Canada's Mission in Afghanistan: Beyond the Rhetoric
Authors
Scott Taylor
Abstract
On August 22, the Canadian forces in Afghanistan suffered a major setback. Just outside their fortified camp in the centre of Kandahar, a suicide bomber targeted a small supply convoy returning from a Provincial Reconstruction Team base. The resultant blast killed one soldier, injured three others and left two armoured vehicles blazing fiercely. As the ammunition stored in the Canadian vehicles continued to "cook off" in the aftermath of the attack, the rapid response team from Camp Nathan Smith deployed to secure the ambush site. It was several hours later that Canadian soldiers fired on an approaching motorcycle, seriously wounding the 17-year-old driver and killing his 10-year-old passenger. The news that our soldiers had shot and killed an Afghan child – albeit under the belief that they were acting in self-defence – sent shockwaves across Canada.
Over and over again we had been told that our troops were deployed to Afghanistan to "protect the weak and the vulnerable" and now that logic had been stood on its head. Once again Canadians began asking exactly what we hope to achieve in Kandahar, and whether or not our soldiers sacrifice can be justified in the long run.
Author Biography
Scott Taylor
Scott Taylor, a former professional soldier, has been editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps, an Ottawa-based magazine celebrated for its unflinching scrutiny of the Canadian military, since 1988.
During the past 16 years, Taylor has logged over one million air miles as a war correspondent reporting from such global hot spots as the Persian Gulf, Cambodia, Western Sahara, Croatia, Bosnia, and most recently from Iraq, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, and Macedonia.
Since August 2000, Taylor has made a total of 20 trips into Iraq to report on the effects of the UN sanctions, the ravages of depleted uranium following the 1991 Gulf War, and the heightening tensions with the United States. In March 2003, during his last trip prior to the United States’ intervention, Scott Taylor was asked to leave Iraq for fear of his being a spy for the Israeli Mossad. Following the swift U.S. victory, Taylor has returned frequently to Iraq to view first-hand the ongoing humanitarian crisis plaguing this still embattled country.
Scott Taylor regularly appears in the Canadian media as a military analyst, and is the recipient of the 1996 Quill Award for outstanding work in the field of Canadian communications. That same year, he also won the Alexander MacKenzie Award for journalistic excellence.
A weekly columnist for the Halifax Herald and Windsor Star, Taylor is also a columnist for the Osprey newspaper chain and has contributed to the Ottawa Citizen, Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Reader’s Digest, and Canwest-Global television network.
Taylor is also the author of five bestsellers – Tarnished Brass: Crime and Corruption in the Canadian Military and Tested Mettle: Canada’s Peacekeepers at War (both with Brian Nolan), Inat: Images of Serbia, the Kosovo Conflict and Diary of an Uncivil War: The Violent Aftermath of the Kosovo Conflict and Spinning on the Axis of Evil: Americas War against Iraq.
Scott Taylor has just released his sixth book dealing with his experiences in northern Iraq called Among the 'Others': the forgotten Turkmen of Iraq, which was first published in October 2004 by Esprit de Corps Books.
