After a sustained and difficult deployment which originally commenced in early 2002, the Canadian Army is now in the process of drawing down its military commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)- led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. According to Major General Alan Howard, Deputy Commander, Canadian Army, the de-escalation and handover to US troops by the end of this summer leaves in its wake a credible Canadian war effort.

Over the years the Canadian Army’s approach to counter-insurgency gradually developed through the hard fought campaigns against the Taliban in the war-ravaged Kandahar Province, which killed 154 Canadian soldiers and wounded close to 1,900.

“When we first arrived in 2006, we were almost the only military force that was in the whole province. now there are literally thousands more. We have seen a large surge of Americans into southern Afghanistan so now there are more NATO soldiers serving than ever before,” he said.

“In Kandahar Province the new regional Command headquarters is American. There is good synergies and agreed approach on how things are done. In a counter-insurgency campaign, the principal aim is to win local support and that can only be done by the soldiers on the ground. It is not so much about fighting; rather it is more about creating the conditions for security and development and for the Afghan people to take command. We have learnt that as a military we need partners, as we can only do so much of it. Specialists that have expertise in governance and development are absolutely essential. If they are not there, we will be unable to progress on key issues,” the General added.

He said, “The idea of winning over the local population is very much shared between us. The willingness to share risks and live among Afghan population is not embraced by all Western nations, but it is embraced by Canada and the US.”

“Canadian soldiers have earned a lot of respect from the local population in Kandahar and have improved the security situation in Kandahar Province. We are trying to ensure that the Taliban do not re-establish their presence,” the General explained and added, “We have learnt that in a counterinsurgency environment the key is to be adaptable on a daily basis, because the Taliban have been very adaptable and have tried many different things against us.”

The NATO-led counter-insurgency and exit strategy is heavily dependent on the sustainment of viable proxy-Afghan security forces, such as the Afghan Army and Police which are deployed in increasingly larger numbers against the Taliban.

“Building capacity is the ultimate solution here, and not deployment of more NATO troops. What we want to see is more Afghan security forces in Kandahar province. We are seeing increasing capacity of the Afghan Army as it grows in size. Its position and respect among the Afghan population is quite high. There is a lot of work being done to develop the Afghan Police as well,” he said.

“Although the insurgents think that the people are unhappy and that they can provide better solutions, we have to show them that the Afghan Government has better solutions. In this context, the three pillars that work hand-in-hand are governance, development and security. The three are interrelated in order to defeat an insurgency. After all, ultimately it is the Afghan people who have to defeat the Taliban,” he added.

Conversely, while counter-insurgency operations are steadily intensifying in 2011, Canada will commence a phased process of troop withdrawals, which by the end of this summer will effectively end its expeditionary force commitment to the NATO-led war effort in Afghanistan.

“The Canadian Government have told us that Canadian troops will be withdrawing from Kandahar this year. however, at present, our focus is on current operations and we have a long winter period where we can still work. During periods of reduced insurgent momentum, we take advantage to consolidate and intensify the training that we are providing to the Afghan Army and Police. This is a cyclical thing as we tend to have the ability to do more work in training, development and governance over the winter months. We are going to take advantage of that before we leave to gain momentum by the end of the summer,” he said.

New Priorities

As Canadian troops gradually disengage from Kandahar, the Canadian Government has also recently announced its intention to reinforce the NATO Training Mission—Afghanistan to help in training the Afghan Army and Police. In this capacity, a contingent of around 900 personnel of the Canadian Forces will continue to operate in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future in a mentoring and training role.

However, sizeable troop numbers will also be returning to Canada and focusing on duties related to homeland security and other roles such as humanitarian relief, disaster management and peacekeeping operations. According to Major General howard, “Taking care of things at home and prioritising domestic crises are the key aspects on our list.”

He added, “The sovereignty of Canada is important, which is why we have adopted ‘Canada First’ as our strategy to make sure that our homeland defence is secure and that our sovereignty is maintained on all fronts.”

“We have set up architecture—Canada Command—that has a regional head-quarters and the ability to respond. If someone tells us to go up north, we need to be ready to do that in a limited capacity. When natural disasters and humanitarian calamities overwhelm first responders, such as flooding, we need to be able to respond. For example, we recently had a hurricane and the Army responded by building three bridges and transporting drinking water.”

Having developed capabilities for medium-weight expeditionary operations, the Canadian Army, which has considerable experience in counter-insurgency operations, is emphatic about retaining its force projection capacity.

“We need to look to the future to ensure that our training and readiness levels, which will involve humanitarian, peacekeeping and combat operations are exactly what Canada requires,” stated Major General howard.

“We want to make sure that we preserve our capabilities and that we do not become too specialised. For a small army that we are, this provides the greatest range of options for the Canadian Government,” he affirmed.