This afternoon I tuned into the CBC Ottawa morning show on the internet (I'm living and working in Zanzibar). When the host announced the snippets of the upcoming stories, she said "We've all heard the problems of soldiers coming back from Afghanistan, but this morning we'll talk to a civilian who says the problems are even worse for them." Immediately I groaned and got ready for what was sure to be an interesting story.
The guest spent the first few minutes talking up the danger she and her colleagues faced as civilians stationed in Afghanistan. This was necessary because without establishing herself as a battle-hardened super-bureaucrat, the rest of the story would be a moot point. She admitted that while she was stationed at Kandahar Airfield (KAF) -- where the biggest danger is the Tim Horton's running out of boston cream donuts -- "most of our public servants were stationed at the Provincial Reconstruction Team". She told the listeners that the PRT was based "right in the middle of Kandahar City", emphasizing that this smaller base is in the city and implying that there's some greater danger here.
First, the PRT is probably safer than KAF because it is in the middle of the city and therefore the insurgents cannot lob improvised rockets at the base like they do at KAF. But both are incredibly safe. Second, the civilians in the PRT live in private, bomb-proof shelters, with max 2 people to the room. There's wireless internet, 3 fresh meals a day at the mess, beer call once a month, movie nights, and free laundry service. The guest's attempt to portray the PRT as some sort front-line base where civilian-warriors are living in trenches fighting the Taliban is absurd.
The host attempted to clarify the supposed risk faced by the guest, and asked two probing questions.
Host: "So, you were outside the wire then?"
Renée Filiatrault: "Absolutely, absolutely."
Host: "So you were just as, or even more vulnerable to IEDs [than the soldiers]"?
Renée Filiatrault: "Yes, yes, absolutely."
Hearing this just makes me sick. Civilians based at the PRT go on "patrols" to other sites within the city. These short trips are so short and safe that when I was in Kandahar, my friends who were assigned to protect the civilians referred to themselves as a glorified taxi service. The roads in Kandahar City are paved and full of people, meaning that IEDs are never planted there and the risk of vehicle-borne IEDs is similarly low.
But the real gem of her statement is when she says she's MORE vulnerable to IEDs than the soldiers. How is that possible, Renée? Were you going for strolls outside the wire by yourself? No, you were escorted around in heavily armoured vehicles by Canadian soldiers. So how that makes one more vulnerable I cannot understand.
Some civilians, on the rare occasion, get posted to the forward bases. But even these bases are quite safe from the inside, and the civilians still do not go outside on extended dismounted operations. Renée also made mention of the risk she faced "on the roads" going from KAF to the PRT and back. Of course anything can happen, but this route is travelled multiple times per day by the Canadians and is openly called the "milk run" (my friends and I called it the kessel run, and we could make it in less than twelve parsecs). The idea that she was dodging IEDs every time she took this trip is laughable.
Sightseeing trips inside Kandahar City hardly count as being outside the wire, and certainly does not in anyway expose one to the level of danger experienced on a daily basis by those of us out in the rural districts. Did you ever go on a foot patrol into a village and have an IED planted behind you, which subsequently exploded on your walk back? Did you ever turn up to a district police station only to have a suicide bomber blow the whole place up? Did you get caught in a Taliban ambush, taking small arms fire from three directions? I'm not seeing all these happened to me, but they happen on a regular basis to soldiers who are out fighting the war.
Civilians provide invaluable addition to the mission. They certainly do face reintegration issues, and Renée's point about the need for more services is one that needs making. But it is shameless of her to make her point at the expense of the hard work and sacrifice of me and my fellow soldiers. In doing so, she is drawing attention away from the real issue at hand, and provoking backlash from the people who risked their lives protecting her.
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You can listen to the interview here: http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/episodes/ "Bureaucrats returning from Afghanistan"
Renée was also interviewed for this Maclean's article: http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/07/18/our-best-and-brightest-now-forgotten/
