Harpers War Body Count Reaches 100

3 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, death toll now at 100 and he insists on staying till 2011 three more years of wasted human lives and taxpayers money. To date since Stephen Harper decided to aggresively pursue the use of CanadianArmed Forces as counter insurgency forces in Kandahar 90 Canadian Armed Forces personnel have died.

Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan, as an active combatant in operations against the Taliban and other insurgents in southern Afghanistan, has produced the largest number of fatal casualties for any single Canadian military mission since the 25th Canadian Brigade served in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

This does not include non-combatant Canadian civilians who have died in Afghanistan because of Harpers War.

2 Canadian aid workers killed in roadside ambush in Afghanistan

And while lists of Canadians killed in Afghanistan usually include all of the miliatry personnel killed the two aid workers are not always listed as causulties and the first non-government non-military civiilan killed in Afghanistan in July 2006, is always forgotten as a victim of Harpers War....

Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says millions will remember Mike Frastacky, a Vancouver carpenter who returned to their country year after year to build a school for young children, only to be shot.

Remember we are fighting for schools and children especially girls in Afghanistan, but the guy who built them and got killed for it gets forgotten.

Oh the Harpocrsy of it all.

SEE:
Mayor Of Kabul Says Get Out

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Harpers War Costs More Lives

Harpers War; the body count has increased to 65

And it's a land mine by any other name that killed them. And the reason was that they were traveling in a 'light armoured vehicle' an ATV by any other name.

And as per usual the Afghani killed remains unnamed. As if he was just a bystander in the war.

Nov 19, 2007 05:32 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL – The family of a Quebec soldier who died in battle in Afghanistan says he was committed to making a difference in this world.

Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, of the 5th Field Ambulance of CFB Valcartier, was killed on Saturday when his light armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, of the Royal 22nd Regiment – also known as the Van Doos – was also killed in the blast, as was an Afghan interpreter.

SEE

Clarification

Harpers Body Count

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O'Connor Out With The Trash

Iconic metaphor? The going away party thrown by the Military for former Defense Minister O'Connor, held in the back of Ottawa's Cartier Square Drill Hall where the garbage bins are.


Note the garbage can to the left. More visuals are here;

Mike Duffy Live: Military analyst Col. (ret'd) Michel Drapeau discusses Gordon O'Connor's military send off 5:31

Leading CTV to speculate;

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier is expected to be replaced as top military commander when his three-year term expires in February, Conservative insiders have told CTV.

The PMO does not have leaks except controlled ones. This could be seen as the PMO engaging in the politics of the 'stab in the back'.

The Harpocrites will pretend they were they ticked at their pal for hanging the old man out to dry.

They blame Hillier for embarrassing the former defence minister over his department's failure to reimburse soldiers' families for the full cost of their loved ones' funeral.

In reality it shows that the Harpocrites have boxed themselves in with Hillier's War and the only way to extradite Harper from the war is to fire err retire the warmonger general. Making him the scapegoat for the Kandahar operation.

All their pleas to the UN and NATO have fallen on deaf ears. They know they cannot win an extension for Harpers War from Parliament. And they know it is hurting them in the polls, especially in Quebec.

Besides there is only room for one Autocrat to be in charge, and so Hillier has to go.

H/T to Peter's Politics.


SEE:

Harpers Constituency

Harpers War

Heil Hillier, Maintiens le droit

Job Protection for

Canadian Reservists

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All Fizzle No Sizzle

The rightwhing columnists in the media and the blogosphere like to talk about the "usual rent a crowd", when it came to mass demonstrations , and I am talking double digit thousands, against the government.

The term seems apt for the Conservative Party stalwarts that got the pro-war rallies going in Ottawa and now Toronto.

Too bad their Toronto rent a crowd wasn't larger, a handfull of Blogging Tories and other Conservative Party supporters essentially held a rally to support the war on the backs of our troops.


Hundreds gather in TO for 'Red Friday' rally

These rallies which the right has claimed exist to show tropps and their families we support them, have been hijacked by the Pro War Pro Harper crowd not to support our trooops, or they would demand their withdrawl, but to support the war.

Apparently the irony of holding Pro War Rallies on the same day as funerals are held for Canadian KIA, is lost on these guys.

Yesterday's rally was held on the same day as funerals for three Canadian soldiers took place in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

And despite all their so called grassroots organizing , free media exposure generated by rightwhing talkshow hosts on Corus & Global radio networks, they could only pull a few hundred folks out in megatropolis Toronto.

Red Rally support for troops today 680 News

September 29, 2006 - 6:48 am
By: Jaime Pulfer with report by Ashleigh Patterson

Toronto - Dundas Square will be a sea of red today as people participate in the Toronto Red Rally to support for Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

A sea hardly, it was a pond.

Even less than rallied in Ottawa. But then again the New Government in Ottawa encouraged civil servants and employees to attentd the rally. In Toronto it was a public private partnership Tim Hortons relents, workers join 'Red Friday'

OCAP and the armies of homeless have held larger demos in T.O. And recent Anti-War demos have also been bigger. And that was without Timmies support.

Indeed only a week ago mass rallies were held across Canada, not in two single cities in Ontario, to call for action on Darfur. An issue Harper refuses to discuss.

There were rallies all across Canada last week to stress the importance of responding to Darfur. Helping to lead the world on this issue is important, and completely within Canada's traditions of peace keeping and protecting innocent people. But this government is unable to divide its focus and resources. Afghanistan is the Harper Governement's Sixth Priority

The lesson of this tale is that these Red Fridays have been a one day wonder. They originated in a genuine feeling of folks, especially military families, wanting to show publicly they support the troops. But supporting the troops is not tacit support of the current Afghanistan mission.

It got hijacked by the Military for its own purposes, more fighting assignments more equipment to fight with.

The New Canadian government is using these rallies to show that, despite polls saying otherwise, Canadians back Harpers War.

Forces will listen to Red Rally cheers on radio

Canadian forces are being given a chance in Afghanistan to hear red today -- a rousing wave of support that will rock the downtown in a giant flag-waving rally. The 2,500 Canadian soldiers are being urged by the military brass to tune in the Red Rally cheers and best wishes when hour-long radio broadcasts start at noon from Dundas Square on CFRB and AM-640 Radio.

Well the majority of Canadians do not support the Harper/Hillier war plan, as is shown in polls and in the streets of T.O. on Friday. And make no bones aout it this is not only a New Law & Order State it is a Militarized one as well. Hillier is Harpers kinda guy, so its hands off, and the Military runs its political masters. Does anyone else find this scary? A New Canadian Government with its own Republican Guard.

The only people not getting the message are Mssr. Harper and Hellier as well as the rent a crowd at the Blogging Tories and the right whing talk show hosts in the MSM.

Showing that the BT blosgosphere and even the conservative activists, especially those in the media, carry less poloitical weight then they credit themselves with. They couldn't even organize a 'mass' demonstration of their own core supporters.

Something RightWhingWhiner and Talk Show Host Dave Rutherford found out when he rallied his listners against young offenders only a few thousand showed up, compared to 15,000 that rallied to save the Grey Nuns hospital from Kleins Kuts.

I await their mewling mumbles about the silent majority supporting them.

Support Our Troops is one of those tropes that has two meanings. And as Alice found out from the Red Knight one of those meanings is whatever Harper wants it to be. And in this case it is Bush-like denial of reality. As he did in New York saying Canadians supported the war when the polls said otherwise.

There is no mass support for this war. Conservative calls to unquestioning patriotism fall on deaf ears in Canada. Since most of us realize that Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundral.


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Harpers War Costs-58 Dead

The body count grows as Canada once again plays a leading role in a colonial war.

July has been the worst for our troops. In May and June there were two deaths.

By yesterday July had recorded the most deaths in a day, a week and a month.

Last time we lost troops in a mission to get 'blooded', as General Hillier calls it,

A recent comment by Canada's military boss, Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier, that the job of Canadian troops "is to be able to kill people,"

the blunt-speaking Gen. Hillier has denigrated those fighting against Canadian troops in Afghanistan as "detestable murderers and scumbags."

in order to 'prove' ourselves to our Colonial masters, was Dieppe and Dunkirk. And like those historical debacles our soldiers are being sacrificed in Kandahar in another failed Imperial mission.

Twenty-two soldiers have now been killed on this rotation alone; by this time last year only eight had died.

The last three months have seen five deadly explosions claim a total of 19 Canadian soldiers with four weeks of summer fighting season to go before this deployment returns to Canada.

Before we even were fully committed to the Kandahar mission, knowing our own troops were subject to friendly fire as much as enemy fire, Harper ignored the death of a Canadian soldier, shot in the back by our American allies, in order to have his government blooded.

While Canadian military authorities continue to drag their heels, the U.S. Army says Pte. Robert Costall was killed by friendly fire – apparently American special forces.

The 22-year-old machine-gunner, born in Thunder Bay and deployed to Afghanistan with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was the first Canadian firefight casualty in that country.

He was slain during a fierce battle March 29, 2006, after his rapid-response platoon was sent to a forward operating base in support of Afghan and special forces troops who had come under siege.

Yesterday, the U.S. Army released its investigation results to Associated Press, asserting that Costall and an American sergeant, also killed that night, were shot from behind in a burst of machine-gun fire that originated from within the compound at Forward Operating Base Robinson, some 110 kilometres northwest of Kandahar City.

With every death Harper denies the futility of his war.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement following the death, offering his condolences to family and friends of Caswell.

"Without security there can be no development in Afghanistan, and thanks to soldiers like Trooper Caswell, we are making significant progress. He has left a valuable legacy and we will be forever grateful for the ultimate sacrifice he has made for our country," the statement read.

While his commanders on the ground point out the futility of claiming this is a humanitarian project for redevelopment. It is a counter insurgency, an anti-opium mission, it is America's war that we are fighting and loosing.

Lt.-Col. Bob Chamberlain, commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, lamented that there are districts in the province where a sudden upsurge in Taliban activity has kept redevelopment and humanitarian activity barricaded inside forward operating bases.

If Canada cannot record enough military progress to secure areas so the vital work of rebuilding the shattered lives of the Afghan people can proceed, one has to wonder if the entire mission isn't in jeopardy.

"Everything in war is very simple," Von Clausewitz wrote in On War. "But the simplest thing is difficult."

Hope is confident the superior training and equipment of his army will vanquish the insurgents.

"For centuries, it's the biggest, best-armed tribe that has ruled Afghanistan," he says. "Well, we have a heck of a big, well-armed tribe."

No one points out that the Soviets held the same opinion of their tribe.

And while the media reports the total casualties since 2002, that obscures the fact that more Canadian troops have died since Harper declared this his war in 2006, then died in the four years prior to that.

Eight Canadians, including our Diplomat to Afghanistan, died prior to Harper declaring his war in Kandahar; dubbed Operation Peacemaker. The Orwellian irony being deliberate as Harper and Hillier took us from Peacekeeping operations to active warfare; Peacemaking.

Since then his government has been responsible for the death of the remaining 58 Canadian troops in their efforts at peacemaking.

Canadian death toll in Afghanistan: 66 soldiers, one diplomat

By The Canadian Press

Since 2002, 66 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan. Here is a list of the deaths:

2007

July 4 — Cpl. Cole Bartsch, Capt. Matthew Johnathan Dawe and Pte. Lane Watkins, all of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton; and Master Cpl. Colin Bason, a reservist from The Royal Westminster Regiment based in New Westminster, B.C. The family of the other two killed have not yet agreed to the release of their names. Killed by a road side bomb in Panjwaii district west of Kandahar city.

June 20 — Sgt. Christos Karigiannis, Cpl. Stephen Frederick Bouzane and Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, all of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry killed by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar.

June 11 — Trooper Darryl Caswell, 25, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, by a roadside bomb north of Kandahar.

May 30 — Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede, killed when a U.S. helicopter was reportedly shot down by the Taliban in Helmand province.

May 25 — Cpl. Matthew McCully, 25, killed by an improvised explosive device in Zhari District.

April 18 — Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, who served with elite special forces, died after falling from a communications tower while on duty conducting surveillance in Kandahar City.

April 11 — Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick James Pentland killed when their Coyote vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.

April 8 — Sgt. Donald Lucas, Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, Pte. Kevin V. Kennedy, Pte. David R. Greenslade, Cpl. Christopher P. Stannix and Cpl. Brent Poland killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

March 6 — Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, killed in accidental shooting at NATO base in Kandahar.

2006

Nov. 27 — Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard and Cpl. Albert Storm killed by suicide car bomber.

Oct. 14 — Sgt. Darcy Tedford and Pte. Blake Williamson killed in ambush.

Oct. 7 — Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson killed by roadside bomb.

Oct. 3 — Sgt. Craig Gillam and Cpl. Robert Mitchell killed in series of mortar, rocket attacks.

Sept. 29 — Pte. Josh Klukie killed by explosion in Panjwaii while on foot patrol.

Sept. 18 — Pte. David Byers, Cpl. Shane Keating, Cpl. Keith Morley and Cpl. Glen Arnold killed in suicide bicycle bomb attack while on foot patrol in Panjwaii.

Sept. 4 — Pte. Mark Graham killed when two NATO planes accidentally strafed Canadian troops in Panjwaii district.

Sept. 3 — Sgt. Shane Stachnik, Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish, Pte. William Cushley and Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan killed in fighting in Panjwaii district.

Aug. 22 — Cpl. David Braun killed in suicide attack.

Aug. 11 — Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom killed in suicide attack.

Aug. 9 — Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh killed by apparent accidental discharge of rifle.

Aug. 5 — Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt killed when his G-Wagon patrol vehicle collided with truck.

Aug. 3 — Cpl. Christopher Reid killed by roadside bomb. Sgt. Vaughan Ingram, Cpl. Bryce Keller and Pte. Kevin Dallaire killed in rocket-propelled grenade attack.

July 22 — Cpl. Francisco Gomez and Cpl. Jason Warren killed when car packed with explosives rammed their armoured vehicle.

July 9 — Cpl. Anthony Boneca killed in firefight.

May 17 — Capt. Nichola Goddard killed in Taliban ambush. She was first Canadian woman to be killed in action while serving in combat role.

April 22 — Cpl. Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell, Lt. William Turner and Cpl. Randy Payne killed when their G-Wagon destroyed by roadside bomb.

March 29 — Pte. Robert Costall killed in firefight with Taliban. (Friendly fire shot in the back by American forces. ep)

March 2 — Cpl. Paul Davis and Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson killed when their armoured vehicle ran off road.

Jan. 15 — Glyn Berry, British-born Canadian diplomat, killed in suicide bombing.

2005

Nov. 24 — Pte. Braun Woodfield killed when his armoured vehicle rolled over.

2004

Jan. 27 — Cpl. Jamie Murphy killed in suicide bombing while on patrol.

2003

Oct. 2 — Sgt. Robert Short and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger killed in roadside bombing.

2002

April 17 — Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith killed when U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed Canadians.

And since most of the recent Canadian deaths have happened from buried explosives, one cannot assume they are from the Taliban. As I have point out before their deaths could have been the result of the thousands of hidden land mines buried through-out the area.

Maj. Andy Walker, the officer commanding Armoured Support Company for 3 Commando Brigade, has done three tours of duty in Iraq where his soldiers constantly faced the threat of IEDs.

He said he’d rather fight groups of Taliban.

“An IED, you don’t know where it is from, who has initiated it, you don’t whether it is a booby trap, whether it’s a mine, it’s the not knowing of IEDs that is the key concern of people,” he said in a recent interview at Camp Bastion, the support headquarters of the British command in Afghanistan.

Also See:

Harpers War

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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Afghanistan the UNwinnable war

The Liberal Conservative Government of Canada will be holding a vote on continuing the Harper War in Afghanistan for another three years.

Vote on Afghanistan motion set for March 13

Or maybe four years or heck lets make it five.

A WHOLE post-Cold War European generation has grown up in peace, give or take "some Balkan horror on television," which makes it hard to explain that "it's a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush."

The words are those of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands, the NATO secretary general. As he utters them, he leans forward, insisting that he doesn't think "Europe is becoming pacifist." But Afghanistan is testing European military resolve. It's the long war. It's Europe's Iraq.

Just back from Afghanistan, where NATO now has some 50,000 troops deployed, de Hoop Scheffer says it will be four to five years before international forces can pull back, taking a limited role in support of the emergent Afghan national army.

"A window of four to five years from now is an interesting window to watch in terms of reaching a situation where our forces are in the background," he says.

That takes us to 2013 or thereabouts.

Despite knowing full well that it is an unwinnable war.

The international community's approach to aid in Afghanistan is centred around the Afghanistan Compact, a series of development benchmarks agreed upon in 2006 to be reached by 2011.

But Afghanistan remains trapped in a cycle created by the theory that security is required for development but development is what provides security.

Theoretically, the success of development programs at the local level like CDCs should foster greater security as citizens come to trust and depend on their governments and refuse to support or join the insurgency.

But a slew of statistics from private security firms, NATO and the UN all suggest that the security situation in Afghanistan, and in Kandahar, is the worst it has been in a long time.

Which even the American right admits.

It has long been an article of faith among Democrats that Afghanistan is the "good war," a righteous campaign that could be won with more money and manpower. But the facts say otherwise. The U.S. Air Force rained more than a million pounds of bombs upon Afghanistan in 2007, mostly on innocent civilians. It's twice as much as was dropped in Iraq--and equally ineffective.

Six years after the U.S. invasion of 2001, according to Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, the U.S./NATO occupation force has surged from 8,000 to 50,000. But the Americans are having no more luck against the Afghans than had the Brits or the Soviet Union. The U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai controls a mere 30 percent of Afghanistan, admits McConnell. (Regional analysts say in truth it is closer to 15 percent.) Most of the country belongs to the charming guys who gave us babes in burqas and exploding Buddhas: the Taliban and likeminded warlords. "Afghanistan remains a failing state," says a report by General James Jones, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. "The United States and the international community have tried to win the struggle in Afghanistan with too few military forces and insufficient economic aid."

SEE

And They Won Both World Wars Too

Harpers War The Manley Solution

Afghanistan A Failed State

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Harpers War

Another six Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. The deaths bring to 51 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. That means that since the Harper government began their war operations in Afghanistan, ending Canadian Peace Keeping in Kabul for active duty in Kandahar, 43 Canadian troops have died.

Many have died in accidents, or from friendly fire. Some have died from land mines, left over from the days of the Anti-Soviet war, mistakenly called IED's. And some have died from attacks by Afghanistan insurgents.

But of all the Canadians killed in Afghanistan the majority have died in the last year since Harper made Afghanistan his own personal war. They are as much victims of the Conservative Government as they are of the Taliban. They are victims of Harpers politics of being a Macho War Lord. And their deaths should be placed squarely in his lap.



Also See:

Kandahar

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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