Canadian soldiers defiant in face of growing controversy over Afghan mission
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers expressed bewilderment, surprise and anger that people back home would question their role in Afghanistan.
Troops interviewed in violence-plagued Kandahar this week were unanimous in support of their mission in the face of growing concerns about Canada's most perilous military deployment in decades.
One described a near-death experience on his first full day in Afghanistan, saying it still gives him nightmares. But the experience hasn't dented his faith in the mission's goals.
Another soldier struggled to contain his anger when told of a recent public-opinion poll that suggested most Canadians opposed the Afghan deployment.
"I'll hold my tongue - but that burns me, really," said Cpl. Pascal Johanny of Shediac, N.B.
"The Canadian public has always approved of Canadian missions - in Bosnia, in Kosovo, always giving their support.
"Now we're here in one of the worst places that needs the most help, and now they don't want to support us? It's kind of odd."
With casualties mounting, a recent Strategic Counsel poll suggested just 40 per cent of Canadians supported the mission. Just under 75 per cent of those polled agreed with calls from the NDP and some Liberals for a parliamentary debate on the deployment.
But soldiers interviewed privately by The Canadian Press during Prime Minister Stephen Harper's three-day visit said they wanted to continue their mission.
During one late-night interview, Cpl. Pat Halcro of Ottawa sat behind the wheel of his idle transport vehicle quietly describing the unnerving experience of bullets whistling past his head.
Thirty hours after arriving in Kandahar, Halcro was riding atop an armoured vehicle when he saw the flash of a rocket-propelled grenade by the road.
He says he fired at least a dozen bullets at a pair of insurgents from his assault rifle and still doesn't know whether he killed them.
The insurgents managed to launch two grenades and fired shots in Halcro's direction before he sped off. One grenade fell wide of the vehicle and failed to detonate. Another soared overhead and exploded off the road.
The closest call came from a bullet that whizzed so close to his head that it rattled his eardrums through his heavy communications headset.
But Halcro says he also remembers another Afghan scene, that of an impoverished family living in the bombed-out, semi-collapsed remains of an old Soviet military barracks.
"It's mind-boggling," Halcro said of the devastation. "We have to show the young people here that there's a better way of life than fighting. Everybody deserves an opportunity to succeed - and it's a good thing we're here."
Shock waves rippled across the camp last week when an insurgent buried an axe in the skull of a Canadian soldier who had been chatting with children. But Halcro and other soldiers have shrugged off such attacks as the work of a few bad apples.
Capt. Julie Roberge acknowledges she sometimes sees locals flashing the thumbs-down sign at her, or shooting menacing glances as she rides through town.
But she describes her real enemy as ignorance. Many locals can't read newspapers and don't understand why foreigners are in their country, she said.
That's why the public-relations graduate is helping the newly appointed provincial government with media relations. She invited the local media this week to the first-ever news conference by Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid.
Since the literacy rate is so low, Roberge urges the governor to use the radio to reach citizens.
"A democracy without the support of its people is useless," the Quebec City resident says of her Afghan public-relations work.
She works at a Canadian-run base in the desert near the mud huts of Kandahar, in the shadow of a craggy, dirt-coloured mountain where the charred remains of an old Soviet helicopter are still visible.
Canadians at this base are helping the new provincial government set up its departments, and training police officers.
Warrant Officer John MacPherson says the country needs Canada's help.
"This is my seventh mission (abroad)," said the Montreal native. "I've seen quite a bit. I have never seen a people that are this poor. They have nothing and we're just trying to give them a better life.
"It's going to take a long time."
Khalid says his province and country need Canada's help after decades of war. And, he warns, countries like Canada need a stable Afghanistan.
"I will tell Canadian people ... if we don't do this (reconstruction) now, today in Afghanistan, tomorrow we will need to do this in Europe and in Canada," he said.
"Ninety-nine per cent of people in Kandahar, all over Afghanistan, they are thinking about peace. They want peace, they want stability, they want reconstruction, and they are tired of war.
"All Afghan people like peace and like your soldiers here, and they respect your soldiers. ... We need your soldiers, and I'm proud of them."
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers expressed bewilderment, surprise and anger that people back home would question their role in Afghanistan.
Troops interviewed in violence-plagued Kandahar this week were unanimous in support of their mission in the face of growing concerns about Canada's most perilous military deployment in decades.
One described a near-death experience on his first full day in Afghanistan, saying it still gives him nightmares. But the experience hasn't dented his faith in the mission's goals.
Another soldier struggled to contain his anger when told of a recent public-opinion poll that suggested most Canadians opposed the Afghan deployment.
"I'll hold my tongue - but that burns me, really," said Cpl. Pascal Johanny of Shediac, N.B.
"The Canadian public has always approved of Canadian missions - in Bosnia, in Kosovo, always giving their support.
"Now we're here in one of the worst places that needs the most help, and now they don't want to support us? It's kind of odd."
With casualties mounting, a recent Strategic Counsel poll suggested just 40 per cent of Canadians supported the mission. Just under 75 per cent of those polled agreed with calls from the NDP and some Liberals for a parliamentary debate on the deployment.
But soldiers interviewed privately by The Canadian Press during Prime Minister Stephen Harper's three-day visit said they wanted to continue their mission.
During one late-night interview, Cpl. Pat Halcro of Ottawa sat behind the wheel of his idle transport vehicle quietly describing the unnerving experience of bullets whistling past his head.
Thirty hours after arriving in Kandahar, Halcro was riding atop an armoured vehicle when he saw the flash of a rocket-propelled grenade by the road.
He says he fired at least a dozen bullets at a pair of insurgents from his assault rifle and still doesn't know whether he killed them.
The insurgents managed to launch two grenades and fired shots in Halcro's direction before he sped off. One grenade fell wide of the vehicle and failed to detonate. Another soared overhead and exploded off the road.
The closest call came from a bullet that whizzed so close to his head that it rattled his eardrums through his heavy communications headset.
But Halcro says he also remembers another Afghan scene, that of an impoverished family living in the bombed-out, semi-collapsed remains of an old Soviet military barracks.
"It's mind-boggling," Halcro said of the devastation. "We have to show the young people here that there's a better way of life than fighting. Everybody deserves an opportunity to succeed - and it's a good thing we're here."
Shock waves rippled across the camp last week when an insurgent buried an axe in the skull of a Canadian soldier who had been chatting with children. But Halcro and other soldiers have shrugged off such attacks as the work of a few bad apples.
Capt. Julie Roberge acknowledges she sometimes sees locals flashing the thumbs-down sign at her, or shooting menacing glances as she rides through town.
But she describes her real enemy as ignorance. Many locals can't read newspapers and don't understand why foreigners are in their country, she said.
That's why the public-relations graduate is helping the newly appointed provincial government with media relations. She invited the local media this week to the first-ever news conference by Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid.
Since the literacy rate is so low, Roberge urges the governor to use the radio to reach citizens.
"A democracy without the support of its people is useless," the Quebec City resident says of her Afghan public-relations work.
She works at a Canadian-run base in the desert near the mud huts of Kandahar, in the shadow of a craggy, dirt-coloured mountain where the charred remains of an old Soviet helicopter are still visible.
Canadians at this base are helping the new provincial government set up its departments, and training police officers.
Warrant Officer John MacPherson says the country needs Canada's help.
"This is my seventh mission (abroad)," said the Montreal native. "I've seen quite a bit. I have never seen a people that are this poor. They have nothing and we're just trying to give them a better life.
"It's going to take a long time."
Khalid says his province and country need Canada's help after decades of war. And, he warns, countries like Canada need a stable Afghanistan.
"I will tell Canadian people ... if we don't do this (reconstruction) now, today in Afghanistan, tomorrow we will need to do this in Europe and in Canada," he said.
"Ninety-nine per cent of people in Kandahar, all over Afghanistan, they are thinking about peace. They want peace, they want stability, they want reconstruction, and they are tired of war.
"All Afghan people like peace and like your soldiers here, and they respect your soldiers. ... We need your soldiers, and I'm proud of them."
