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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (10836)	11/19/2001 6:59:27 AM
From: Condor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Training done, Canadian troops set to go Location, details of mission still being worked on Daniel Girard WESTERN CANADA BUREAU EDMONTON — Trucks are tuned, vaccinations are up to date and kit bags are packed for about 1,000 Canadian soldiers bound for Afghanistan, although it appears their deployment may be at least another week away. Members of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battalions in Edmonton and Winnipeg have completed their final preparations for a humanitarian mission announced by the federal government Wednesday. "The basic training has been accomplished," Capt. Holly Apostoliuk, of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, including the Patricias, said yesterday. "They're ready to go on 48 hours' notice." While more than a dozen reconnaissance soldiers from the 3rd battalion of the Patricias are already in Ottawa and may be bound for Afghanistan as early as Monday, sources said the majority of the men and women won't likely leave until a week or 10 days after that "at the earliest." Their exact duties are yet to be spelled out. But the battalions, which have no armoured personnel carriers or tanks, are expected to help stabilize the war-torn country and aid humanitarian convoys. The mission is expected to last up to six months. With this deployment, the Canadian Armed Forces contribution to the American-led war against terrorism will rise to about 3,000. But Defence Minister Art Eggleton hasn't ruled out an even larger Canadian contribution if it is necessary. "It depends on what is needed and what is asked for," he said. "There are some other possibilities, but I wouldn't want to speculate." Meanwhile, a military Airbus took off yesterday from Trenton for Germany. It will stand by to fly aid, personnel and equipment to Afghanistan. The plane carried spare air crews and a ground cargo-handling party. Mission `depends on what is needed and what is asked for' - Art Eggleton Defence minister "They're going to be there to provide airlift capability for any sort of airlift and they also have a capability for medical evacuations," said Capt. Paul Doucette. A trio of C-130 Hercules transport planes have also been earmarked for the Afghanistan effort but are still at home awaiting decisions on where they will be used. Many of these decisions — the exact mission, the precise location for Canadian bases — are being worked out by Canadian and American planners meeting in the U.S. central command in Tampa, Fla. It's a joint army, navy, and air force headquarters, which is co-ordinating the coalition effort. Canada has 30 to 40 staff officers working in Tampa. While central command will detail what it wants the Canadians to do, the final decision rests with Ottawa. "We make the decision at the end of the day," said Eggleton. At Edmonton Garrison, Apostoliuk said the soldiers will use any time they may get between now and deployment to "increase the state of preparedness." Many members of the Patricias, which includes paratroopers, engineers, mechanics and other soldiers, have been on missions to Bosnia and Kosovo. Between now and their departure, the soldiers will spend time with family celebrating Christmas and other events. "There is always something else that can be accomplished on the personal side," Apostoliuk said. "Life goes on." No one has to explain that to Laura Keller, 33. Her husband, Maj. Rod Keller, 34, was one of the first dozen or so soldiers to leave. His departure for Ottawa Thursday came less than 12 hours after he returned from three weeks of training in southern Alberta. "In most military families, you live with a great degree of preparation (for deployment) all the time," Laura Keller said yesterday. Even though she and their children — Gabriel, 4, and Hannah, 2, — are accustomed to Rod being away, this deployment seems more significant because of the Sept. 11 attacks, the need to feed starving people in Afghanistan and the fact Canadians are showing so much pride in our troops. "We've known all along what the Canadian military is capable of," she said. "Now, so many others are seeing that for themselves." torontostar.com

To: maceng2 who wrote (10836)	11/19/2001 2:41:19 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Playing With Millions of Lives [Notes from PB:(1) What! bombs has no effect on Taliban? Author thinks not. (2) Also I think most know of humanitarian problems] By Matt Bivens WASHINGTON -- Life has long been cheap in Afghanistan. Life expectancy is 46, every fourth toddler dies and millions this summer were already dependent on UN food. But as harsh as the past has been, America's new war in Afghanistan has created a dramatically new situation -- one that is equal parts hope and fear. Hope, because world attention and charity is focused on Afghanistan like never before; fear, because the month-long U.S. bombing campaign has disrupted crucial UN food-supply networks that are only today starting to be reactivated. It's possible, then, that 2001 will be the year Afghanistan broke free of the famine that in recent years has regularly claimed tens of thousands of children's lives. It's also still very possible, however, that hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians, as always mostly women and children, could be dead from malnutrition by spring. All depends on how much aid can be trucked into Afghanistan in the next few weeks. The bombing of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan eventually prompted the successful Northern Alliance offensives -- and with them a breakdown in public order, one that has turned the Taliban from grudging UN partners into a hostile force. This had until just days ago left truck drivers, the backbone of any major aid effort, unwilling or unable to do their job. Given that the UN says seven and a half million Afghans are dependent on UN aid to survive, what happens if that aid can't get in? A week ago, Kofi Annan was complaining that only half of the food aid Afghanistan needed was getting into the country. UN workers remained grimly upbeat -- as diplomats, they had to be. But the more outspoken aid workers at private charities were quick to note that feeding just half of the 7.5 million hungry could work out at 3.75 million starvation deaths by spring. "Aid is not getting in. We are on the cusp of a massive humanitarian crisis, the like of which we haven't seen for decades," said Dominic Nutt, a spokesman for Christian Aid, last week. Now the UN food trucks are rolling again, finally. And actually, the UN has more financial resources at its disposal to help Afghanistan than it has had for years. But the situation remains precarious. The breakdown of law and order and the bombing still hinder aid workers -- who now must race against snow to reach thousands of Afghans in communities accessible only by treacherous mountain passes. Happily, it looks like we might pull it all off. The Taliban are in retreat, and on Friday the World Food Program announced that, having performed "logistical miracles," it was finally trucking food into Afghanistan at a pace that could, if sustained, block mass starvation. (Though WFP officials and NGO aid workers are quick to add that getting that food to the people who need it most remains a big question mark.) However, even if we are finally succeeding, it owes more to luck than to planning. For three weeks we ignored UN and aid agency pleas to temporarily halt the bombing for a few weeks, so food could be rushed in before the crippling snowfalls. For weeks, we staked everything on the fighting spirit of the Northern Alliance at a time when no one seemed sure if they would ever move at all. It has all along been a helluva gamble with the lives of millions -- one we barely seemed conscious of taking. Matt Bivens, a former editor of The Moscow Times, is a Washington-based fellow of The Nation Institute themoscowtimes.com