I am not sure of the legalities of this or if it can be done, but it is being done. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the Canadians and think they are true fighters, shoulder to shoulder with our US forces, but to have our troops under their actual command? I guess the Sinai missions, Kosovo, etc. have set the precedent for this but it is allowed by our US laws? I am interested in what you think, so please leave me a comment with your opinion.
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — As Afghan President Hamid Karzai extended an olive branch to Taliban fighters and warlords to lay down their arms in return for money at an international conference in London, another U.S. army unit has received orders to join the war as part of the Canada-led “super brigade” in Kandahar.
The 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division is to be placed under Canadian command in March when it arrives from Fort Drum in upstate New York.
“Their arrival is key for us because they will help us to finalize the ring of stability around Kandahar City,” Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard said in an interview. “2010 is the year that we have to make it happen. The only way to do that is to stop talking and to go out and protect the population so they have an alternative to the insurgency.”
The incoming unit — between 400 and 500 troops — is to be one of the first U.S. army formations to deploy from the U.S. as part of a surge of 30,000 additional forces that President Barack Obama announced late in 2009.
The Valcartier, Que.-based commander of Task Force Kandahar declined to say exactly where the new U.S. troops would be deployed within his battle space, which includes the provincial capital and three heavily populated adjacent districts.
Menard’s brigade already includes three U.S. army battalions: the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 97th Military Police Battalion, which are both part of the Fort Bragg, Ky.-based 82nd Airborne Division, and the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, from Fort Carson, Colo., which is to be replaced this spring by a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.
With the addition of the 71st Cavalry, Menard will oversee almost 6,000 troops. Menard’s “super brigade,” as Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard, who commands all Canadian Forces overseas called it several months ago, also includes about 2,850 Canadian troops. They are mostly drawn from the Alberta-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and include troopers from the Ontario-based Royal Canadian Dragoons as well as reservists mostly from western Canada.
There have also been hints that the 71st Cavalry may not be the last U.S. troops to join Menard’s brigade before his tour ends in the fall. It is expected to take at least six months for all the troops surging from the U.S. to arrive in theatre.
The strategy of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan — which the Canadians have been practising in Kandahar for nearly a year — emphasizes classic counter-insurgency principles such as establishing security by living among the populace.
“That is why we are living in mud houses and compounds given to us by elders,” Menard said. “We live there alongside Afghan army and police.
“What we want to do is make it hard on the enemy by not giving them any place to go because the population rejects them.”
As an example of how the strategy was working, Menard cited a recent case in Sperwan Gar where an elder spotted a youth planting an improvised explosive device under a road.
“He grabbed the guy,” Menard said and told him, “‘You can kill me because I am old and you will not make any point by doing so, but you will not dig an IED on my road that will kill innocent people. You are not welcome in our village.'”
Meanwhile, the Patricia’s battle group led by Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh confirmed Thursday that its forces discovered a weapons cache in Panjwaii District west of Kandahar City on Tuesday.
Among the weapons seized were a rocket-propelled grenade, an anti-personnel mine and a fully loaded AK-47 assault rifle as well as radios, a mortar tripod and a pressure plate used to detonate mines.
Canadian combat engineers exploded the grenade and the mine.