would not agree to the U.S. request: "What the Americans are looking for is not exactly what our troops are trained for."

This need not have been such a highly embarrassing admission, as it is blatantly untrue. There are reasons why our contingent is incapable of taking on such a role, but it has nothing to do with a lack of training. On the contrary, they are the best-trained troops for such a mission in the multinational force.

[...]

Regrettably, a considerable degree of inflexibility was built into the organization of the Canadian contingent and a very un-Canadian solution was chosen.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:43 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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