Is Canada's Longest War Being Forgotten Already?

Jeff Green | Nov 03, 2021

The wars that we often talk about on Remembrance Day have taken on different meanings over the years, and in Canada they defined generations, but they came and went pretty quickly in historical time. WWI lasted 4 years and a few months, WWII lasted 6 years and one day.

Canada's longest war was one that Canada left before it ended. For 13 years, from late in 2001 to 2014, the Canadian military was engaged in the war in Afghanistan.

Unlike the World Wars, which had an impact on all Canadians, not only because of the scale of Canada's involvement, but also because they were global events, the Afghan war took place far away from our shores, and most of the time outside of the centre of our collective consciousness.

But for 40,000 Canadian armed forces members, who were stationed in Afghanistan during the war, and for their families back home, the war was as real as any other war in Canadian history.

165 Canadians died in the Afghanistan war, 158 soldiers and 7 civilians. Over 2,000 armed forces members were injured during the war. And as of March, 2020, approximately 17% of Afghanistan veterans had received a pension or disability award for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The war started as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Al Qaeda, the group that was responsible for the attacks, which killed 3,000 people (including 24 Canadians), was based in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime, which was running the country, provided them safe haven.

When Canada pledged support for the United States, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the nature of that commitment became clear within a month, when Canada joined the US led, multinational force that invaded Afghanistan.

Canada provided a few dozen special forces troops to the invasion force, but in February of 2002 an infantry battle group of 1200 troops joined the US forces that were searching for insurgents in the Kandahar region in the southern part of the country near the Pakistani border.

The first four Canadian deaths occurred in April of that year in a 'friendly fire' bombing incident by an US pilot.

The bulk of those ground troops returned to Canada in the summer of 2002. A naval deployment to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, totalling 15 ships from the Halifax and Esquimalt military naval bases, up to 6 at one time, between 2001 and 2003, was the largest naval deployment for Canada since the Second World War. The naval mission was intended to contribute to general security in the region, while searching civilian vessels for wanted terrorists, and for illegal drug shipments that might have been used to fund terrorist groups operating in the area.

Between 2003 and 2005, a combat group of 2,000 soldiers, along with armoured tanks, artillery and other support units, were assigned to the capital city, Kabul, where they were tasked with helping to disarm Afghan militia units. Canadians were mostly involved in patrolling, policing and the stabilisation of the new Afghan government. They also faced occasional suicide bomber attacks during that time.

Between 2006 and 2011, the Canadian military undertook the longest and most dangerous phase of its military and humanitarian involvement in the Afghan war, a deployment in the Kandahar region where Canadian troops had fought in 2002. This phase of the Canadian war effort included a field hospital.

Canadian forces won a series of battles with Taliban guerrilla forces, and defended the city of Kandahar from attack, but the Taliban forces retreated each time and regrouped, slowly infiltrating the rural communities and Kandahar itself.

According to thecanadianencyclopedia.ca, “Year after year Canadian military commanders issued misleading claims that hundreds of Taliban fighters had been killed or fled, and that the Kandahar insurgency was on the verge of defeat. In fact, the insurgency grew, and security steadily worsened in the area from 2006 through the Canadians’ departure from Kandahar in 2011.”

It was during this period when the bulk of Canadian casualties occurred, many from roadside bombs, also known as “improvised explosive devices” (IEDs). Military funeral processions, often proceeding from the CFB base in Trenton to Toronto, became common. In August of 2007, a section of the 401 Highway between Glen Miller Road in Trenton and the 404 in Toronto was named the “Highway of Heroes” to honour those soldiers who died in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.

It became clear during those years that the battle to defeat the insurgency in Kandahar was being hampered by the support being offered to the Taliban insurgents in neighbouring Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services were now recruiting, training, funding and providing safe haven for the Taliban insurgency (as well as hiding the remaining al-Qaeda leadership). The insurgency in Kandahar was impossible to contain, as long as the United States, Canada and NATO were unwilling to either take the fight across the border into Pakistan — a supposed ally – or to end Pakistan’s support for the Taliban”, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Along with the military effort, Canada joined with other countries in a large effort to rebuild Afghanistan by providing food, education and basic services to communities. Polio vaccination and other health programs were a feature of this effort, which also included rebuilding roads, bridges, dams and schools.

Afghanistan was the largest recipient of foreign aid from Canada between 2001 and 2014, a total of $2.2 billion.

While the Liberals, under both Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, initiated and accelerated the Canadian military deployment in Afghanistan, by 2006 when the Conservatives were in power, the Liberal party joined with the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP in opposing further Canadian military involvement, but the three opposition parties all supported continuing the humanitarian aid and reconstruction work.

Although the Chretien government joined the US led war in Afghanistan, which was sanctioned by the United Nations (UN), it did not join the US led war on Iraq, which started in 2003 and was not sanctioned by the UN.

In 2007, the Canadian military came under scrutiny for its role in the treatment of Taliban prisoners. Canada turned prisoners over to the Afghan security forces, and there were allegations that the prisoners were subjected to torture by Afghan forces. Under international law, Canada is responsible for the treatment of prisoners that it captures.

By 2011, the Harper government decided to end the Kandahar mission, turning it over to the United States. A military surge by US forces provided a measure of control over the region, but that did not last.

Canada maintained a small training mission in Kabul until 2014 when the last of the Canadian forces left Afghanistan.

According to a report in the Globe and Mail, 70 Canadian soldiers and veterans of the Afghan war had committed suicide as of December 2017. A total of 175 members of the Canadian military committed suicide between 2010 and 2020.

In August of this year, the US military left Afghanistan, after an almost 20 year war. The Taliban, who were ruling the country when the US invaded in late 2001, quickly took control.