Statement made on 25 March 2011 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, in our prayer we say, "peace and justice in our land and throughout the world." We pray that we take decisions in that regard.
Twenty years ago, we were moving troops into the advance positions of the first Gulf War. It is interesting that the veterans of that war are still fighting the Canadian bureaucracy for recognition of the injuries they sustained in it. That situation does not encourage others, or their families, to commit to war zones when they know they will have to fight, potentially for decades afterwards, to be able to live decently as veterans.
My question is more specifically on the current operation and its impact. A few days ago, the commander of our forces in Afghanistan made it clear in an interview that we went in there with far too few capabilities, as we tend to when we creep into these complex missions. It is interesting that in the Libya operation we did exactly what we did in Korea. First we sent in a couple of ships, which is not too risky, then we sent in planes, which again is not too risky. Potentially, as in Korea, there may be a United Nations demand for troops.
The commander in Afghanistan said that because we did not deploy the appropriate level of forces over the last years, we were never able to hold ground. Therefore, we had to go over the same ground time and again, rebuilding infrastructure and re-establishing an atmosphere of security, taking casualties every time. The commander said that only now does he have a brigade that is able to make massive advancements in that cause, and now we are pulling out.
I will not debate why we are pulling out. However, I think it is irresponsible of the government to commit to a long-term mission and then pull out because it is cute, because we cannot handle the 154 casualties. That number is erroneous, by the way, because it does not take into account those who have come back psychologically injured and those who have committed suicide since. Considering those deaths, we are probably at about 190.
We know that we went in without sufficient resources. We are finally getting a grip on the situation because we were reinforced by the Americans, and we are pulling out. We are pulling out of our original mission and replacing it with a training mission. It is interesting that the training mission will be located not only in the capital but wherever the Afghans have troops to be trained, which is throughout the country. We will deploy 950 members.
What is the reason for deploying 950 personnel for training the Afghan military and police? A staff check reveals that there will be more non-commissioned officers and junior officers engaged in that mission than are currently engaged in the combat mission, and what is curtailing the forces from absorbing new recruits and continuing the enhancement of the forces is the burnout and loss of those same sergeants and NCOs.
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