A Bridge Too Far . . .

MICHAEL YON is an American journalist who spends his time in-country, with the troops in Afghanistan. I have posted some of his fine pictures here, in the recent past. Well, on Monday, March 1st, the jihaddis set off a car bomb on the Tarnak River Bridge. This bridge is a major conduit of supplies for the coalition efforts, and the car bomb caused enough damage that the bridge was put out of commission.

Yon inquired as to who was responsible, and this is where the shirking began: initially it appeared that bridge security was a Canadian responsibility, then it appeared that nobody was responsible. The bridge bomb had killed an American soldier, and Yon, an American, started a brouhaha when he posted critical comments on Facebook.

The Canwest Vancouver Sun media sprang to our defence in a general rebuttal, concluding with this gem:

Canadian Forces Lt.-Col. Danny Fortin: "But the Americans answer to a Canadian who answers to a British major-general who in turn answers to an American. This is coalition warfare at its best." 

To his credit, Yon realized he may have made a mistake:

In apology to BG Menard, I should not have demanded that he be fired so early in the process, despite that my assertion that he was responsible has proven true. I should never have mentioned hockey, as that created room for a diversion from the central importance.  Brigadier General Menard clearly was not the only responsible party for this strategic bridge that his soldiers depend upon. To single out BG Menard was a mistake, despite that he was ultimately responsible for the ANP.

Anyway, check out his article, "The Bridge" and other pages on his site. Below, is a picture of a wounded Canadian soldier, Danny, on his second tour of Afghanistan being medevac'd to Germany.

U.S. Air Force Nurse, Lucy Lehker, comforts
an 'unknown' Canadian soldier after he
was badly wounded in Afghanistan.