Kandahar and Canada

Kandahar Airfield smells like dust, sewage and jet exhaust.  The sun at dusk is a fiery orange silhouette.  The land here is a moonscape.  There's nothing else here but dust, stunted trees and a tough, resilient scrub brush that the camels off-base munch on lazily.  And the Taliban.

Camels feeding on the scrub just off base.

Kandahar is the spiritual home of the Taliban, and it is where Canada chose to fight the war in Afghanistan.  The TLS building, the first building I enter when I land here, stands for "Taliban's Last Stand."  It's where the Taliban regime finally fell in 2001, before spreading out into the villages of Kandahar and Helmand provinces and south to the badlands of Pakistan.

This hole in the roof pretty much spelled the end of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Sandy mountains stand to the north, from which the Taliban regularly launch rockets at the base.  When the rocket attack alarms go off you drop to the ground--those that still pay attention to them--face to the dirt, and you're wiping the dust from you the rest of the day.  This isn't a desert of sand, but of powder as fine as china clay.  They call it moondust here, and gets everywhere. A film covers any surface after minutes.  It's in your hair, your eyes, your mouth; it clogs your nose. 

Kandhar Airfield Looking North.

The Kandahar runway is, I have it on good authority, the busiest in the world.  Thousands of missions fly out of here each week and the base is a wasp's nests of fighters, civilian planes and helicopters.

Life on the base centres around its famous boardwalk, where soldiers crowd around Afghan markets and fast-food joints. There's a TGI Friday, and Green Bean Café ("Honor First, Coffee Second").  In the middle of the ring is a turf football field and an exceedingly well-crafted hockey rink. 

Cruising the Kandahar Boardwalk.  Another world.  There's an American football
game going on to the right.

Canadians playing floor hockey.

Where I come from--headquarters--there's enough brass to fit an Irish pub and the average age is much older.  But here, Kandahar, is the pointy end of the operations.  You see lots of kids lugging their M-16s, their uniforms sagging from thin shoulders, laughing a bit too loudly.  This place will put a wrinkle or two into their smooth faces.

We're here on business though--three environment guys looking at each other, perplexed, and wondering exactly how you go about looking after the environment in a conflict zone.  Or, like my good friend the Sergeant-Major says in his inimitable way, "We're in the middle of war and you want me to wipe my ass with both sides of the toilet paper?" 

The three environment guys in all of Afghanistan.
I'm rockin' the new buzz cut.

But it must be done.  From our point of view, this isn't just a military base, but a small city of close to 30,000 people.  With that number of people, and the seriousness of what's at stake, you can't half-ass things.  As sure as supplies come in, garbage and hazardous waste and sewage must go out.  To be vulgar but perfectly blunt, we--the environment guys--are the asshole of the operation here.  If you know any Canadian soldiers, ask them about the infamous Kandahar Poo Pond if you want to see their eyes roll.  That's the huge sewage lagoon located rather accidentally in the middle of the Kandahar base that can get quite aromatic on a quiet, hot evening.

The infamous Poo Pond and its warning signage.

I'm getting here just as Canada is pulling out and it's kind of a sad feeling.  The Americans are moving in.  Tim Hortons is closing up and packing up tomorrow and the girls working there are excited to go home.  Canada House--home to thousands of Canadian soldiers operating out of here since we joined the war--is quiet now, and the soldiers are focused on getting out of this hostile  desert and back to Canada with their love ones for Christmas.  Even the memorial to Canada's war dead in Afghanistan is to be moved home, piece by piece. 

Canada House!  A little bit of home for our Canadian troops.

Timmies!  The coffee was great and the staff was awesome.
Colleague Kevin poses under the sign.

For five years, from 2005 when Canada took over Kandahar, to 2010 with the US troop surge, Canada bore much of the brunt of the war.  This was not peacekeeping.  This was setting up in the middle of the enemy stronghold and driving them out, road by road, village by village.  All told, to date, 157 Canadian soldiers have died.  Regardless of your thoughts on the merits of the war, Kandahar is a significant chunk of Canada's history.  

A Chinook helicopter, like Canada's soldiers, heads into the Afghan sunset.