KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- On one of the worst days yet for Americans in the Afghanistan conflict, Canada's new top soldier wrapped up a surprise, whirlwind visit to his troops in the country, delivering an upbeat message and making a promise to soldiers in the field: he will not extend the length of their combat rotations.
"Six months is enough due to the amount of risk they are assuming on a daily basis," said Gen. Walter Natynczyk, who arrived in Afghanistan under a cloak of secrecy last Wednesday, just one week after being sworn in as chief of defence staff.
Gen. Walter Natynczyk (second from left) talks with soldiers at a forward operating base during his first visit with Canadian troops in Kandahar Province.
Journalists embedded with the military were not allowed to mention Natynczyk's visit until he had left the country Sunday evening.
Despite the tight security, most soldiers were well aware the visit was underway and news spread quickly about his promise to freeze the length of combat tours.
"Six months is a good time for what we're doing," said Cpl. Adam Stefaniec, a combat engineer from Edmonton. "We all have lives back home. If you have six months, you get a little bit of time off, spend some time with family. It makes sense."
While some combat soldiers have said they wouldn't mind fighting more than six months at a time, Natynczyk's decision will likely prove popular with soldiers and their families who worried Canada was about to follow the lead of the Americans and extend combat rotations to nine months or even 12.
Meanwhile, 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in Afghanistan that also claimed the lives of "dozens" of Taliban insurgents, according to several media reports.
Nine of the deaths came during a day of fighting in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. Another soldier was killed in a bomb blast in Helmand.
While Natynczyk acknowledged having more troops in place is crucial to winning a counter-insurgency, the Canadian Forces is not about to ask its combat troops to stay longer than six months at a time, he said.
"The fact is you want people to be fresh when they do this, you want them to have their wits about them when they do those kinds of missions," said Natynczyk, who visited soldiers in their forward-operating bases with all the glad-handing zeal of a politician on the campaign trail. Perpetually smiling, he posed for pictures and sat for informal chats with rank-and-file soldiers.
In some ways he was indeed on a campaign trail, trying to win the trust and support of troops involved in one of the most difficult and dangerous missions ever undertaken by the Canadian military.
And he wanted to introduce himself personally to soldiers who had idolized his predecessor, Gen. Rick Hillier, who played a large role in encouraging the federal government to commit the Canadian battle group to Kandahar in 2006.
Natynczyk, who was born in Winnipeg in 1958 and grew up on Elgin Avenue, also turned on the charm when meeting with the little contingent of embedded reporters who were skeptical of the general's claims the number of violent incidents has flatlined in Kandahar where Canadian troops are stationed.
"In Kandahar province, we're generally along the same lines we have been the past few years," said Natynczyk. "It's interesting looking at the statistics we're just a slight notch, indeed an insignificant notch, above where we were last year."
However, that "insignificant notch" includes the spectacularly successful attack by insurgents in June against Sarpoza prison in Kandahar City, where the entire inmate population was freed including 400 Taliban sympathizers.
In contrast to Natynczyk's optimism, the U.S. has expressed a grim view of the conflict, saying in a recent Pentagon report the Taliban has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency."
Displaying what might be his inexperience in a new job, Natynczyk managed to confuse reporters by apparently contradicting himself.
At one point he said he would welcome more coalition troops into Kandahar because "if you want to win in a counter-insurgency it's troop intensive," but then added moments later, "You've got to be careful because if you bring in too many coalition forces actually you undermine the ability and indeed the responsibility of the Afghan security forces to do their work."
-- Canwest News Service
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