Two days ago, I posted about Canada possibly sending tanks to Afghanistan. It seems fitting that, on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, there is a confirmation that we are bringing out the big guns.
OTTAWA — The Canadian Forces' main tank unit is racing to prepare 120 troops and 15 Leopard tanks to send to Afghanistan as early as next week, in what would be a major boost in Canadian military capability there, according to a military expert who observed them.So what will this do for our troops on the ground?
"It would be a significant increase in our capability," said retired Major-General Lewis Mackenzie, a former commander of UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. "There's not a lot more boots on the ground at 120 [troops], but there's a lot more combat power because of the 105-millimetre gun and the armoured protection they provide."This will provide a bit of a stand-off capability to our guys, instead of playing the hut-to-hut, hit & scoot tactics favoured by the Taliban. In a conflict like this, you don't want to be playing the other guys game.
"When the infantry, for example, come up against a couple of houses where they would suffer casualties going in and clearing that house of the enemy, even though they would win, it's sort of nice to be able to stand back and turn to the tanker and say, 'Take that house out.' "
Long past time, I say. If the Liberals hadn't been so intent on gelding the military and turning it into a travelling circus act, we could have had our own air force doing close air-support as well.
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