-- KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Three Canadian soldiers were killed by a bomb Friday morning, marking the 100th military death in the Afghan mission.**********
Corporal Mark Robert McLaren and Private Demetrios Diplaros and a third soldier, whose name has not been released pending notification of his family, were killed instantly, said Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, Commander of Task Force Kandahar Friday. ( - The third soldier has now been identified as Warrant Officer Robert Wilson. -)
The deaths mark the first fatalities for the new rotation of soldiers in the battle group commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Barrett, from the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont.
RELATED: Looks like Allah's little Jihadi Death Fairies...
...are busy spreading the good word all over...
A large explosion rocked the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least six people and wounding 75. The bomb exploded Friday evening in a busy shopping area of the city, police official Amanullah Khan said.That's some "religion of peace."
Six people were killed in a separate suicide car bombing in the country's northwest earlier Friday.
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LAST WORD: Ask an old soldier...
The answer, of course, is more troops. That means a larger army. Our proficiency in Afghanistan will increase the demand for Canadian soldiers in future missions.*
Our 60,000 soldiers (maybe 6,000 of them “combat”) are insufficient for what we are asking of them. Ours should be an army of at least 100,000, which would guarantee more reasonable rotation.
Historically, 100 killed in six years of war isn’t excessive. Canada had more than 100 killed during 35 years of conventional UN peacekeeping — deaths that got mentioned (if at all) as an item on page 38 of newspapers.