Another Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

[J.O.]

Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan

Last Updated Wed, 17 May 2006 13:55:25 EDT

CBC News

A female soldier from Canada has been killed while serving in Afghanistan, military officials said Wednesday.

She has not been identified, but was a captain in the Canadian Forces.

Details are scarce, but it is known she died during a major operation south of Kandahar.

It's not clear whether she was killed in combat or in an accident.

This raises Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to 16 soldiers and one diplomat since the mission started in 2002.

Roughly 2,200 Canadian soldiers are serving in the country, mostly around the southern Kandahar region.

MPs will vote Wednesday on whether to extend Canada's deployment in the country until 2009 from its currently scheduled end date of February 2007.

[Guest rattler]

Woman soldier killed in Afghanistan, 17th Canadian fatality in country

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at 15:39 on May 17, 2006, EST.

By BOB WEBER

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canada suffered its first female combat death in Afghanistan when a woman soldier was killed during fighting with Taliban insurgents late Wednesday, a military spokesman said.

Capt. Nichola Goddard, of 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery based in Shiloh, Man., was killed in action at 6:55 p.m., 24 kilometres west of Kandahar city, the spokesman said. Her age and hometown were not immediately available.

There has been intermittent fighting in the area since Monday between Afghan government forces and Taliban insurgents.

Members of the Canadian Forces were backing up combined operations of the Afghan national police and army, and were moving against a concentration of Taliban fighters in the Panjwai area at the time, the spokesman said.

The spokesman had initially said she was the first Canadian female combat death, but determined later that other women had died in battle during the First and Second World Wars. Goddard is the first Canadian female combat death in Afghanistan, however, and the 17th Canadian killed in that country since 2002 - one diplomat and 16 soldiers, including four who died in the friendly-fire bombing by a U.S. warplane.

Fighting in the Panjwai area has stopped for now but the operation will continue on Thursday, the spokesman said.

"It's a hard day but it's also a day of achievement," said Canadian Gen. David Fraser, commander of the multinational brigade based in Kandahar. Fraser said there were "significant" Taliban casualties in the battle and a number of Taliban members were captured.

Coalition aircraft had provided support during the operation, the military said.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons about the soldier's death.

"Today, we suffered a combat casualty in Afghanistan," Harper said. "I have the name of a female officer who was killed in combat action against Taliban forces."

"These are always terrible tragedies," the prime minister said.

"I don't know if this is a first, a female combat death. It's certainly not a first that we ever want to celebrate, but it does underscore the tremendous courage that our young men and women show in our theatre and I believe that they have the right at all times to know that those of us who sent them into combat stand behind them."

Canada has about 2,200 troops in Afghanistan, most of them in Kandahar, as part of an international effort to help the Kabul government assert its authority and fight Taliban insurgents who have been engaging the U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces in hostilities in many parts of the country.

Kandahar, in the south, is regarded as a hotbed of insurgent attacks and the spiritual home of the extremist Taliban movement.

The Taliban were ousted from power by U.S.-led forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Taliban regime was blamed for harbouring Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization when it was in power.

[Mitch Cronin]

"The soldier", "Female soldier", "Captain Goddard", "16 soldiers ", "female combat death".... !

It's all bulls#it language! How old was this girl we killed today?

[Guest rattler]

The woman was in her mid 20s.....

[Mitch Cronin]

...now it sounds as though you're doing it too... Is it just me? "The woman"? Would anyone hesitate to call her "a 25 yr old girl" if she was gunned down here at home?

[Kip Powick]

I think if a trained female goes into combat she can go from a "girl" to a "woman" very quickly regardless of age.

[Guest rattler]

Right on Kip!!!

I did not see anyone post re the Laval Police officer who was killed last year (woman in her 20s) calling her a girl although both were killed fighting a war.

[cp fa]

I'm not sure what the kerfuffle is all about, but I guess if you need a tiebreaker, you'd have to ask the parents who just lost their daughter.

If it were me, I'd probably want her to be remembered as a courageous young woman who lost her life serving her country, but I'd still feel as though I'd just lost my little girl.

[Mitch Cronin]

Kerfuffle?... Call me old fasioned, but I think wars are no place for women... (much less young girls!) they're a ridiculous men's game. If women were in charge I'd like to think we could avoid wars.

Other than showing the US we're willing to kill some of our own people in order to remain on their good side, can we accomplish much of anything in Afghanistan? Hasn't the futility of that been demonstrated time and time again already?

I don't have any answers for all the questions that come.... all I know is yesterday I felt something I'd not felt before when I learned a young Canadian girl died in a far away place, in a fire fight with people she had no need to be anywhere near.

What for? Did her death, or that of the other 15 Canadian soldiers who've been killed there accomplish anything of any value to anyone at all?

I know I risk the wrath of all on board here who once wore a military uniform, but it all makes me sick. I can absolutely see the sense in fighting a foe that comes to do you harm, but to go someplace else and fight them on their soil....? ....Or to sit in a nice safe place and direct young "men and women" to do so....? Puh! ...spit! Ptui!... real bad taste in my mouth!

[Cargo Agent]

Mitch your old fashioned.

I do understand the sentiments though. Women have played a proud part of our countries military history for decades. It was 1990 (I think) that parliament allowed them to become combat soldiers. This is just a success (or failure depending on your viewpoint) of the whole equal rights movement.

I watched a report on CTV last night where this Captain had been interviewed last March. She was proud to be there, and proud to be serving her country. She was a FAO (Foward Artillery Observer) and from what was told she was damn good at it. She had entered the military to help pay for her English degree. She found a home there and mentioned that she'd likely be a lifer. Sadly, she was, but not for as long as we all would have wanted.

This is the way it is nowadays.There will be more casualties in Afghanistan, and perhaps some of them will be women. We can only wish them a safe passage through their tours and support them and their families.

[Cargo Agent]

Did her death, or that of the other 15 Canadian soldiers who've been killed there accomplish anything of any value to anyone at all?

I know I risk the wrath of all on board here who once wore a military uniform, but it all makes me sick. I can absolutely see the sense in fighting a foe that comes to do you harm, but to go someplace else and fight them on their soil....? ....Or to sit in a nice safe place and direct young "men and women" to do so....? Puh! ...spit! Ptui!... real bad taste in my mouth!

If you saw a husband down the street beating his wife for showing her ankles, what would you do? If he wouldn't allow his 10 year old daughter to attend school, what would you do? If that guy attacked your next door neighbor, what would you do?

I work with a fellow who is a reservist. He spent 6 months last year overseas in the Gulf and Afghanistan. I watched the video's he took while there and listened as he described what those people had gone through. It removed any doubt I had about whether we should be there or not.

If we aren't going to send troops overseas when it's needed, let's disband the military and resign from NATO, NORAD, and the UN.

[Guest rattler]

I guess as a nation it is time for us to take a close look at the role of our military.

Do we continue to send our troops overseas on peace keeping / peace making missions or not? No matter where they go, there will be the danger of them taking fire. If we continue to deploy them, then we must also continue to expect casualties.

If we can not accept that risk then we have no business sending our men and women into those situations.

Perhaps it is time to look at the Swiss model of a military force but for a strictly domestic use. The Swiss did send their troops into hostile territory.

Of course there is always the question of what do we owe the rest of the world and is our military commitment part of that?

Swiss Military

[Kip Powick]

I can absolutely see the sense in fighting a foe that comes to do you harm, but to go someplace else and fight them on their soil....?

Remember WWI and WWII ???? I know, a bit of a stretch... but based on your statement one would assume you want the CAF to stay in Canada, until we are "attacked".

Those men and women serving in far away places are there because they "believe". Our Forces are purely voluntary...no one forced them to join...they made the choice. Being put in harms way if in the Armed Forces is a fact of life and all that enlist are well aware of it.

Women wanted equality..they got it...they work shoulder to shoulder with the men, want no quarter, and do the job just as well as their male counterparts.....That a female is killed in the line of duty is indeed a sad thing, probably because we ALL tend to see the ladies as the kinder and more gentle souls that they are, but when the uniform is donned......everyone is equal.

[Steam Driven]

It should not matter if the soldier was a man or a woman. To emphasize the soldier's sex for "spin" and political gains is shameful. Any soldier who loses his or her life is equally deserving of our gratitude and sympathies.

[Mitch Cronin]

Like I said, I don't have answers to all those questions.... .... I'm speaking of feeling... feeling just is, it doesn't need answers... that's how I feel about war and women dieing in a war...

I'd much rather see all combatants sitting at a table arguing, while respecting each others' right to live and breath and disagree. Though I recognize that's often impossible, it doesn't eliminate that feeling.

Beside all that, I highly suspect that it's something of a primal instinct for a man to want to see women and children safe. ... maybe that brand of "old fashioned" is undeniable for some of us? ... hmmm?...

Heck, I don't know! It just rots.

[Guest rattler]

Not sure if this is indeed the reaction of the majority of our troops (never do trust the press) but those who I know (serving in our military agree with the comments expressed).

Soldiers welcome mission extension even though it means repeat tours for many

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at 4:26 on May 18, 2006, EST.

By BOB WEBER

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan welcomed Wednesday's federal vote to extend their mission by two years, even though most of them knew it meant they'd be back for another tour in the turbulent country.

"It means that after this tour I'm probably going to come back again in another two years," said Warrant Officer Bruno Wissell. "It's going to be similar to Bosnia, where we were there for 10 years and we had people that were doing two or three tours." Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a squeaker of a vote late Wednesday over his divided opposition rivals.

The Conservative motion to extend the deployment passed 149 to 145 Wednesday night. The NDP, Bloc Quebecois and most Liberals, including key leadership candidates such as Stephane Dion, Ken Dryden and Joe Volpe, voted against it.

Still, soldiers like Sgt. Scott O'Neill approved of the motion's passage.

"I just think it's a no-brainer," he said.

"This mission's not going to be wrapped up anytime soon. Anybody who's been out there on the ground sees that we're just starting to make headway now and we're going to need to continue at it until it's done."

While he said he expects to retire before he could be asked to do another tour in Afghanistan, O'Neill figured many of his colleagues will become intimately familiar with the hot, dusty place.

"If you're going to be (in the military) any length of time you're going to be here again," he said.

Canada's original commitment of troops was from February 2006 to February 2007. But that was never going to be enough time, said Maj. Bob Herold.

"From everything I've seen, this is not going to be a quick-fix solution. It's going to be a long-term solution. So somebody's going to have to be here for the next two years. Somebody's going to have to be here maybe long after that as well."

Violence in the area has been increasing.

A UN demining team was attacked just outside Kandahar earlier this week by a suicide bomber.

And Wednesday night, Capt. Nichola Goddard of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery became the first Canadian woman to die during a battle in a combat role when she was killed in a firefight between Taliban fighters and combined coalition and Afghan forces.

The operation, which was still continuing Thursday morning, took place about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar.

Sgt. Mark Kelly said although he welcomed the chance to serve a second tour in Afghanistan, he was well aware of the risks.

"I'll probably be back here again," he said.

"It is a good thing. This has definitely been one of the harder missions that I've done. But hopefully, things will quiet down."

Just let us finish the job, said Wissell.

"Once you get into a mission, you always want to finish what you started," he said.

"It's good that we're going to extend this for two years for the simple reason that once we start a mission, we always want to see it completed and I think if we were only to stay here the time frame allotted, we wouldn't be able to accomplish the whole mission."

[Mitch Cronin]

Did you realize this was a 10 yr old thread before posting that?

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Mitch Cronin said:

Did you realize this was a 10 yr old thread before posting that?

 

yes Mitch the link was deliberate.  It was to illustrate that little has changed in the past decade . Our soldiers are still putting their lives on the line in an impossible mission. However I have moved my post to a new thread "Another Impossible Mission" in deference to those who lost their lives in the original mission.