NATO Aims to Cut Civilian Afghan Deaths

NATO has acknowledged that the collateral deaths of civilians in its battles with the Taliban have damaged the ability of our forces to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Admitting the problem is a good start.

According to NATO spokesman, RAF Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, "We've been doing everything we can to try and reduce that number."

No NATO commander wants to kill Afghan civilians but it's not a matter over which they have much choice. NATO forces are seriously understrength. When they get into trouble they sometimes have to rely on "force multipliers", the heavy firepower advantage of artillery or attack aircraft, to save their skins. The weapons used in aerial or artillery bombardment are extremely powerful and have a large "kill radius." These weapons can't discriminate between insurgent and innocent civilian. If they're within the kill radius, they're probably going to be killed.

It's not as though Canadian soldiers aren't willing to stand and fight. Lord knows they've shown they don't shirk from taking casualties. It's just that they're so few in numbers that they're more likely to find themselves having to call in heavy weapons just to survive.

We don't have enough soldiers in Kandahar to do the job. According to recent US counterinsurgency studies, we don't have 10% of the number needed in Kandahar. When you're that understrength, you're mainly on the defensive. When you're on the defensive, the bad guys hold the initiative. When the insurgents have the advantage of the initiative, they can choose to take their time and fight you at your weak spots, putting you in the situation where you have to rely on aerial and artillery bombardment of civilian areas.

Taking civilian lives is an inevitable cost of business the way we're doing it and we're not likely to change the way we're doing business in Kandahar anytime soon.