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Soldiers angered by rule
National Post
March 02, 2006
By Chris Wattie, with files from Mary Vallis
Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan have been ordered, under a directive from a U.S. general, to lower the Maple Leaf from flagpoles at their two bases, from over their tents and even from the aerials atop their vehicles.
The order from Major General Benjamin Freakley states that the only flag to fly over coalition bases, facilities or vehicles will be the red, green and black Afghan flag.
"I specifically asked my commanders to think about our flags," Maj.-Gen. Freakley said this week.
"We had a plethora of flags all over the compounds ... I asked us to think about who we're serving and who we're serving with."
There are troops from dozens of different countries under his southern Afghanistan command, including 2,200 Canadians based in Kandahar Air Field and a smaller provincial reconstruction team camp in the city of Kandahar.
The flag order was applied to almost every non-Afghan flag in the Canadian section of the sprawling air field base, including regimental flags hung or flown from the soldiers' barracks, tents or rest areas.
The order has caused some hard feelings in the ranks.
"Sure, we should show the Afghan flag," said one non-commissioned officer, who had to remove a Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry flag from a makeshift patio set up by his platoon. "But this is bull----. What about soldiers' pride? What about regimental pride? No Afghans would ever have seen this where we had it."
Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps military magazine in Ottawa, said national pride is an important reason many soldiers join the Canadian Armed Forces.
"It seems a bit almost silly that they are going to see that flag and then somehow feel kindred to us in such a fractious civilian population as it is. They're all under different warlords. How many of them even recognize or respect the national flag, particularly the ones that we're going to be fighting?" Mr. Taylor asked.
"Our guys didn't join up as Afghan mercenaries.... Our guys take their oath of allegiance to the Queen. And the Governor-General is our commander-in-chief, not [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai."
The flag order also applies to U.S. soldiers, who still make up most of the coalition forces in southern Afghanistan.
Maj.-Gen. Freakley said the idea was to make it clear the foreign soldiers are there to help the Afghan government.
"I don't want us to find reasons to pull back from the people of Afghanistan and not be teammates and get behind national barriers or anything," he said.
"We're trying to make subtle, transitional moves to help the people of Afghanistan fend for themselves. In no way is it intended to suppress any national pride."
He said the soldiers of the coalition still wear their national flags on the sleeves of their uniforms and that ought to be enough.
Brigadier-General David Fraser, the Canadian general who took command of a multinational brigade based in Kandahar this week, said he supported the order.
"It goes back to the cultural sensitivity training that we did back in Canada. This is not Canada, this is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan [and] we've got to respect their cultures and traditions," he said.
"So I think it's only fitting that we fly their flag.... The Afghan flag is what we're going to be flying everywhere we go: that's who we're here to support."
Captain Doug MacNair, a spokesman for Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa, said Maj.-Gen. Freakley requested that commanders consider taking down their flags "to reinforce the authority of the Afghan government and demonstrate respect for Afghan government institutions." Brig.-Gen. Fraser decided to take large flags down, but Canadian troops still wear the flag on their uniform and vehicles feature sticker flags, he said.
David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said the decision is likely linked to recent attacks on coalition forces.
"The stepped-up attacks may be sensitizing the U.S. command to the need to symbolically show people in the region that they're not there as occupiers or invaders, but as supporters of the government," he said.
Brig.-Gen. Fraser's Canadian troops will be joined by more than 2,000 British soldiers later this month and by a 1,500-strong Dutch battle group in the spring.
The only Canadian flag left flying in the main base is over a recently dedicated monument to the nine Canadians killed in the line of duty since our troops first deployed to this southwest Asian nation in 2002.
It is flying side-by-side with an Afghan flag over a granite and marble memorial.
© National Post 2006
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