Four Canadian Soldiers killed in anti-terror operations...(Correction!!!)

Thanks to Mozaic for the terrible news..

*Note.  Apologies to all.  Chadian Soldiers AND NOT Canadians were involved in the terror attack.  That does not in anyway mitigate the loss to the families and country at all, but it might have caused undue concern to my brothers in the North.  The commentary posted below still applies.  Again apologies to the tribe for jumbling this story.

via Daily Mail.

Eight UN peacekeepers have been killed in an attack on their base in northern Mali.

The assault was launched early Sunday at the Aguelhok base 125 miles north of Kidal, near the border with Algeria.

'According to a new toll, still provisional, at least eight peacekeepers have been killed,' a source from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali said.

Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the UN's special representative for Mali, condemned the attack in a statement.

'Peacekeepers of the MINUSMA force at Aguelhok fought off a sophisticated attack by assailants who arrived on several armed vehicles,' he said.

The 'cowardly' attack, he added, 'illustrates the determination of the terrorists to sow chaos.

Story here. 

I've been shouting that Africa will eat our forces alive.

No one listened.

The reactions I've gotten (in the blog e-mail) has been either I'm an ignorant American black that doesn't want to see the continent advance, or I'm a white washed American black that's scared.

Both are off base and both miss the point.

I've taken the time to read up (in a limited fashion..I'm far from an expert) on the troubles in S. Africa.  I've taken the time to read on the wars there.  I've taken the time to read first hand accounts.  I even had the opportunity to talk to a Vietnam Vet that served in the Rhodesian Light Infantry (he had stories to tell, pics to share...many of them that would get this blog banned because of their shock value...and an experience that I won't forget).

Long short.

Africa will eat our forces alive.  We can send all the Special Ops personnel we want but if we're gonna operate in the bush then we're gonna operate at a disadvantage.  All our sensors, UAV flights, thermals etc...mean nothing to people that have lived their entire lives in that wilderness.  A wilderness where the creatures, weather and even insects are all designed to kill.

I mourn for Canada's loss, but at the same time I beg Combatant Commanders to learn.  The old playbook WILL NOT WORK on this continent!  If you want to survive then you've got to use AT LEAST Company sized elements!  Support for the most part is too far away for anything less.  Additionally you can't ignore the tribal aspect.  Take a devout Christians faith in his God and multiply it times 10 and you might get a feel for the tribal nature of the societies there.

Africa is going to be harder than anything we faced in the Middle East.

You can book that!