Just Doing Their Jobs

[Via Belmont Club]

Canadian soldiers serving in Kabul discovered a old Soviet ammunition dump just outside of Camp Julien. From the story:

"These bunkers have been known for two years but no one bothered to check them," said Maj. Hynes.

"To me, that's incompetence."

"To me it's criminal," said Sgt. Power, who works with the major in training the ANA.

I've never seen anything like it. The feeling is that AMF soldiers were selling access to the dump or permitting friends to enter it.

Littered with burned out Soviet military vehicles, the whole area is a junk pile strewn with every sort of live ammunition, fuses, unexploded shells, rockets, etc., all supposedly under the authority of Belgian troops (at the moment), who ignored it.

In the midst of examining the bunkers and taking photos, a Swedish UN guy, a French major and a German colonel arrived to make a fuss and order the Canadians to leave. The French major insisted his government had a deal with the Afghan government for the area, and ISAF had no business being there.

This cut little ice with Maj. Hynes, who is responsible -- not to the commander of Camp Julien, Col. Jim Ellis -- but to the ANA, which has now moved in to secure the site.

The French major was clearly bluffing, hadn't checked the bunkers and got a classic Canadian roasting from Maj. Hynes -- who was supported by a German general who was also appalled at the laxity.

"Now we've stirred up the hornet's nest," grinned Maj. Hynes. "Good. Now we may get some action."

"I feel foolish that for eight days we've been watching our front, when at our back all this was going on and nobody cared," said Sgt. Mazerolle.

Is it just me or does it seem that everytime we hear of military personal from France, Germany, or Sweden that they are in some manner covering their asses from some scam or screw-up? Sergeant Mike Mazerolle and Major Hynes have potentially saved many lives. At the very least they have put an end to some shadey dealings.

As they suggest over at Belmont Club:

Somehow I think someone missed the point. There is probably some perfectly plausible reason why a Swedish UN functionary, a French major and a German Colonel -- one civilian, two officers, three nationalities, none of who would be in the same chain of command -- should show up at precisely the moment a Canadian officer discovers a large number of surface to surface missiles lying around unguarded, but it escapes me.

Very good question.

Update @ 7:59pm:

Dennis over at Counterfactual points out that some members of the Canadian Forces think Peter Worthington has, as a minimum, stretched the truth on this story. One individual indicates that some of Worthington's details are most definintely wrong but that there is 'far more' to this than has been reported. Hmmm...