Adapting in the Dust by Stephen M. Saideman

Author:Stephen M. Saideman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4426-6691-7
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2016-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

chapter seven

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The Canadian Forces: Winners?

One of the most striking contrasts one will find when considering the Canadian experience in and since Afghanistan involves the Canadian Forces. In the collective mind of the senior officers, the Afghanistan effort was a major success. The best evidence of this might be that nearly every Canadian who commanded in Afghanistan has been promoted.1 However, if you ask the public, experts on Afghanistan, or officials in other Canadian agencies, Kandahar does not seem to be such a success story.2 This presents the potential for a credibility gap as the very positive perspective presented by the CF may cause others to discount whatever senior officers may say in the future.

To be clear, the CF did quite well, but where? In this chapter, I first consider three arenas in which it gained significant success: within the military, within NATO, and within Canada. The war helped to cement a cultural revolution within the CF that mitigated the risk aversion imposed by the Somalia experience. In terms of its membership in NATO, the CF, in the words of General Rick Hillier, went from being “Can’tbats” to being among the most reliable forces in the alliance. In Canada, the war changed how the CF was perceived, enabling it to shed the blue helmet mythology. Notice that none of these arenas are Kandahar, which I go on to address. Next, I consider the impact that the Afghanistan experience has and will have on the CF.

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