I stumbled onto this story of good news—progress—in Afghanistan. Naturally, there’s been huge progress there, but of course you’d never know it. The liberal media ensures that you know practically nothing of the progress, and all of the gloom and doom, the pitfalls, the repeatedly updated death toll in every almost story whether it’s apropos of the story or not, and the latest poll taken by a left-wing polling firm proving that Canada should officially surrender to the Taliban and then run away like little girls, the way the liberal-left and their media who commissioned the poll would like it.
Canadian soldiers making real improvements in Afghanistan: returning commander
August 7, 2007 – 2:20 pm
By: BOB WEBER
EDMONTON (CP) – Canada’s soldiers in Afghanistan are making real, measurable improvements in the lives of people in Kandahar province, says the former commander of those troops.
And while the Taliban are likely to continue harassing both soldiers and civilians with “terrorist tactics,” Maj.-Gen. Tim Grant believes Afghan security forces have made significant strides toward looking after themselves.
“We went from last year, when there was drought and people were starving, to this year, where it’s bumper crops and people are moving back into their homes and really getting on with their lives,” said Grant, who returned to Edmonton on Tuesday after handing off his command.
“Across the board, I think it’s a success story.”
Grant said the development side of Canada’s mission has begun to show results in virtually every district of the Kandahar region. Statistics compiled by the military indicate that more than 1,100 wells, 75 kilometres of irrigation canals, 120 kilometres of rural roads and seven kilometres of power lines have been completed.
More than 350,000 children have been vaccinated against polio and infant mortality is dropping.
“(The programs) are working,” Grant said. “There’s huge traction.”
Relative stability brought on by last summer’s heavy fighting – along with the end to Kandahar’s crippling five-year drought – has made all the difference to the region’s agricultural economy, Grant said.
“Kandahar used to supply produce for most of that part of the world and they’re starting to get back on their feet now and it’s really great to see.”
Afghan security forces have also come a long way.
When Grant arrived in the country nine months ago, the Afghan National Army had only a few hundred trained and equipped soldiers. They were only capable of working in groups of between 10 and 15 men. The army now has three trained battalions and plans and executes its own large-scale operations against the Taliban.
[…]
It’s a Canadian Press story so it’s available to all the Canadian media.
I found the one above at Vancouver radio station CKWX News 1130’s web site.
It’s also posted at CNews.com in their “War on Terror” section. In juxtaposition, the far-left state-run CBC.ca still calls this the ”so-called war on terror”, as we know, so naturally they could have no such news section; and perhaps naturally, they also don’t cover this story at all, as best I could tell, despite their budget being somewhat larger than mine (for example, theirs is over ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR of taxpayer cash, while PTBC’s budget is somewhat under a billion).
I looked hard at the Globe and Mail—not there—or if it is there, it’s clearly buried out of my sight. They do have a story on the Rhinoceros party’s fight to stop their own extinction, though.
I looked hard at the Toronto Star’s site, and found nothing about it—or if it is there, it’s clearly buried out of my sight. They do have a story about Justin Timberlake and that cool Beyonce and their MTV Video Awards nominations though, thank God.
Liberalvision CTV.ca has nothing on this that I could find—or if it is there, it’s clearly buried out of my sight; but they thoroughly cover a rather opposite-side story about some Afghanistan folks complaining to our soldiers that they want them to dig them some water wells and build them some schools and mosques, and for some bizarre reason, they haven’t had time to do that yet. Meaning of course that they should just cut and run, and come home.
Canada.com (Canwest MediaWorks papers) has a special section on Canada in Afghanistan, and they cover it, but I had to really look for it.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
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