Major Dave McAllister
He was first in Afghanistan for 10
months in Kandahar city, which is the base for the Canadian forces.
From 2006 to 2011 the Seaforth Highlanders based 200 combat troops here. This is a long way from Canada.
Kandahar Provence is about the size of
Vancouver island, with a population of nearly 1 million. That is a lot of
people to administer to for 200 troops!
It was very difficult to provide
security for so many with so few.
A daunting task.
Kandahar is a very old city next to a
large desert.
This year 1,000 U.S. troops joined them
as well as now we have 3,000 newly trained Afghan army personnel and 2,000 new
Canadian troops.
Unfortunately violence hits the news.
Still 90% of what they do there is to
meet with the district elders for political meetings. That doesn’t hit the news.
After the surge we have a much better
grip on the area and the level of violence has gone down.
At the political meetings we discuss
such life essentials as water supply, food distribution and seeds for crop
planting.
Aid for children like shoes and
schooling etc.
We always sit on the left of the
district Governor to show respect.
Still without wearing helmets, again to show respect.
They ran the meetings, not us. After we leave they will have to run
things on their own.
We are not an occupier force. We are here to support.
This is our moral responsibility.
There are arms and ammunition everywhere.
We paid for any cache of arms so we
could destroy them.
We trained Afghans to build and repair.
We trained all police forces.
Canadians have now left the front line,
we are now only back up.
We hope for a functioning government that
provides services to the people.
Tribalism is still a major issue. Many
contracts are still awarded along tribal ways.
Policing works O.K through tribal ways.
There is grinding poverty everywhere.
The speaker was thanked by President Harrison.