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Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thompson, the next commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, arrives at Kandahar airfield on Wednesday.
The next commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan arrived in Kandahar on Wednesday, saying he believes the mission will take on a different flavour during his nine-month tour.

Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thompson is replacing current commander Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche. The official handover will take place soon, although a date hasn't been specified.

Thompson said evolving conditions in the war-torn region mean there will be a greater emphasis on the civilian side of development and reconstruction.

Still, he said, there will still be a military aspect and he doesn't expect the army will be adopting a defensive posture just because the focus is shifting.

"I think there will be a change in emphasis, but I'm not prepared to say how much that will be [because] there are other players here," Thompson said, referring to the Taliban.

Canada's Conservative government is in the process of refocusing the mission and setting down objectives to be achieved before Canada's military mission ends in 2011.

Thompson will be laying the groundwork for refocusing the mission, and for a civilian administration at the provincial reconstruction base, which Canada operates in the city of Kandahar.
Thompson coped with losses while leading in Petawawa

Thompson is the former commander of the 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade at CFB Petawawa in Ontario, a base that has suffered a lot of casualties, and he says that aspect of loss personalizes this assignment for him.

"You tend to know an awful lot of people that are either injured or killed," he said.

"It sharpens your focus and it makes you want to do everything you can to mitigate all of those risks."

Thompson arrived at Kandahar airfield one day after a Canadian soldier was killed in an ambush in the Pashmul region outside Kandahar city. Cpl. Michael Starker was killed while on patrol with his Civil-Military Co-operation unit, which reaches out to local Afghan villages and serves as a bridge to the community.

Despite the killing, Laroche said yesterday that Kandahar province is safer than when he took over almost 10 months ago.

He said the area where Starker was killed on foot patrol was an area Canadians couldn't enter a year ago.

CBC

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.