The Canadians had warned their adversaries about the coming attack with leaflets and radio bulletins. Just before the foreign soldiers arrived, insurgent leaders representing as many as 1,000 Taliban organized a shura (meeting) where by some accounts they urgently debated whether to retreat east into the district of Dand. But they decided that the inevitable showdown with the Canadians would be best fought in the natural defensive terrain of Panjwai's trenches, dry canals and thick mud walls.The warning allowed the Taliban to set up a solid defensive perimeter. That ultimately cost four Canadians their lives.
However, some soldiers suggested yesterday that warning civilians about the impending attack may have been too kind.It's all too obvious that the Taliban only appreciate strength in an enemy. They sneer at any type of compassion, which they see as weakness. Time to take off the kid gloves and hit them again where they live.
“Any time you broadcast plans as openly as we did in that respect to an enemy force, they will take the opportunity to do something with that time,” Major Abthorpe said. “Time on the battlefield is one of the most powerful weapons we have. That was a double-edged sword we attempted."
See Doing It Wrong for additional elucidation.
As Mr. Layton said in that speech now posted on the party website, New Democrats may "grieve with each family that loses a loved one in this and all conflicts, or sees a loved one injured in the line of duty," but their grief is dishonest. You can't position yourself as a soldier-lover when you loathe soldiering.
That statement ends with a pitch for donations and a call for signatures on a petition. "Support our troops," it says. In a pig's ear.
Technorati Tags: Taliban, Operation Medusa, Canadian Forces
