News

Good morning, Kandahar

By Kevin Steel ⋅ May 23, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

A fairly regimented media day here at the base in Kandahar, but not for general reporters; media pool stuff mostly, so I got a chance to wander around after the PM gave his speech this morning, do a bit of shopping. The local hats are really cheap. The traditional roll-up like this was only five bucks.

Last night before bed, I was speaking informally with a young soldier from Kingston outside the tents. He’s with a communications unit and getting ready to go back after a six-month tour, his third, if I remember correctly. I asked his opinion about troop morale (someone has scrawled “Take this job and shove it!” on the entrance to the tent where I had been billeted, not a great sign). Pretty good, he said, though he qualified his answer by adding that morale is really high with his unit because they’re getting ready to go back. A few of his colleagues stopped by and much of the conversation then turned to whether they would make it back in time for any of the Stanley Cup finals—inconclusive, maybe, if it goes to seven games.

What surprised and impressed me about this young guy was how level-headed and realistic he was regarding the overall mission here in Afghanistan. Without prompting, he put it in context of other long missions Canadians have accomplished, Bosnia, Cyprus, etc. He didn’t sound like he was just regurgitating stuff he’d been told.

Photo credit: Kevin Steel

As for the PM’s speech this morning, here’s a pic just to give you a general idea of the circumstance: you’ll be hearing clips on the TV news no doubt this evening. Here is the text as it was given to me.

Photo credit: Kevin Steel

The speech was delivered at 8:15 AM to about 300 troops gathered in an outdoor asphalt hockey area in a corner of what is known around here as “the boardwalk,” a large wooden walking area surrounding about a quarter section–most of the middle is used for games (American troops were playing tag football there this morning). On the outside edge of the boardwalk are trailers housing fast food joints, like Pizza Hut and Burger King. Right by the hockey area is a Tim Horton’s, and it was from the side of the Tim Horton’s that the PM entered to give his speech.

Photo credit: Kevin Steel

Just after delivering his talk, Harper presented a street hockey ball to a corporal. I have a rather nice pic of that, so here it is. And after the hockey interlude, the PM mingled with the troops, posing for photos with various groups. I’ll toss in a shot I managed to click off in an unguarded moment during that photo-op session simply because I love pictures like this–where you photograph a group and only one person notices you are taking the picture, in this case the pretty blonde soldier, and you the photographer don’t notice them noticing you until you see the picture later.

Lots of other cool stuff happening that I can’t write about at the moment, but should be able to discuss in full later. I can say we had a couple really good briefings this morning, including one from the Provincial Reconstruction Team management. As an aside, I should mention it was critical here for the media that the Canadian ambassador, bureaucrats from CIDA, military personnel and RCMP all sat at one table, spoke on the record and took questions. Yesterday at the palace, there was a bit of a verbal tussle between the Canadian media and the Conservative politicos about getting bureaucrats (in that particular case, from CIDA) to talk on the record and take questions. It wasn’t so much that the Conservatives didn’t want the CIDA bureaucrat to talk directly to us as it was the bureaucrat herself. Today that whole issue seemed to be resolved, somewhat at least, in favour of the media and as a result with all these people going on the record and answering questions, it should make it a little easier for us journos to explain what it is Canada is actually doing around here with regards to redevelopment.