Hazara Nation

20,march,2008
The Star

MacKay says extending 6-month stints possible as manpower shortages hamper Afghan mission

OTTAWA–Longer deployments for Canadian troops in Kandahar – perhaps as long as a year – are being considered as the military struggles to meet the manpower demands of a mission that has been extended by two years.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday from Kandahar he is not ruling it out, but added the decision rests with senior commanders.

"I rely very heavily on the military assessment of that," MacKay said yesterday as he wrapped up his visit. "We're not ruling anything out, but of course these are operational decisions where I'll take that up with the chief of defence staff."

Retired general Lewis MacKenzie said the forces could have to introduce longer deployments to meet the demands of keeping 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan at a time, through to 2011.

"It's a matter of resources. ... I think they're going to have to look at it," MacKenzie said yesterday. "It's a pretty frequent subject of discussion because they are facing the dilemma of just not enough troops."

MacKenzie said the army has an effective infantry corps of about 5,000, once leaves, injuries and other absences are accounted for.

Out of Canada's 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan at a time, typically 800 to 1,000 are front-line infantry corps.

MacKenzie said the force should consider deployments of nine months, even a year.

Front-line Canadian troops now serve a six-month rotation with typically a three-week vacation; headquarters staff are sent for between nine months and a year.

Senior U.S. commanders have said the six-month rotations could be an impediment to NATO success in Afghanistan.

American soldiers serve 15-month deployments, though the Pentagon is reducing that to 12 months to ease the strain on overburdened soldiers.

"What does 15 months mean? The American soldier ... develops a relationship with the terrain, with the indigenous people and their leadership, and with the enemy. And they have sufficient time to exploit that relationship to their advantage," said top NATO commander Gen. Dan McNeill, an American.

Each new Canadian deployment is accompanied by a period of "instability" as the new troops get used to the local geography and dangers, said Brian MacDonald of the Conference of Defence Associations.

"If it takes them one month to do that, then you have one month at less than 100 per cent effectiveness followed by five months of effectiveness," he said.

"If you're able to do a nine-month rotation, you have one month of stability followed by eight months of solid performance."

MacDonald said extending deployments was a "logical move." But the other side of the argument is the effect on soldiers' morale, as well as their physical and mental health if they spend too long in the conflict zone.

"You always have a trade-off between troop exhaustion if you go beyond six months," said Kenneth Calder, a deputy minister of defence from 1991 to 2006.

Fears that the Canadian Forces might be stretched too thin were bolstered with the statistic that one in five soldiers being deployed to Kandahar was a reservist.

MacDonald said that figure has jumped to between 25 per cent and 30 per cent with the most recent deployment. Part-time soldiers leave the military at a higher rate than professional soldiers, taking with them valuable training and experience.

A year ago, Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, said the six-month tour lengths are "about right."

But MacKenzie said the rotation lengths are a holdover from United Nations peacekeeping missions.

"Everybody that did a lot of peacekeeping got into this routine of six-month rotations, which is really quite inefficient when it comes to an operational theatre," he said.

The Canadian military has made it no secret that the prolonged Afghan mission, already extended once by two years, is straining its resources.

For example, it has been deploying sailors and air force personnel to Afghanistan to help bolster the ground forces.

And it has meant that the pledge by then-defence minister Gordon O'Connor to limit combat troops to one deployment in Afghanistan to avoid wearing them out has gone out the window as well.

Canada's latest casualty – Sgt. Jason Boyes, killed in a bomb blast on Sunday – was on his third tour in Afghanistan.

"You just can't sustain that for very long," MacKenzie said about the repeat tours.

He said the idea of longer deployment has surprising support among families, despite the hardship of the longer absences.

Some families say the current practice of having a soldier return home on vacation in the middle of a tour can bring its own troubles.

"They said it's really disruptive. He's gone for a month, then he comes home and then he goes back again. It disrupts life at home," MacKenzie said.

Longer deployments would mean a greater financial reward, since troops enjoy generous tax benefits for the time they are deployed.

But the change would upset the whole cycle of the military in Canada, meaning significant changes to things like training schedules, post-deployment postings and career courses.

"It would not be impossible, but it would certainly be challenging," MacKenzie said.