quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
I'm not doubting the involvement of Canadian Forces in the war. I'm just saying their presence there is somewhat inconsequential in comparison, going on a numbers standpoint alone. I thought it was interesting that you posted the number of casualties of the Canadian Forces, when the US has suffered almost 10x more. Granted that would seem obvious due to the vastly larger number of US troops in Afghanistan, but all I was pointing out is that the US has had more casualties than all of the other coalition forces combined, and has more or less been the main force in the area. |
Total number of CF is about 90000 serving members, all army, navy and air force. It's not a huge military.
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Yes, Canadian forces were there in Jan-Feb of 2002, but they did not play a significant role until 2006, which I said. You also didn't address the fact that Canadian Forces are planned to have withdrawn the bulk of their troops by the end of 2011. I'm not saying I don't agree with the withdrawal of troops from the region, but if you're going to claim a greater involvement in the war, shouldn't your troops remain there until it is officially deemed to be over? |
With only some gaps, from Dec 01 to today, Canada has soldiers on the ground. Some missions were more dangerous. Some are less. Put it this way, more troops other countries put into Afghanistan, more American soldiers are freed up to do whatever, so every contribution counts.
Canada is retooling their mission to provide trainers for Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. (which frankly is just as important as fighting the Taliban)
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You also cited Operation APOLLO, but as far as I can tell, and forgive me if I read this correctly, but I believe it said it only involved a little over 2,000 troops? That's less than the number that died in the September 11th attacks.
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It takes a lot of effort to put even 2000 troops on ground for a mission. Since most of that comes from army, which is about 20,000 regular force augmented by reserves. Basically cycling 10% of army per rotation. I dunno about you, but that's pretty difficult thing to do.
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Again, it was a joke, and I never meant for it to start any kind of argument, least of all with someone who actually served. Many of my friends tease my other friends who served in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the pointlessness of the war, and they never seem to be so butt-hurt by it. I apologize if you took what I said personally, as I didn't mean to offend anyone who actually served in the Canadian Forces. What you said about serving with the American soldiers was really good of you to say, and I'm sure they feel the same about serving with Canadian Forces.
So I apologize if I offended anyone, and Yohan, I do appreciate you serving alongside US Armed Forces in Afghanistan. |
I appreciate the sentiment. But if you are going to make remarks that's going to annoy a lot of people, at least come prepared for an argument.
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