CBC News Viewpoint | September 13, 2006
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_storring/20060913.htmlalso see: A Soldier's Life by Russell Storring -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_storring/Russell Storring is a Sergeant with the Canadian Army, and has been a signals operator for the 15 years he has been in the military. He recently returned from his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, having served there previously in 2003, and with the UN in Rwanda in 1994. His columns give a first-person account from the field and the life of a soldier.To date, the war on terror in Afghanistan has resulted in 386 coalition deaths, of which, 32 have been Canada's sons and daughters. This statistic tragically places Canada second only to the U.S. in overall casualties.
In addition to those who have paid the ultimate price, 88 more Canadian soldiers have been wounded and will carry the scars of battle and death for the rest of their lives.
This reality, tied with the experience of thousands of soldiers who have served in Afghanistan (many twice or more), has shaped our training. Most training is now centred on realistic scenarios and lessons learned from those who have already been there. For soldiers deploying to this theatre for their first tour, and possibly more so for veterans of Afghanistan, the old saying of "it won't happen to me" quite simply does not exist anymore.
A few weeks ago as I read the morning news, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the name Cpl. Jesse Melnyck, but relaxed slightly when I found out that he was injured but listed in stable condition. Melnyck was one of my command post signallers and drivers on Roto 0 in Afghanistan, and although we didn't go through any events together like he has just been through, he, like all the soldiers who have worked for me in the past, is still "one of my soldiers."
I managed to visit him at an Ottawa hospital just after one of his reconstructive surgeries and found him in good spirits. Like a true soldier, he expressed his desire to go back and finish the job, despite losing an eye and having a scar from his forehead to his temple. Even after what he has gone through, and the surgery he still has to go through, he told me he has no regrets and would do it all again if given the chance. Even after coming so close to death, he was still pissed that he didn't get to stay and finish his part of the job. He, like so many others, has given more than what was expected.
Later as Nathalie and I talked, we both realized I may be headed back to Afghanistan quite possibly as early as summer 2007. Although Nathalie and I don't always see things in the same light, she has taken the time to ask, and I have taken the time to explain why I (like so many other soldiers) am still willing to take the increased risk of a more robust deployment to Afghanistan.
Despite the increase in insurgent activities since early 2006, Afghanistan is still moving forward on the road of democracy and reconstruction. Schools, hospitals, clinics and businesses remain open despite suicide bombings, fire bombings, and rocket attacks. Thousands of Afghanis have been killed in attempts by the Taliban to bring fear to the population, like they did when they were in power. Unfortunately the Taliban have failed to realize that the people of Afghanistan have spoken and voted for democracy and freedom, and the more the Taliban try to terrorize, the more the people will fight back and the more they will support the efforts of the fledgling government and the coalition.
Not an occupation force
Helping them fight back is the coalition. We are not an "occupation force" as some even here in Canada have stated, but backers of the legitimate Afghanistan government, which was voted in by a huge majority of Afghans who wanted their first democracy in 25 years.
Under the Taliban, Afghanistan stepped back in time rather than forward. There were mass executions and beatings, and thousands of Afghans simply disappeared. In an effort to remove anything that did not fall under the Taliban's view of acceptable to Islam, museums, universities and places of culture such as the Bamiyan Buddha statues were destroyed.
One of my interpreters on Roto 4 told me of a professor he knew who had ripped a number of valuable paintings to pieces, hid them to keep them from being burned. Once the Taliban were overthrown, the pieces were then put back together. Had the professor been caught, he would have been executed on the spot for defying a Taliban edict.
The Taliban ruled by the gun, and controlled the population through fear and suffering. This is the only thing they know, and even now as they slowly lose their grip on Afghanistan and their former strongholds in the south, they continue to try to force the population to support them through suicide bombings, the burning and rocketing of schools, and attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.
It is the action of a dying and desperate force. They are not yet ineffective, as witnessed by Canadian and coalition deaths, but are slowly dying as the Afghan people show they no longer want the Taliban — and they show this by simply carrying on. Something so simple, such as picking up the pieces, reopening bombed stores, going to school and to work, speaks a message the Taliban cannot stand, and that is this: They are no longer wanted.
It won't be an easy struggle by any means, but it is something we must finish and see through to the end. If we abandon the Afghan people now, the Taliban will use their tactics of fear and suffering to gain a more powerful hold on Afghanistan and quite possibly create a more dangerous safe haven for terrorists than was witnessed in 2001, putting even more of us in danger in the global war on terror.
Staying the course is the only option. It is what the Afghans need, it is what Canada and the world needs, and it is what our fallen need to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain.
