Retiring general warns against skimping on support
A retiring Canadian general who served a number of international tours in his almost 40year career says there should be more resources for and less government control over future military missions.
“I came back from Afghanistan and my biggest observation was what we have to stop is allowing capitals to run individual parts of the campaign,” said Maj.-Gen. Denis Thompson, who was attending an event in Calgary last week.
Thompson, who recently ended a threeyear tour as head of the Multinational
Force and Observers in Egypt, also had postings in Germany and Bosnia.
In 2008, he was commander of Task Force Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he saw different countries overseeing different regions with little coordination.
“Ottawa tried to run Kandahar. The British tried to run Helmand. The Dutch tried to run North Urozgan and the Americans ran several provinces, and it wasn’t really joined up,” said Thompson.
“So what happened is we had 2,750 Canadian soldiers in Kandahar, the home of the Taliban. Next door in Helmand, which was a sideshow, there were 8,000 to 10,000 Brits, and when the American marines arrived ... where did the marines go? To Helmand.
“So we were left holding the bag and ... running around playing whack-a-mole because we didn’t have enough troops.”
Canada sent its first soldiers to Afghanistan in October 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Canada’s role initially was to help stabilize the Middle Eastern region and provide peace support operations.
But the assignment expanded into a full combat mission which continued until 2011. Some troops remained in a training and mentoring capacity until March 2014.
Thompson, who also served as Commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command in Ottawa, said there are lessons to be learned for future international missions.
“You have to apply enough resources, and the problem in a lot of these campaigns – whether it’s UN, NATO, a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ – is there has to be one central commander who has all the authorities,” Thompson suggested.