Reporter: Claes JB Löfgren
Camerawoman: Linda Hörnqvist
Editing, Linda Hörnqvist, Sami Putkinen
First aired: SVT Foreign affairs programme Korrespondenterna, December 2 2008
10:00:00:00
Soundbite, Officer briefing troop:
Our situation enemy. The SVB IED (improvised explosive device) still remains high in the AO (area of operation). Over the past few days we have had a multiple source reports of two times suicide bombers operating in the vicinity of Camp Nathan Smith. They're identified as approximately 15 to 16 years olds on motorcycles...
10:00:23:00
Soldier speaking over the radio
Voice: .... down south of the Canal Road.
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
South of Canal Road? 043 Message over. 43 heading south on Canal Road, over.
10:00:39:00
Soundbite, Voice over interview with Private Sean Davis:
It's a different area, I've never really been outside of Canada ... to see the world, to see what's going on over here, and try to help, try to do my part, instead of being a guy sitting at home watching my friends go overseas, going over to try to help them, be there for them.
10:01:00:00
VO: Sean Davis is one of 72 000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. The 24-year old comes from Toronto and is serving in Kandahar. A few hundred Canadians have already died, most of them in roadside bombings. Canada is the worst affected country within the NATO-directed ISAF-force here in Afghanistan.
10:01:26:00
Soundbite, Interview Private Sean Davis:
You don't really think about the dangers, even if you see things you really don't comprehend, you're doing you job, and that's the bottom line, I mean there's no fear, there's no like shakingness about it. As soon as you leave the gate, you're just came out right ...
10:01:44:00
Question: I mean, to me, all these briefings in the morning, they're pretty dramatic, aren’t they. Isn't that nagging on your mind a little bit?
Soundbite, Sean Davis:
No, I mean most of us try not think about it, but even when we do think about it or are forces to think about it, it's not .. I mean, if it's your time it's your time, I guess
10:02:05:00
Interview General Denis Thompson, commander ISAF Kandahar
Question: Would you say that this is a war?
Soundbite, General Denis Thompson:
Absolutely, there's no question there's a war. It's a counterinsurgency war, but it's certainly a war.
Question: I mean in comparsion to Vietnam, Korea, second world war for that matter, it's not much of war, is it?
Soundbite, General Denis Thompson:
I wouldn't agree, a counterinsurgency is a low level conflict, but it's still a conflict. in our aera of operations, there are gunfights, gunbattles virtually every day.
10:02:37:00
Piece to camera: We are on patrol duty with the Canadians. This is the first foot patrol duty since they arrived in September. We are walking in a circle, surrounded by Canadian soldiers and with Afghan troops in the front and in the back.
It feels a bit surreal to be walking here.
VO: Being on patrol duty is very rare. Usually it looks like this:
10:03:09:00
Interview Ahmad Angar, journalist
Soundbite, Ahmad Angar:
All the time the Canadians and the ISAF's troops, they're telling to the local people, you should not come near to us, so a lot of the people are scaring from them, they're scared, they're not going near to them, they think they will shoot them and many times these things happens, a lot of civilians killed bacuase the vheicles were passing, and when they come near they're shooting them.
10:03:32:00
Soundbite, General Denis Thompson:
That's why suicide attacks are so effective, because not only does he attack and cause a terrorimpact but it also forces us to adopt the tactics you see here in the street.
Question: but you don't see a way of avoding this?
Soundbite, General Denis Thompson:
No, there's no way to avoid this, it's either them ....we would then become victims.
10:03:55:00
VO: The invasion of Afghanistan was a result of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 in the United States. So isn’t this, after all, an American war, a war that other countries have been forced to participate in?
10:04:09:00
Question: is this Canada's war?
Soundbite, General Denis Thompson:
At least 30 Canadians had died in the twin towers in New York and there have been Canadians that have been the victims of terrorism in other parts of the world and Osama bin laden himself named six Western nations as being principal targets and among those was Canada.
10:04:30:00
Interview American Ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood
Question: United States is a superpower, it's got all the resources in the world, you're able to put man on the moon. Why can't you tackle a couple of thousands of hardcore insurgents? It doesn't make any sense, does it?
Soundbite, Ambassador William Wood:
It make perfect sense. The Taliban doesn't have anything to defend, they don't own anything,the don't defend anything, they simply run in and strike and run away,
10:05:08:00
Soldier's voice: It's a faceless enemy, they have no uniforms, one minute they're shooting at us, the next minute they're raking their fields with their rakes, we can't tell the differnce at all.
10:05:20:00
Piece to camera: The enemy is somewhere out there, but the enemy doesn’t have any uniforms and no headquarters, and the enemy is not available for negotiations. The enemy is living among the people these young soldiers are trying to help. Friend or enemy, no one knows until a roadside bomb explodes or a suicide bomber detonates his charge.
10:05:45:00
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
Their mentality is my hardest ... the hardest thing to understand, you know, why they're fighting for their cause, what they're believing in so strongly that they want ta do this, it's so hard to understand why they're the way they are, you know.
10:06:01:00
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
Salam alekium. (Good day)
10:06:06:00
VO: The world outside these thick concrete walls is completely different from the one inside. Here you’ll find a gym and three course dinners every night. The satellite telephone erases the distance between Kandahar and Toronto.
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis on the telephone:
How much snow did you get? Really, oh wow.
10:06:34:00
Question: You're having blueberry pie, good food, you're having internet ... is this really a war, according to you?
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
That's a hard question, do I feel that it's a war? I do there's a war outside those walls, yeah.
Question. But you haven't had any combatexperience yet here?
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
Am I allowed to answer that?
Voice off camera:
If you been involved don't give any details.
10:07:00:00
Soundbite, Private Sean Davis:
We've been shot at, every day you hear bullets ringing over your head, and things like that, and our company has found a lot, you know, come across a lot of bad things.
10:07:21:15
END