The Real News Network takes a look at Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament, allegedly to avoid a no-confidence vote over the treatment of Afghan prisoners by the Canadian armed forces.
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Showing posts with label changing for Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label changing for Canada. Show all posts
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Canadian-trained police force seen as key to Afghan recovery.
KABUL - If the mission commanded by the most senior Canadian soldier in Afghanistan fails, most observers agree there is a strong possibility that the war against the Taliban will be lost.
Maj.-Gen. Mike Ward of Ottawa has the daunting task of rapidly reforming and expanding Afghanistan's much-maligned national police, which now numbers approximately 97,000. Yet the target set last week by the Afghan government, the UN and NATO is to have 134,000 police on the beat by the end of 2011.
Even if everything works out perfectly, getting the police from here to there on such a tight timetable is a herculean undertaking.
The goal is to enlist about 2,100 fresh recruits for training every month. However, this is only slightly more than the number of police officers (19 per cent) who quit every year, although attrition has been trending downward recently.
Moreover, tens of thousands of police officers already on the rolls must be thoroughly re-trained to improve their fighting and crime-fighting skills and to acquaint them with issues such as human rights.
Corruption on the police force, as almost everywhere in Afghanistan, is pervasive. Most recruits are illiterate. Many of those expected to enforce the law are themselves drug users.
``The ANP is still a very fragile institution and it carries the highest consequence of failure,'' Ward said during a visit to the Afghan Police Academy in Kabul. ``That is why there is an emerging recognition that we must focus our effort on the police.''
Source:windsorstar.com
Maj.-Gen. Mike Ward of Ottawa has the daunting task of rapidly reforming and expanding Afghanistan's much-maligned national police, which now numbers approximately 97,000. Yet the target set last week by the Afghan government, the UN and NATO is to have 134,000 police on the beat by the end of 2011.
Even if everything works out perfectly, getting the police from here to there on such a tight timetable is a herculean undertaking.
The goal is to enlist about 2,100 fresh recruits for training every month. However, this is only slightly more than the number of police officers (19 per cent) who quit every year, although attrition has been trending downward recently.
Moreover, tens of thousands of police officers already on the rolls must be thoroughly re-trained to improve their fighting and crime-fighting skills and to acquaint them with issues such as human rights.
Corruption on the police force, as almost everywhere in Afghanistan, is pervasive. Most recruits are illiterate. Many of those expected to enforce the law are themselves drug users.
``The ANP is still a very fragile institution and it carries the highest consequence of failure,'' Ward said during a visit to the Afghan Police Academy in Kabul. ``That is why there is an emerging recognition that we must focus our effort on the police.''
Source:windsorstar.com
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Afghan mission changing for Canada
The marching orders for Canadian forces in Afghanistan are changing.
Commanders from NATO are now putting Canadian forces, many of them from Edmonton, in charge of the Arghandab district. This is an area north of Kandahar city. This comes with Canada still planning to pull out of Afghanistan by 2011.
It also comes as U.S. President Barack Obama lays out his new Afghan war strategy. He will make those plans known Tuesday night. They're expected to see the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to the Afghan mission.
Task Force Kandahar will have an added U.S. battalion and Afghan army unit under its leadership in the new year.(The Canadian Press/bp)
Source:inews880.com
Commanders from NATO are now putting Canadian forces, many of them from Edmonton, in charge of the Arghandab district. This is an area north of Kandahar city. This comes with Canada still planning to pull out of Afghanistan by 2011.
It also comes as U.S. President Barack Obama lays out his new Afghan war strategy. He will make those plans known Tuesday night. They're expected to see the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to the Afghan mission.
Task Force Kandahar will have an added U.S. battalion and Afghan army unit under its leadership in the new year.(The Canadian Press/bp)
Source:inews880.com
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