Book Review: The Savage War by Murray Brewster

The World War of 1939-1945 has been called “The Good War” and the Korean War has been called “The Forgotten War;” the Canadian mission to southern Afghanistan, if one interprets the writing of Murray Brewster correctly, could be called “The Unwinnable War.” Murray Brewster spent many months there between 2006 and 2011 as a Canadian Press journalist, immersing himself in the Canadian theatre of operations as well as covering higher level political developments about Afghanistan in Ottawa and in other NATO countries. He divides his writing into 25 chapters which move chronologically through that period, the narrative being almost a series of essays from a very personal point of view about key events that he lived through.

As a journalist, he treads a line in the grey area between official pronouncements about the mission, and what he sees and hears during his travels. Certainly, the life of such a journalist is not a comfortable one: combat troops sometimes segregated themselves from journalists and resented their presence on dangerous missions; some army public affairs officers attempted to dictate what stories should be reported on particular days; insurgents saw them a targets as they travelled about independently in search of stories; and they even became targets for government officials who felt threatened by possible revelations of corruption.

While in Afghanistan, Brewster relied greatly on teaming up with a good “fixer,” that is an Afghan who could translate, chauffeur his car, and arrange meetings with local politicians and even Taliban sources. It is therefore not surprising that Brewster felt a bond with some of his trusted fixers. One of these was nicknamed “Jojo,” a young hustler who was often worked for other Canadian reporters from the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. He was shocked in the summer of 2007, when Jojo was arrested by US military police, along with Canadian CTV reported Steve Chao, at the gates of the big base at Kandahar Airfield. Chao was later released, but Jojo was sent to the US military prison at Bagram Airfield where he was held for eleven months. When Jojo was finally released, Brewster noted that he was never the same person as before, as a result of the treatment he received. Unfortunately, Jojo seemed to have many enemies. He was finally assassinated in a hail of bullets at a traffic stop in Kandahar City after passing on a story to Brewster about corruption by private security contractors, one of whom was a cousin of Hamid Karzai. Jojo’s death hit Brewster particularly hard as he admired the young man who had liked the Western way of life and been enthusiastic in his job of helping journalists get their stories.

On at least two occasions, a situation arose in which Murray Brewster felt himself to be in great danger, while travelling about independently with his fixer. During one of these times, Brewster and several other reporters were interviewing workers who were harvesting resin for heroine production from a huge remote poppy field, when they suddenly noticed a car had suddenly pulled up to block their vehicle. “We were on our own and it as one of those moments of sheer terror, the kind that usually hammered your feet to the floor.” Without hesitation, the group headed back to their car where fixer managed, by an emotional dialogue in Pashtun language, to talk his way out of a very touchy situation. Brewster had learned his lesson by now to always have a sense that danger lurked around every corner. His very first fixer in 2006 had warned him to always be cautious. When the naive Brewster replied that the fixer was just being paranoid, the fixer simply agreed: “Yes, and so should you be.”

Savage Wars is a well-written account of the war in Afghanistan that will give you a view of the forward operating bases, the back streets of Kandahar City, and the halls of power in Ottawa that you will not find anywhere else. In these places, his keen journalistic senses dig out stories that Western authorities were not aware of; or of things the authorities were aware of but didn’t want to admit.

Remembering Richard Rowland Thompson, awarded the Queen's Scarf of Honour in the South African War

In the small village of Chelsea Quebec, a special effort has been made over many years to honour the phrase from the poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we will remember them.

In the small Pioneer Cemetery in this village lies the grave of Private Richard Rowland Thompson, a soldier who served with the 2^nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry in the South African War. When he died in 1908 from a sudden illness, he was buried with full military honour but, unfortunately, his grave was forgotten for half a century. The memory of his grave was finally revived through the efforts of the Gatineau Valley Historical Society which restored the cemetery and has organized a memorial service on the 11^th of November each year since 1986.

The annual memorial service includes an invitation, not only to all local residents, but also to representatives from senior officers of the Canadian Forces and a contingent from Thompson’s regiment, now The Royal Canadian Regiment with two battalions based at Petawawa in the upper Ottawa River valley. On November 11, 2011, Commodore Hans Jung, commander of the Canadian Forces Health Services Group and the Military Surgeon General, and contingents from Mike Company, 3^rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment and from CF Health Services Centre gathered here to participate in that years’ service. A photo gallery from this ceremony can be viewed at Chelsea Remembrance 2011

Private Thompson’s gravesite is significant because he was the only Canadian to be awarded one of the eight scarves personally knitted by Queen Victoria for presentation to private soldiers for special gallantry in South Africa. Private Thompson had first exhibited exceptional courage at the Battle of Paardeberg on February 18, 1900, when Canadians suffered heavy casualties during a failed attack on Boer positions. As darkness fell, one wounded Canadian soldier had been remained lying between the lines where he could not be rescued. Richard Thompson chose to remain with him until help could arrive and he saved the wounded man’s life by holding bandages to his wound to keep him alive. While they lay huddled between the lines, the Boers continued to fire on them in the moonlight, at one point shooting Thompson’s helmet off.

A few days later on February 27, The Canadians were ordered to attack the Boer lines again, this time by advancing under cover of darkness. The Boers spotted Canadians about sixty metres from their trenches and opened up a murderous fire on the attackers. Again, one Canadian soldier was wounded near the Boer positions, unable to get back to safety. Thompson, now back in the Canadian trench, jumped up and, against orders of his company commander, raced out several hundred metres through Boer fire to rescue the man. Unfortunately, just as Thompson reach his comrade and grasped his hand, the wounded man died. Thompson somehow managed to get back to the Canadian trench without being hit and reported the fate of the man to his commanding officer.

Thompson exhibited one of the key characteristics of courage under fire. The most common motivator of courage has been the importance of the bonds established between men whose life is threatened in battle. Men often take extreme action to help each other survive while accomplishing their mission, sacrificing their life if necessary to help others. It is significant that, on receiving praise for his act from his company commander, Thompson remarked that he preferred to call his race between the lines as “pure foolhardiness.”

The South African War was a hard-fought struggle between British and Commonwealth forces and their Boer opponents. As the number of casualties continued to be reported back in England, Queen Victoria decided that she should create some special mark of personal gratitude for the men fighting for the Empire. To do so, she knitted several scarves from deep gold wool and included the royal cipher “V.R.I” in the design, attaching a small metal cross in a wreath to it. Private Richard Rowland Thompson was selected by the Canadian contingent to receive this honour and it is held today in the collection of the Canadian War Museum.

Ottawa Paramedics Receive the Medal of Bravery. Just Doing Their Duty?

On October 28, 2011, Governor General David Johnston awarded the Medal of Bravery to two Ottawa paramedic despatchers, Tara Josey and Nadine Leduc, for their courage during a shooting incident on January 7, 2008. The two despatchers were off-duty and were just finished enjoying a coffee at a Tim Horton’s outlet in Ottawa when a series of gunshots rang out in the parking lot. A car sped away leaving a young man lying on the ground. While onlookers raced away in fear, the despatchers ran in the opposite direction – toward the victim and covering him with their bodies in case the attacker should return while they applied pressure to his wound. These two despatchers were among 58 Canadians awarded Medals of Bravery by the Governor General that day.

These two despatchers were the latest in a series of bravery awards earned by Ottawa paramedics. These included Christopher Bugelli who received the N.H. McNally award for rescuing a man from a flooded creek in below-zero weather in March 2011, and four paramedics –Craig McInnes, Virginia Warner, Patricia St. Denis and Amanda Walkowiak – who attempted to save the life of Ottawa Police Constable Eric Czapnik while fighting off a mentally disturbed attacker in December 2009.

In all these incidents, the paramedics showed their professionalism by coming to the aid of someone in trouble through immediate instinctive action that is a result of their training. It is not surprising that Bugelli disclaimed any display of courage by his action: “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal but everyone else did…. Preservation of life is what we do, right? … Any one of the other crews would have done something similar.”

Simply doing their duty – what they are trained to do while on-duty but which becomes part of their ethos even off-duty. It is a refrain that comes up from all emergency services personnel – medical services, police, firefighters – and from members of the Canadian Forces, all who place their lives in danger when their mission requires it. The risks they take was highlighted by most recently by the death of Sergeant Janick Gilbert, an experienced Canadian Search-and-Rescue technician in the Royal Canadian Air Force who lost his life on October 27, 2011 while carrying out a rescue mission in the Canadian Arctic.

Courage is most often defined by the observer and, if that observer is a civilian, he can rightly give credit to all those policemen, firemen, paramedics and Canadian Forces personnel who indeed may simply be doing their duty. The people in these special occupations accepted the fact that, when they chose their professions, the bar of courage would be raised higher for them than for most other people. As a result, simply doing their duty will be considered admirable by others in times of special crisis.

Canadian War Writing About Afghanistan – to August 2011

Having finished struggling and writing a new chapter on Canada in Afghanistan for my book Courage Rewarded, I thought I might conclude my efforts by posting remarks about the sources I have looked to, in order to understand the war. I will deal with books first, and later make another post dealing with articles.

I was very pleased to see the first books coming out on the Canadians in Afghanistan, particularly those written by soldiers who wanted to share their experiences with the rest of us. Now that the mission has closed down in July 2011, more will show up in the coming years, and those by knowledgeable historians will be particularly welcomed.

My only complaint is that the writings that have been published cover the years only up to 2006; and only one book deals with 2007. Beyond that, we have no good picture of what happened there aside from newspaper correspondents’ articles. I hope we see more soldiers who want to let us know what they experienced.

I make no guarantee that the following are the only books published up to August 2011 but here is my list:

• Sean M Maloney, Enduring the Freedom: A Rogue Historian in Afghanistan (2005). Maloney is an associate professor of history at RMC and a very unconventional historian, describing his experiences as he joins American troops in operations that are part of the US Operation Enduring Freedom.
  
  
• Sean M Maloney, Confronting the Chaos: A Rogue Historian Returns to Afghanistan (2009). The unconventional RMC professor heads off again to be one of the first to visit Provincial Reconstruction Teams in 2004 and 2005. A revealing account like no other.
  
  
• Peter Pigott, Canada in Afghanistan: The War So Far (2007). The earliest book to describe the whole Canadian experience. It has been criticized for not having anything new, but there are things in this book that you won’t easily find elsewhere. A good record of the early years, as well as being a capsule history of Afghanistan from the 19th century to 2006.

• Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army (2007). An insightful look of the experiences of Canada’s first troops to serve in Kandahar, as journalist Blatchford travels along with and shares the hardships of 1 PPCLI in early 2006.
  
  
• LCol Ian Hope, Dancing with the Dushman: Command Imperatives for the Counter-Insurgency fight in Afghanistan (2008). The inside story of Canada’s first battle group in Kandahar as told by the 1 PPCLI’s commanding officer along with his thoughts on fighting insurgents.
  
  
• Kevin Patterson, Jane Warren, Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan in the Words of its Participants (2008). A valuable early effort to gather stories of personal experiences by soldiers, doctors, aid worker and journalists who went to Afghanistan in 2006.
  
  
• Chris Wattie, Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, The Taliban and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan (2008). One of the first efforts to fully explain Operation Medusa, written by a journalist in this case. It had been criticized that it over exaggerated the significance of the victory; but the battle truly saved Kandahar City.
  
  
• Lee Windsor, David Charters, Brent Wilson, Kandahar Tour: The Turning Point in Canada’s Afghan Mission (2008). A marvellous military history covering the entire experience of 2 RCR Battle Group in Afghanistan in 2007, written by 3 noted military historians from the University of New Brunswick who were the first to have full access to official records.
  
  
• Col Bernd Horn, Fortune Favours the Brave: Tales of Courage and Tenacity in Canadian Military History (2009). As part of a collection of essays on military history from Canada’s early years, one chapter deals with Operation Medusa using sources not found elsewhere.
  
  
• LCol John Conrad, What the Thunder Said: Reflections of a Canadian Officer in Kandahar (2009). The story of how the first battle group to Kandahar was kept supplied, despite wide-ranging mobile operations and threats from IEDs, written by the commanding officer of the supply element.
  
  
• Institute for the Study of War: 1) Regional Command South, http://www.understandingwar.org/region/regional-command-south-0: A good study analyzing the demographics and terrain of all provinces in RC(S) by a respected US think tank.
  
  
• Institute for the Study of War: 2) Eric Fosberg, The Taliban’s Campaign for Kandahar. Afghanistan Report 3, December 2009. A broad but detailed independent look at ISAF’s and Canada’s experience in Kandahar in 2006 by a respected US think tank.
  
  
• Col Bernd Horn, No Lack of Courage: Operation Medusa, Afghanistan (2010). The full story of Operation Medusa by a noted military historian and regular force officer.
  
  
• Capt Ray Wiss, FOB Doc: A Doctor on the Front Lines in Afghanistan – A War Diary (2010). A very personal look at what life was like for a dedicated combat doctor at forward bases in Afghanistan.
  
  
• Capt Ray Wiss, A Line in the Sand: Canadians at War in Kandahar (2010). Captain Ray Wiss returns to Afghanistan to work and treat casualties of war in forward operating bases.
  
  
• Major Mark Gasparotto, Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar (2010). An unusual and detailed record of what combat engineers went through in Kandahar in 2006, participating in Operation Medusa and in building Route Summit under fire, and FOBs Ma’sum Ghar and Sperwan Ghar afterwards.
  
  
• Adam Day, Witness to War: Reporting On Afghanistan 2004-2009. (2010). The insights of a journalist drawn to war, from the Canadian army’s early days in Kabul to combat outposts in Kandahar. Many of these essays have been published in the Legion Magazine. An honest and very personal look at what happens day-by-day when living with front line soldiers.

That’s it for now. What happened after 2006? We know the war got very nasty. Let’s hope someone can write about it soon.

Book Review: Welcome to Afghanistan

Welcome To Afghanistan: Send More Ammo by Benjamin Tupper

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As part of my research into the Afghanistan mission, I picked up a book written by an American soldier. The Canadian army has Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams working with their Afghan army counterparts fighting in Panjwayi and Zharey, but all these experiences are still classified as secret and hidden from public view. I hoped this author would give some insight into being part of an OMLT.

This author gives a simple honest description of combat in Afghanistan as part of one of the American army's 2-man teams which are mentoring Afghan army units. His short chapters are only 2 or 3 pages long but each concerns a dramatic incident he experienced. I like very much that he easily reveals the emotions and stress that resulted from his experiences, both on himself and on his close comrades. It still amazes me that he is not a regular army officer but a National Guard volunteer. Bravo him.



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Book Signing at Place d'Orleans

My book signings at Coles in the Place d'Orleans Mall seems to be unusually good. The quiet Ottawa suburb of Orleans seems to to be a hive of people interested in military history. I was surprised at first, but then told that lots of personnel from DND Headquarters have chosen to live there. My book singing on March 12, 2001 was particularly satisfying. I met a presently-serving soldier who had won the Medal of Bravery in Afghanistan; a woman also in the Forces who has been in Kandahar as a supply clerk; a retired officer who had been the Canadian military attache in Paris when the Juno Beach Centre was officially opened; a retired soldier who had spent the first years of his long career in Camp Ipperwash in 1953 when I was there for the summer as a cadet (some of my best memories); a civilian who had just driven to Ottawa from far-away Labrador City to visit his daughter and who was keen enough to buy both of my books. It's meeting people like this that re-energizes me to write more about the Canadian military experience.

Preserving the Experiences of Veterans

The book Courage Rewarded is my attempt to record the experiences of Canadian soldiers who went off to fight in past wars, and to show the courage they demonstrated. With a similar intent, a number of groups are busy recording the memories of veterans still living, using video and the Internet. I think the best of these is "The Veterans." Jack Bennett's story of landing at Dieppe in 1942 is one of these and is well-told.