[Newsbot]

Title: Canada's counter-insurgency experiment get blessing from top general
Category: Military
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2009-11-22 13:32:48
Canadian

[Canadian_Mind]

Nice to see a positive article for a change. Glad things are working over there.

[ridenrain]

I think Canadians have a genuine talent for this COIN work, if we can find a government with the stomach for it.

[bootlegga]

ridenrain ridenrain:

I think Canadians have a genuine talent for this COIN work, if we can find a government with the stomach for it.

It isn't government support we need, it's public support. And COIN operations haven't been popular with Western democracy's citizens for decades, going back at least as far as Vietnam, if not farther.

Sadly, most citizens need big victories against evil enemies that can be touted, not fire-fights in a dark valley against a shadowy villain.

[ridenrain]

But where does the Canadian public get their opinions?
We're fighting against people who throw acid in school girls faces.. You'd think that would be a clear enough good/bad scenerio for the Canadian press.

[bootlegga]

Given that most young people don't read newspapers or watch TV news, the internet.

The problem with COIN operations, as I said, is that 'victories' are almost always small and unreported, while big conventional battles get tons of interest. It isn't solely the fault of news operations, but people generally tend to be less interested in an squad sized ambush in a valley in Afghanistan than they do in a massive bombing campaign against Saddam (Desert Storm), with tons of high tech images of smart bombs and video game-like conditions.

Even in Afghanistan, the big battles in 2001 against the Taliban received way more interest than the mission to patrol Kabul ever did.

I think a big problem is that unless someone really follows the CF/military matters closely, COIN operations just aren't interesting enough to draw average viewers in. People want to see lots of explosions, tanks driving around, tons of prisoners, etc, not the stuff that happens each and every day in Afghanistan.

Frankly, it's too bad, but it's a fact of life.

[gonavy47]

Most Canadians, see a stable and self-governing Afghanistan as a victory, however it is achieved.

[GreenTiger]

Yes people are more attracted to big bad things than to small positive victories.

THe media also doesn't help want entice people into reading about some big bad things instead of some random act of human kindness, or some other small victory.