Update Thursday, March 22, 2007: General Rick Hillier has answered your questions (see below). Due to reasons beyond our control, Gen. Hillier was not able to provide answers last week as expected. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience. The reader response to this Q&A was phenomenal. Many questions were submitted after the cutoff. While these can't be answered, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Thank you.
There is no shortage of news coming out of Afghanistan and the Canadian Forces mission there.
Canada has about 2,500 armed forces personnel on the ground, referred to as Joint Task Force Afghanistan, joining troops from 36 other nations.
The UN-sanctioned mission seeks to rebuild a democratic, self-sufficient society in Afghanistan. Canada's role is to provide security, support the Afghan National Security Forces, strengthen governance, extend the Afghan government's authority in the south of the country, and to support economic recovery programs and Canadian humanitarian organizations.
A long-anticipated spring offensive by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan looms. In a pre-emptive strike, Canadian troops rolled out of Kandahar two weeks ago to the border of Helmand province as part of Operation Achilles, a large-scale NATO effort to rout out insurgents and a shadow Taliban government there.
Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian military, recently made a surprise visit to the country, where she met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a group of Afghan women in Kabul.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor was pressed to explain how Canada monitors the treatment of those detainees captured by Canadian troops and transferred to Afghan authorities.
Mr. O'Connor apologized Monday to the House of Commons for comments he made last year when he told MPs that the Red Cross monitors the condition of detainees transferred to Afghan authorities.
What questions do you have about the Canadian mission?
We are very pleased that General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, will join us Thursday for a question-and-answer program on the Canadian Forces's involvement in Afghanistan. Submit a question here .
Gen. Hillier assumed the top command of the Canadian Forces on Feb. 4, 2005. He has served throughout Canada, Europe and the United States, and with the United Nations and NATO forces in the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, Gen. Hillier commanded 6,000 troops from 35 nations as the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from February to August of 2004.
Born in Newfoundland and Labrador, Gen. Hillier enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1973, graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree, and joined the 8th Canadian Hussars in Petawawa, Ont. He later served with and commanded the Royal Canadian Dragoons in Canada and Germany.
In 1998, Gen. Hillier was appointed as the first Canadian deputy commanding general of III Corps, U.S. Army in Fort Hood, Tex. In 2000, he took command of NATO's stabilization force's multinational division in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was appointed commander of the Army in May 2003 and selected commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan in October of the same year.
Gen. Hillier and his wife, Joyce, have two adult sons, Chris and Steven.
Editor's Note: We will follow the same policy for this Q&A as we do for our normal hour-long discussions. Globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on Gen. Hillier, Globe journalists or other participants in these discussions, questions/comments that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Brodie Fenlon, Globeandmail.com: We are very pleased to welcome General Rick Hillier, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff, to this Q&A.
Gen. Hillier: I thank you for taking the time to ask me questions through this forum, and for being patient with me, as I took some time to respond to your excellent questions. As many of you know, I was in Afghanistan last week and hoped to respond from there with that immediate and fresh context in my mind. Once I received your questions, however, it was clear that I needed to dedicate several hours to respond fully, and thus I have given your questions the thought and time they deserve. I hope you have found it worth the wait. Thank you for your interest in the work of the outstanding men and women serving in the Canadian Forces, whom I have the honour to represent.
