SOLDIER SHARES RIVETING TALES FROM TOUR IN AFGHANISTAN
Prosecuted for the alleged mercy killing of a badly wounded Taliban fighter, Robert Semrau has written a book painting a riveting picture of the Afghan conflict
Did he or didn’t he? And if he did, what was going through his head?
Anyone looking for answers to the above questions will get no satisfaction from reading Robert Semrau’s book The Taliban Don’t Wave, the Canadian officer’s account of his time in Afghanistan in 2008, at the height of our country’s combat mission in that desperate country.
Semrau, as most informed Canadians are well aware, was the first Canadian soldier to be courtmartialed for the alleged mercy killing of a severely wounded Taliban insurgent during a heated battle in the restive southern province of Kandahar.
Arrested just before New Year’s Eve 2008, the now 38-year-old would spend parts of 2010 standing trial both in Canada and Afghanistan for seconddegree murder. Charges of attempted murder, conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to perform a military duty would later be added.
At his trial, various versions of what happened on that fateful day in August of 2008 were heard; one soldier testified that the enemy fighter was “98 per cent dead,” while two witnesses said Semrau shot the man twice.
After conferring with his Canadian Forces defence lawyer, Semrau — facing a possible 20-year sentence — chose not to take the stand.
He was found guilty only on the charge of conduct unbecoming, his sentence being dismissal from the Canadian Forces and demotion in rank from captain to second lieutenant.
Two years later, he still refuses to talk about what really happened on that day.
“I had my opportunity to speak, at the court martial,” says Semrau, in Calgary Wednesday to promote his book.
“I believe it would be the height of cowardice, now, to write a whistleblower, tabloidesque book about my time in Afghanistan. I’m not here to make a profit off my court martial or any of the media hype around that.”
Such reticence, then, sets up another question. What makes Semrau’s Afghan experience any different from the nearly 40,000 Canadian men and women who served there over a decade of combat?
Among those who went “outside the wire,” very little. However, after spending a recent full day of reading The Taliban Don’t Wave, it’s clear to me that Semrau’s account of his tour is more than a valuable addition to the growing library chronicling this era of Canadian combat.
I discovered, like many have before me, that in the hands of a capable writer/soldier who lived the Afghan experience — who had the now-familiar “boots on the ground” perspective — there are still many revelations to be had.
Stories of on-duty Afghan soldiers’ use of marijuana and other drugs, chaotic operational directives and the lawless frontiers outside of the urban cen- tres of Kabul and Kandahar city have been on the rise in the past year or so, as Canada has moved from a combat to a reconstruction mission. Yet Semrau’s book stands out for its gritty, pull-no-punches portrayal of what it felt like to be on the ground in a place where death and destruction lurked around every corner.
While he makes no apologies for his steadfast refusal to discuss the singular event that led to his dismissal from the career he dreamed of as a boy growing up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Semrau does admit that his decision to write a book was a direct offshoot of his newfound notoriety.
“They told me they’d received hundreds of letters from soldiers wanting to tell their story,” he says of his publisher John Wiley & Sons, noting his “Warholian 15 minutes of fame with the court martial” gave him the profile to write a book “that a fellow soldier can give to a wife or husband, and say this is some of the stuff I experienced.”
Some of that “stuff “Semrau experienced as the head of an Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) tasked to fight alongside Afghan soldiers, is of the look-away variety.
He recounts seeing the intestines of a man hanging from a tree (he first wondered “What the hell are sausage links doing in a tree?”) just after an Apache helicopter sprayed 30-mm high explosive rounds on the insurgents below; being covered in another soldier’s blood from head to toe; and the constantly frayed nerves and occasional terror from the incessant sounds of gunfire, rockets and mortars.
“I take you to the other side,” he says. “We’re going together on a journey, you’ll be in my head, see what I’m seeing, feel what I’m feeling. I think Canadians really want to hear this.”
In the nearly three years since his arrest, Semrau himself has been hearing from his fellow countrymen. While some have condemned the man with an exemplary service record with both the British and Canadian militaries, thousands more have run to his defence on social media sites such as Face-
I take you to the other side. We’re going together on a journey, you’ll be in my head, see what I’m seeing, feel what I’m feeling. I think Canadians really want to hear this.”
ROBERT SEMRAU
book and in letters and e-mails.
“Many people said, ‘I would have killed myself if I were you,’” he says, noting that much of his support has been from other military members, including Maj.-Gen. (ret’d) Lewis MacKenzie, who provides the foreword in The Taliban Don’t Wave. (The title comes from Semrau’s advice to his Afghan allies in the event they meet up with coalition forces who aren’t sure of which side they’re on.)
“There was never an option — I have an amazing wife, two amazing kids, who are counting on me ... and phenomenal parents.”
Semrau knows that his story won’t change the minds of those who choose to judge him far from the theatre of war.
“I say put on my dusty boots, put on my 92 pounds of kit, come with me outside the wire, and then judge me,” says the strongjawed former officer whose work today in international security recently took him to Iraq. “It’s a soldier’s story.”