Canadian Colonel Says Taliban Defeated

The outgoing commander of Canada’s mentoring team in Kandahar says the Taliban have been routed and won’t present a significant threat in the future.

Col. Ian Creighton, who was in charge of the operational mentor liaison team _ or OMLT _ says the lull in violence across southern Afghanistan over the last few weeks has nothing to do with onset of colder weather, as in previous years.

“This is not just a winter thing where some guys have gone back to Pakistan. They have been defeated on the battlefield,” he said Friday shortly after handing command to his replacement, Col. Hercule Gosselin.

The blatantly upbeat assessment is at odds with American officers at NATO’s southern Afghan command, who said last week it will be the spring before they can be sure the recent offensive through the Taliban heartland was successful.

Still, Creighton wasn’t reluctant to use an unambiguous word not often spoken here: “Victory.”

Soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group, who are shaking the dust off their clothes following months in field, have lamented that NATO’s restrictive rules on the use of aircraft and artillery have allowed insurgents to “just walk away.” Some have predicted that the Taliban will be back in force next spring.

Creighton said militants who managed to flee will find NATO and Afghan forces holding their ground if and when they return.

“Anybody who comes back into this country — a Taliban — is going to hit that wall,” Creighton predicted. “They’ll have minimum effect if they do try to come back in. The security is tight, that’s for sure.”

His boss, Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner, said it was a tough summer of fighting but he also believes things have turned around.

“We weren’t really sure how things were going back April-May,” he said. “The insurgents had a lot of the momentum. They had freedom of movement, but the excellent efforts of the OMLT in concert with the rest of the task force, and our Afghan partners, we’ve been able to turn the tide.”

The soldiers of the OMLT have a reputation for being cowboys. Throughout their tour, they ranged all over Kandahar province, running into fights in Arghandab, Panjwaii, Zhari and most recently Dand districts.

Their operations support NATO troops dug in with other Afghan soldiers at tiny outposts in each districts.

A recent study by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department and the U.S. Institute for Peace found that the Taliban have been successful raising mercenaries within Afghan villages because they prey upon the perception that western troops are occupiers and have committed atrocities.

But from Creighton’s vantage point, the young fighting-age males who make up the bulk of insurgent cannon fodder have gladly put down their weapons and likely won’t pick them up again.

Skeptics of the Canadian government’s plan to switch from combat to classroom training of the Afghan Army have suggested that Canadian soldiers must accompany their trainees into the field, as they do now, in order to be effective.

Creighton said he expects the Americans will continue mentoring the Afghans in the field, but didn’t entirely dismiss the criticism.

“I will say an OMLT fighting side-by-side with the Afghan soldiers is something that really works to improve quicker than a group that’s just partnering by itself,” he said.

“You need to bring that mentoring and partnership together to have that holistic approach to being successful.”

Regardless, he said Canadian troops will “do a remarkable job, no matter where they are in Afghanistan.” But he warned that it will take a generation to properly train a professional Afghan Army.

The commander of the 1st Brigade of the Afghan Army’s 205 Corps said he is sorry to see the Canadians leaving Kandahar, and appealed to decision-makers in Ottawa to reconsider the scope of the training mission.

“We need the help of Canada and we would ask Canada to continue their help with us in their mentorship with the financial and all other help they can do, with the logistics,” Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Habibi said through an interpreter.

Gosselin, Creighton’s replacement, said it’s too soon to know who will take over for his team in July when the Canadian combat mission ends.