Canadian soldier ‘wanted to help others'

[daleo]

Canadian soldier ‘wanted to help others'

A Canadian soldier on foot patrol in Kandahar's troubled western district was killed Tuesday after Taliban insurgents opened fire on the troops, marking the first combat death for the Canadian Forces in nearly eight months. A second soldier was injured during the attack.

Corporal Michael Starker, with the Edmonton-based 15 Field Ambulance Regiment, was ambushed while soldiers were trying “to show their presence interact with the local population” in the Pashmul region, a cluster of villages about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, Brigadier-General Guy Laroche said in Afghanistan Tuesday.

Shots were fired from the road about 11:45 a.m., and there weren't any crowds nearby, he said.
...
Only two of the 27 Canadian casualties in Afghanistan since June of 2007 have been actual combat deaths. The vast majority have been the result of improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs.

In fact, it has been nearly 20 months since a Canadian soldier was shot and killed in an ambush by insurgents, according to Department of National Defence records.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080506.wafghan07/BNStory/National/home
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I hate these false distinctions between "combat" deaths and IEDs/landmines/boobytraps. As if the latter weren't combat.

[Bragi]

1. Using dead soldiers to sell the war

I note that military mouthpieces always manage to make pro-war statements whenever the announce combat deaths.

In this case, the military spokesman says: “He died helping Afghans build a better future for themselves and their children..."

That passes for acceptable non-political comment, but imagine the outcry if someone said: "His death is another waste of human life in a useless and unsupported war that will achieve no lasting gains for anyone."

- B