September 2012 Issue $3.95 Cdn / $4.50 US Display until October 5, 2012 Publications Mail # 40069149 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept. 204-1066 Somerset St. W. Ottawa ON K1Y 4T3 september 2012 esprit de corps 1 BOEING NEW AD 2 volume 19 issue 8 e ON TARGET? Volume 19 Issue 7 With the Afghan army, you get what Publisher Manager you give — and that is amounting Scott Taylor Julie Simoneau Scott Taylor publisher to green-on-blue killings Sales Director Circulation Blake Hurdis Tiffany Taus Columnist Atlantic Rep Last month members of the Afghanistan of the intervention in Afghanistan, the Michael Nickerson Gord Crowe National Army turned their weapons on international community has in no way Contributing Editors Les Peate, Norman Shannon the NATO personnel deployed to assist demonstrated the necessary commitment Production Assistants in their training on at least four different to truly developing a professional Afghan Megan Brush, Renée Depocas instances.L Several American soldiers were Army cadre. Journalist killed in the attacks and a number of other From the get-go, the emphasis on Marlee Wasser trainers were wounded. establishing a post-Taliban Afghan security Special Events This phenomenon of Afghan allies force has been to do it as quick as possible Thérèse Darêche, Lale Eskicioglu Michèle Simoneau, Emily Walsh deliberately targeting NATO forces has at the lowest possible cost. Given the become so frequent in the past few years nearly two-decade suspension of education Contributors in this issue Vincent J. Curtis, Jeff Davis, Col. Michel Drapeau, that a new catchphrase has been implanted services during the Soviet occupation and Michael Hurley, Joshua M. Juneau, Eric Leclerc, to describe these incidents: green-on-blue. Taliban era, the vast majority of the early David Pugliese, Col. Pat Stogran In military parlance, the term blue- recruits into the Army and police forces Regular Contributors on-blue has long been used to describe were illiterate. Paul Culliton, Vincent J. Curtis, Col. Michel Drapeau, Bob Gordon, Thom Gordon, Eric Leclerc, friendly-fire incidents wherein allied As NATO instructors soon discovered, Michael Hurley, John P. Maclean, forces mistakenly target and kill their own there is only so much training you can give Mark M. Miller, David Pugliese, Steven Staples side in the fog of war. The cases of our an illiterate police recruit, so they were Esprit de Corps Afghan allies showing their true colours processed, badged and out patrolling the #204-1066 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, ON K1Y 4T3 and deliberately killing NATO instructors streets after just two weeks of instruction. Tel: 613-725-5060 • Fax: 613-725-1019 doesn’t exactly fit that mould, hence the For the Afghan Army, more rudimentary www.espritdecorps.ca term green-on-blue has been coined. weapons training was required and thus Toll-free: 1-800-361-2791 The Taliban insurgents are considered the NATO schools were pushing out red forces, as they are the clear-cut enemy. so-called trained recruits into combat E-mail: [email protected] All NATO-friendly forces are labeled as after just 10 weeks at the Kabul Military Subscriptions blue and now we have a green force on Training Centre. $34.95 for 12 issues • $95.95 for 36 issues the battlefield consisting of Afghan Army Given that all instruction had to be Esprit de Corps (ISSN 1194-2266) is published twelve times a year (HST (no. 135453157) included). units of dubious loyalty. If one were to given first in English and then translated Please send cheque, money order, Visa or MasterCard look at this situation from a purely pious, into Dari and Pashtu (with these illiterate information with your subscription request. If you are moving or need to correct your mailing address, call imperialistic vantage point, it would seem recruits whose first language was either us toll-free from anywhere in Canada. that the Afghan Army turncoats are an Tajik, Uzbek or Turkmen dialects doing nd ungrateful lot of malcontents — murder- their best to understand) comprehension Members from 2 Battalion, Royal ing our brave soldiers who are attempting was never complete. Newfoundland Regiment to help them. Although the Afghan Army is a vol- from Corner Brook However, those familiar with the unteer force, the emphasis in training practice stacking responsibility incumbent upon military was not to weed out the weak, but rather prior to going through manoeuvers to clear a service and its inherent unlimited liability to graduate quickly, as many as possible. house in the Urban Ops of service know that loyalty is a two-way training range in Virginia. affair. In this regard, since the outset PUBLISHER ... CONTINUED ON P. 46 (WO JERRY KEAN, DND) Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069149 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: #204-1066 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, ON K1Y 4T3 www.espritdecorps.ca Tel: (613) 725-5060 september 2012 esprit de corps 3 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 8 F E A T U R E S CHANGING WITH THE TIMES This is not your grandfather’s Commissionaires — by Blake Hurdis — 8 18 26 UNMANNED QUEENSTON VEHICLES HEIGHTS The process of bringing American and British forces clash JUSTAS to the Canadian Forces in the first major battle of the war — by David Pugliese — — by Michael Hurley — D E P A R T M E N T S 6 Posted In: Letters to the editor 16 Commentary: “Conservative defence strategy goes kaput,” by Vincent Curtis; “National Reality Check Day,” by Michael Nickerson; “Peacekeeping 101,” by Col. Pat Stogran 23 Law & Order: “The hidden costs of a posting: What your career manager won’t tell you,” by Michel Drapeau and Joshua Juneau 32 Perspectives: “Afghanistan after NATO: Ill-equipped Afghan forces will struggle when NATO pulls out, says Ambassador Barna Karimi,” by Jeff Davis 34 At Ease: Test your military knowledge against quizmaster Les Peate 36 The Cold War: “Inventing Canada Abroad: The legacy of Lester B. Pearson”: How one man’s vision kept the peace and forged a legacy, by Eric Leclerc 41 The Old Guard: News and information for serving members and veterans, by Les Peate 45 Incoming: Hits & Misses: News from the front lines and the backrooms 4 volume 19 issue 8 4 esprit de corps september 2012 NAMMO NEW AD COMING september 2012 esprit de corps 5 e Actually, the Ombudsman’s first report fo- RELATIVE INJURIES RECOGNIZED BY NEW LEGISLATION cussed on Veterans Affairs Canada decision letters, as indicated in the report title, “Veter- ans’ right to know reasons for decisions — A matter of procedural fairness: Examination of the adequacy of information in decision letters from Veterans Affairs Canada.” Only the sec- ond of these two reports, “Veterans’ Right to Fair Adjudication: Analysis of Federal Courts decisions pertaining to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board,” focussed on the Board. With respect to the Ombudsman’s sec- ond report, I am sending along a link to the Board’s recent progress update, should you want to post it for the benefit of your readers: http://www.vrab-tacra.gc.ca/Documents/ Action-Plan-Response_Plan-daction- reponse-eng.cfm. New legislation will help injured vets moving forward, but what about older cases? You’ll see that to date, the Board has: inally some good news for injured veter- types of relative injuries.” For members who established a task force with VAC and the Fans who have a body part that wears out have fought the battle for so many years, I Bureau of Pensions Advocates to study and due to taking on more of the load after the believe our claims should be backdated to learn from trends emerging from Federal opposite body part was injured. the legislation date. Court decisions; launched a review of our An injured knee, DVA has finally agreed to, Ernie Slump decision format and language; begun post- is granted compensation as a DVA benefit. Penticton, BC ing noteworthy decisions on our Web site; The opposite knee, after the original in- and has streamlined its procedures for cases jured knee begins to do most of the work, VRAB CORRECTS A POINT returned by the Federal Court. eventually wears out and requires surgery I am a Communications Officer with the Vet- Together, these actions have already or replacement. Unfortunately, the DVA “run erans Review and Appeal Board. I wanted improved our procedures for reviewing and around” attitude prohibits any recognition of to bring to your attention a factual error applying Federal Court rulings, increased the now damaged knee. This Catch-22 situa- contained in “Commentary: The Executive transparency in our decision making and will tion became a nightmare for my original injury. War College on veterans rights,” recently pub- ensure our decisions are clearer and more On April 1, 2006 government legislation lished in Vol. 19 Issue 6 of Esprit de Corps. plainly written. We have only just begun was passed recognizing the fact that the The article states: “Only recently did Parent this work and will continue to focus on it to healthy body part would eventually wear out produce two long-overdue reports on the mal- improve the appeal program for veterans and and need surgery or replacement and should feasance of the Veterans Review and Appeal their families. be compensated for. Board. In the first, Parent reviews some 200 Alexandra Shaw The Act reads: “The Canadian Forc- decision letters VRAB sent to applicants and Communications Officer es Members and Veterans Re-Establish- determines they don’t provide adequate ex- Veterans Review and Appeal Board ment and Compensation Act recognizes these planations of how the decisions were made.” Charlottetown, PEI 6 volume 19 issue 8 MILITARY SUBVERSION: ADVENTURISM, spending, and macho chest-pounding — and SEDUCTION, AND TRANSFORMATION ON replace it with something better and more THE FRONT LINES.