[afghanistan] yet another trouble spot flares up

Have you paused to ask why Afghanistan happens to have flared up again now, straight after Lebanon? All over the world conflicts are breaking out and heroic NATO forces immediately move in to quell the insurgents.

In every theatre – Tamil, Taliban, Basque, Hezbollah, soon Kosovo again, it seems to be the season for insurgency. And western forces are currently deployed to lend a helping hand in rooting them out. Quite lucky, isn’t it, that they happen to be right on hand when they’re needed?

The Globe and Mail reports today: The fourth platoon of Canada’s Bravo Company, known as the Nomads, were fighting alongside U.S. troops and killed an estimated 20 Taliban. Operation Medusa was largely a conventional attack but the opposition is anything but conventional.

The night before, the soldiers had laid tripwire in the grape fields around their positions and rigged flares to give away the presence of intruders -- but now the flares were gone. It seemed that insurgents had snuck to within a few dozen metres of the Canadians, snipped the tripwires, and stolen the flares.

"I'm surprised they could even find them, out there," said Col. Lavoie, the Canadian battle-group commander. "The only explanation for that," replied his captain, "is that they watched us put them in."

NATO bombardments of the area continued into the night, but the Canadians stayed alert; radio chatter suggested that the Taliban had a concealed bunker nearby, and were planning a more serious assault.

That’s the official report from the Toronto Globe and Mail but I ask the question, ‘What the hell are the Canadians doing in Afghanistan in the first place?’ Do they think they’re going to eliminate this foe? Perhaps they should have a chat with the Russian army, which had some interesting experiences in this hell hole before they woke up that this really is a Medusa they’re up against.

Am I completely out of order in suggesting that this thing is starting to look like a series of co-ordinated global military exercises? And read the Globe and Mail report again and note the Falklands like patriotic tone. Reminiscent?