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  • Canada at war

    Government opens wallet wide for weapons of war
    Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda , CanWest News Service
    Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007

    KITCHENER, Ont. -- The gleaming steel cylinder is almost half as long as the average billiard cue but feels 10 times heavier. It will be dulled to black when it is transformed into an essential component of the basic weapon of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan - the barrel of the C7 assault rifle, through which some 20,000 bullets will flash before the weapon outlives its usefulness.

    Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan are making record use of guns and bullets as they face some of their heaviest fighting since the Korean War. The Conservative government has tried to soften the rhetoric surrounding the war in Afghanistan this year, pressing messages of reconstruction and development while downplaying the combat role of the military.

    But a CanWest News Service analysis tells another story: the Defence Department has also embarked this year on a record purchase of guns and ammunition.

    In late February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to shift the focus away from the violence that has so far claimed the lives of 73 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat by announcing an additional $200 million in development aid.

    But then, between February and late June, Canada spent almost $54 million on guns, ammunition, explosives, grenades and other weapons - more than in all of 2005 and 2006 combined.

    Colt Canada, the Kitchener, Ont.-based company that manufactures the C7 assault rifle and the shorter-barreled C8 carbine exclusively for the Defence Department, says the escalation in fighting has not created a windfall for them.

    "People think we're in this business to make money," says Francis Bleeker, Colt's director of sales. "If you want to make a bundle, go do something else."

    The real money, says Bleeker, is in ammunition.

    An analysis of Defence Department data shows that while Colt has sold $2.4 million worth of guns, spare parts and maintenance to the military so far this year, those numbers are dwarfed by the $46 million worth of bullets and mortars that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada sold to the Canadian Forces during just five months in 2007.

    Colt opened its factory for a short tour by CanWest News Service and allowed Bleeker to sit for an hour-long interview, but General Dynamics Ordnance, of Le Gardeur, Que., did not return calls for comment.

    By contrast, its corporate cousin, General Dynamics Land Systems, has been effusive about promoting another product: the LAV III armoured vehicle that is designed to protect troops in Afghanistan.

    While the Conservative government has been largely silent about guns and bullets, it too has been anxious to publicize its purchases of $20 billion worth of new hardware.

    In the summer of 2006, then defence minister Gordon O'Connor spent a week touring Canada to announce contracts to purchase armoured trucks, supply ships and large aircraft, including the $10 billion worth of transport planes and helicopters it planned to buy from the two major American military contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

    Colt and General Dynamics Ordnance are subsidiaries of their larger American parent companies, Colt Defence and General Dynamics.

    Colt and General Dynamics also share something else: the same well-connected Ottawa registered lobbyists, CFN Consultants, a firm composed of some retired ex-military officers and civilian public servants.

    The U.S. army has also been a significant supplier of the Canadian army's weapons needs, selling Canadians $14 million worth of ammunition in late 2006.

    That large purchase from the U.S. came last fall, shortly after Canadian troops participated in their most intense combat operations in half a century. Canada led NATO forces in Operation Medusa, the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan to date.

    Since Canadian troops were stationed in Kandahar in August 2005, Colt has sold almost $7.7 million worth of weapons and services to the Canadian Forces.

    But Bleeker says that a spike in fighting on the ground does not necessarily lead to a sudden rise in the purchase of guns.

    "There's no such thing as impulse purchases in this case because there's so much involved," he argues. "Introducing something like a rifle takes training, logistics, organization. This is not something you just do overnight."

    Colt and the Canadian military have a corporate relationship that dates back to the mid-1970s when the company, then known as Diemaco, became the exclusive supplier of the C7 assault rifle.

    In 2005, the American-based Colt Defense bought the Kitchener operation and renamed it Colt Canada.

    Colt retains the status it has held for three decades as the exclusive supplier of the C7 and C8, the Canadian derivative of the Americans' M16 assault weapon.

    Similarly, the federal government has also designated General Dynamics Ordnance as the Forces' prime supplier of ammunition.

    While Colt won't provide exact figures, Bleeker says the Forces stockpiled large quantities of rifles in the mid-'80s, during the height of the Cold War.

    "Don't forget, when they were building up their stocks, they were preparing for the great Soviet onslaught," says Bleeker.

    "The rifles that they're using in Afghanistan are as good as new," he adds. "They have been completely taken apart. Everything has been tested and, where necessary, bits and pieces have been replaced."

    The need to upgrade the weaponry is also being driven by the fundamental shift in modern warfare from the Cold War to the post-9-11 world. Colt has had to adapt the C7 and its cousins through nearly two dozen design changes.

    That means creating a lighter weapon onto which targeting equipment can be attached, such as a laser pointer or a red-dot site. Such features are essential in a modern counterinsurgency when fighting an enemy in the grape fields and mud-walled compounds of southern Afghanistan.

    "There are various red-dot sites that allow you to move your head, keep one eye open to look around and keep one dot on the target," says Bleeker. "With two eyes open, you've got a lot more peripheral vision, checking what's around you."

    Colt did such a thorough job of arming the Canadian military that the federal government gave it the green light in the 1990s to sell the assault rifle to a select group of NATO allies.

    Colt now supplies the armies of the Netherlands and Denmark with versions of the C7, while the special forces of Norway in Britain are armed with guns made in Kitchener.

    Today, the company has annual sales in the $10- to $25-million range, with Canada making up roughly half of that.

    "We are good a corporate citizen," says Bleeker. "We are not cowboys. We do not flood the world with small arms. We can only sell to a very limited number of countries. We cannot even sell to all of NATO."

    Bleeker said the company is always looking to expand its base, but it has to conform to the strict regulations that govern the export of small arms.

    "We are looking at one particular company in Eastern Europe. They want to change from the Kalashnikov calibre to the 556-calibre, which is the NATO standard. That's going to take years."

    Even though the training and equipping of tens of thousands of indigenous Afghan security forces is seen as the ticket home for Canadian troops and their western allies it doesn't look as though Colt will be selling its products to the Afghan National Army anytime soon.

    Bleeker says that unless his company enters into a new agreement with the federal government, the Afghans will have to make do with their Kalashnikovs or whatever other weapons they can get their hands on now.

    Government opens wallet wide for weapons of war
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Can someone change this to say Canada at war?
    Attached Files
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

    Comment


    • #3
      .
      Attached Files
      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

      Comment


      • #4
        .
        Attached Files
        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

        Comment


        • #5
          What is that tank? I see a Leopard 2 but also a smaller one with sloped sides.

          http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/att...2006-0868a.jpg
          HD Ready?

          Comment


          • #6
            Leo-1 MEXAS.
            To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

            Comment


            • #7
              Aha. Do the Americans have heavy armour in Afghanistan? I can't remember a single instance of seeing it in the news, unlike Iraq.
              HD Ready?

              Comment


              • #8
                Canada is the only country with heavy armour in Afghanistan.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Very nice pictures Troung.
                  Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

                  -- Larry Elder

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Nice pics

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Celine Dion Leaves Las Vegas
                      by Gina Serpe
                      Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:46:27 AM PST
                      RECOMMENDED (0)
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                      TEXT SIZE + A | -A

                      Her heart may go on and on, but her show has, at long last, come to an end.

                      Celine Dion's A New Day... ended its nearly five-year, 717-show run in Las Vegas Saturday night with an emotional farewell performance, given to a sold-out crowd of 4,100 well-wishers, among them Dion's husband René Angélil and her seven-year-old son René-Charles.

                      The two-hour show was punctuated with by several emotional yet intentionally non-teary speeches by Dion, expressing her gratitude to fans for coming to her show at Caesar's Palace Colosseum, created specifically for her debut on March 25, 2003, and to her family for their support in her Sin City endeavor.

                      Her only tears of the night came followed her encore of "My Heart Will Go On."

                      "It's quite hard to believe that we've come to an end," she said. "It's a pleasure to perform for you...it was a wonderful adventure. It was an emotional night. It was a wonderful adventure."

                      Dion also told the capacity crowd that she was "extremely in shock that, night after night, week after week, year after year, you came, you were here."

                      In a post-show news conference, Dion said making it to the final performance was extremely important to the consummate professional, who devoted blood (a viral infection in October, the highly contagious mycoplasma bronchitis last November and the rare ear infection labyrinthitis in May 2006), sweat (a Cirque de Soleil-themed show performed nightly on a 5.7-degree angled stage) and tears (she persevered through a performance even on the day her father passed away in 2003) to the stage show, all of which made her feel, "at one point, like the Titanic was going to sink again."

                      "But we believed and we went on with it."

                      Dion reminisced about the inception of the stage show during the final performance, telling the audience that many industry heavyweights initially balked at the idea of taking up a residency.

                      She also told the crowd, just a fraction of the three million people who are estimated to have seen the show during the course of its run, that the nightly spectacle was almost called off due to her budding pregnancy, back in 2000 when the both the show and René-Charles were first being conceived, and bad reviews.

                      "The vibe was not that positive for us," she said in a pre-show video. Of her coinciding pregnancy, she added, "I had a life for the first time. I knew then that I wanted to have more success as a mother than a singer."

                      She says the sacrifice paid off in the end.

                      "Most of us have left our families behind to give ourselves every night. I can assure you it was worth it.

                      "Tonight I was emotionally invaded," she said. "It was very important for me to pace myself and try not to cry."

                      The crowd, however, did not abide by the same rules.

                      Nearly every song sung by Dion Saturday resulted in a standing ovation, with the final curtain call enduring through 10 straight minutes of applause and cheers. The concert's end, for which René-Charles walked on stage to hand flowers to his Grammy-winning mother, culminated in a shower of red rose petals raining down on the stage.

                      For those unable to make the trek out to see the show at Caesar's Palace, in the $95 million theater the hotel-casino built specially for Dion, the singer's final performance will be screened in roughly 200 movie theaters across the country later today, courtesy of Fathom Events.

                      All told, the show has grossed more than $400 million during its run. Dion's departure from Caesar's, however, paves the way for Bette Midler to begin a residency of her own on Feb. 20, with The Showgirl Must Go On.

                      Dion, meanwhile, won't have long to reminisce about her run. She kicks off a 96-date world tour in support of her new album, Taking Chances, in Johannesburg on Feb. 14.
                      Attached Files
                      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Battle victory short term, holding ground key in Afghanistan: Canadian

                        8 hours ago

                        KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A surprise raid on some 70 sleeping insurgents early Monday in the volatile Zhari-Panjwaii district has been described as a short term success, but a Canadian commander said boosting Afghan government forces is the key to long-term security.

                        The military said 41 Taliban militants were killed as a result of ground and air strikes by Canadian, Afghan and British Gurkha forces, and a sizable weapons cache of mostly small-calibre arms and ammunition was discovered.

                        No civilian or military casualties were reported by coalition forces.

                        Maj. Richard Moffat, deputy commanding officer of the Canadian battle group, called Operation Sharp Sword a "great success."

                        Often criticized for using air strikes in civilian populated areas, coalition forces had assessed recent insurgent activities and were able to pinpoint their specific location, Moffat said.

                        "All the strikes that happened were in open terrain," he said. "We kick them out, we follow them and we strike them."

                        Despite the claim of success, Moffat acknowledged: "This is really a disrupting operation. It's going to last for what - a couple of days, a week?"

                        "Measuring success with casualties is no good," he said, adding the loss of weapons is probably just a small blow to the Taliban in the area.

                        But Moffat believes the military strong points and checkpoints being built for the Afghan army and police will ultimately allow them to "hold the ground" in places where Taliban influence has been strong.

                        "To be able to separate the insurgents and the locals you have to stay in place," he said.

                        "We must remain with the population and that way we can drive a wedge between the insurgents and the local population, and wherever we have strong points we can see that happening right now."

                        "What we wanted to do was create development, create jobs for people so they can work instead of using AK-47s with the Taliban. This is really what we want to do but we got to clear the place before we do that."

                        In the end, he said, it will be up to the Afghan National Police to maintain peace and security. Moffat expressed confidence in the numerous projects underway to professionalize the police force, often criticized as corrupt and inept.

                        The Gurkhas and the Afghan National Army "bore the brunt of the battle" in an area called Siah Choy, Moffat said. Gurkhas, known for their toughness in battle, are Nepalese who serve in the British army.

                        Moffat said the Afghan National Army has four suspected insurgents in custody.

                        "The four Taliban who are caught alive, they are under investigation," said Gul Aqa, a commander of the Afghan army.

                        Aqa said the area is a "big destination" for insurgents. "There are more Taliban so we will keep doing our operations," he said.

                        The Taliban compound hit was believed to have been used as a base for insurgents who have been regularly attacking military convoys along Highway 1 west of Kandahar.

                        Weeding out the insurgents has been tricky as they've been sheltering behind women and children and using mosques to treat their wounded, Moffat added.

                        "On many occasions we didn't engage," Moffat said. "We're here to develop, not destroy everything that's around."

                        The Canadian military effort has been focused almost entirely on the Panjwaii and Zhari districts west of Kandahar city. The districts have been the site of bloody battles involving the Canadian Forces in recent months.
                        Attached Files
                        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Coalition forces rout Taliban fighters

                          By Betsy Pisik
                          December 17, 2007

                          The Washington Times

                          KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadian forces killed or uprooted scores of insurgents in a Taliban stronghold this weekend, in a raid described by a commander as "successful for the time being."

                          Working with Afghan army and police units, Canadian and Gurkha soldiers say they killed 41 insurgents and captured four in yesterday's daylong battle, rousting another 20 to 30 fighters from the baked-mud villages in Kandahar's Zari district.

                          No coalition soldiers were injured in the operation named "Sharp Sword," Maj. Rich Moffett, the deputy commanding officer of the Canadian battle group told reporters today.

                          "This mission was meant to disrupt the insurgents," said Maj. Moffett, acknowledging that the insurgents will try to return. "It is a successful operation for the time being." Much of the fighting took place in around the village of Siah Choy bordering the Arghandab River in southern Afghanistan, which is being patrolled by the Canadians and other U.S. allies as American troops concentrate on the nation's eastern provinces near the Pakistani border.

                          The village is located in a deeply impoverished area, and one where Canadian forces had cleared out the Taliban in a similar operation last year.

                          The area, described as a staging ground for attacks against NATO forces, had been under surveillance for some time. Soldiers also captured a depot of light weapons and ammunition.

                          The Afghan, Gurkhaand Canadian troops surprised the fighters while they slept, said Maj. Moffett. Nonetheless, the battle appears to have been particularly fierce. Battle video shot by a freelance cameraman embedded with Canadian forces shows Afghan, Canadian and Gurkha soldiers firing at the Taliban from behind tall stone walls and embankments.

                          =================


                          Ammo seized in raid on napping Taliban fighters

                          Updated Mon. Dec. 17 2007 12:14 PM ET

                          CTV.ca News Staff

                          Canadian military officials say they're happy with a weekend raid carried out by coalition forces that reportedly caught the Taliban completely by surprise.

                          About 70 Taliban fighters were asleep in a compound when Canadian, Afghan National Army and British Ghurka soldiers attacked.

                          Forty-one Taliban died, with no coalition or civilian casualties reported in Operation Sharp Sword.

                          Airstrikes were used on the insurgents.

                          Maj. Richard Moffat, deputy commanding officer of the Canadian battle group, told reporters in Kandahar on Monday that the airstrikes were precisely targeted.

                          "All the strikes that happened were in open terrain," he said. "We kick them out, we follow them and we strike them."

                          Coalition forces also seized a significant amount of ammunition, he said.

                          "I will not tell you the exact amount or specifically what we found, but a lot of things. It will have an effect on them for the coming days and weeks. They'll have to reconstitute," he said.

                          Ultimately, however, this operation will do more to disrupt the Taliban than end their presence in the area, Moffat said.

                          The Taliban compound is believed to have been used as a base for insurgents attacking military convoys travelling Highway 1 between Hows E Madad and Kandahar City, Moffat said.

                          CTV's Murray Oliver told Newsnet from Kandahar that Highway 1 is a vital artery in southern Afghanistan.

                          "And so the army -- the Canadian forces in addition with Afghan National Army troops -- wanted to really relieve the pressure on that highway and stop these Taliban attacks," he said.

                          New plan

                          The raid took place in an area called Fiah Choi, part of the Panjwaii-Zhari districts, where Canadians have pushed out the Taliban only to see them slink back later.

                          Almost exactly one year ago, Canadian soldiers participated in Operation Operation Baaz Tsuka, an effort to dislodge the Taliban from approximately the same area.

                          When it was over, Canada heralded it as a victory, "and here we are fighting once again," Oliver said.

                          Canadian officers now have a new plan for keeping the Taliban out of cleared area. The plan involves building small outposts that join together Afghan national army and police, with Canadians operating as trainers and liaison officers who can do things like call in airstrikes, he said.

                          "To be able to separate the insurgents and the locals you have to stay in place," Moffat said.

                          "We must remain with the population and that way we can drive a wedge between the insurgents and the local population, and wherever we have strong points we can see that happening right now."

                          However, the Afghan police haven't shown themselves to be very professional, Oliver said.

                          "I'll just say that I spoke with one soldier who was in one of these new outposts with an Afghan National Police unit," he said.

                          "The soldier told us that all the Afghan national policemen ran away and left her all by herself, with another couple Canadian troops to hold the outpost against a Taliban attack."

                          Moffat said there are numerous efforts underway to professionalize the police force.

                          Strategic troubles

                          There are concerns about how well the Afghan mission is going at the highest levels of NATO and the United States, Oliver said.

                          He cited a New York Times article on Sunday that said the Bush administration and NATO have started three top-to-bottom reviews of the mission.

                          The article said more must be done to co-ordinate the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda, to halt the drug production that's helping fund the insurgency and to help the central government in Kabul extend its legitimacy and control.

                          Another suggestion is a "super-envoy" who would co-ordinate aid and development efforts.

                          At NATO meetings in Edinburgh, Scotland last week, the military alliance said it wouldn't be trying to help Canada's efforts with more troops, but would instead help provide money, aid workers and supplies.

                          Oliver said he hasn't heard much public reaction from Canadians in Afghanistan to those suggestions.

                          Canada has about 2,500 troops serving in Afghanistan. Seventy-three of those military personnel have been killed since 2002, along with one Canadian diplomat.

                          More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from western and Afghan officials.

                          That is the worst total since the Taliban were pushed from power in late 2001.
                          Attached Files
                          To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            .
                            Attached Files
                            Last edited by troung; 18 Dec 07,, 02:57.
                            To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Thanks for the name change...
                              Attached Files
                              To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                              Comment

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