The Canadian Press
Blue Rodeo guitarist Greg Keelor, left, and Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche watch the action during a ball hockey game between troops and former pros in Kandahar, Afghanistan yesterday.
Longer Afghan rotations on the table: general
No changes planned yet, says Canada's top soldier
THE CANADIAN PRESS Published Friday March 21st, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers could one day face the prospect of longer rotations in Afghanistan but it won't happen anytime soon, Canada's chief of defence staff suggested yesterday.
Gen. Rick Hillier said the length of deployment is one of the many battlefield factors that's always under consideration and review by senior Canadian commanders.
The lessons learned on the battlefield are always influencing how the mission takes shape over time, Hillier said.
"We look at those things all the time, (but) we've made no decisions at this time," he said.
"We learn lessons in this mission as we do every other, and those lessons over six, 12 or 18 months help us change and shape things, from the vehicle suites we need to the kind of training that we need back in Canada to the lengths of the deployments."
More than 12,000 Canadian soldiers -- regular force and reservists -- have been through Afghanistan in six-month rotations of roughly 2,500 each since the latest deployment to Kandahar began two years ago.
There are only 64,000 full-time members of all branches of the military and 23,000 primary reserve. A Conservative government election promise to expand the Canadian Forces to 75,000 regular and 30,000 part-time members has been quietly scaled back.
Now that Parliament has agreed to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan by two years to 2011, the question of whether or not the Canadian Forces have the resources and the personnel to see it through has become a burning one.
A senior military official in Ottawa said yesterday that any rotation changes would likely be driven either by a substantial change in the situation on the ground, such as a marked deterioration or improvement in the security situation, or a substantial reconfiguration of the battle group.
"It's very much driven by circumstance," said the official, who added: "The longer a soldier is on the ground, the tougher it becomes."
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay deferred a question about longer rotations to Hillier, but added, "We're not ruling anything out."
Retired general Lewis MacKenzie was quoted Thursday as saying longer deployments -- between nine months to a year -- may be required for the forces, which are already heavily dependent on reservists.
Canada is also expecting some degree of relief in the coming months from the recent arrival of more than 2,000 members of the U.S. Marine Corps, and from an additional 1,000 NATO troops that MacKay is actively seeking from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Word of Sarkozy's intentions isn't expected until a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest, Romania, next month.
"I'm confident that at Bucharest or following or immediately before, a nation will step up and help NATO fill that requirement, and I wait to see the details of it," Hillier said yesterday.
The United States, which contributes one third of the NATO force in Afghanistan, also has about 12,000 other troops operating independently.
The Pentagon says that by late summer, there will be about 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan -- up from about 28,000 now.
Blue Rodeo guitarist Greg Keelor !
