Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Al Jazeera has this report about  Nato’s new secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen who has acknowledged fading public support for the war in Afghanistan and called for a new approach.

Speaking in Washington DC on Monday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the decline in support was marked by the perception that the coalition was “not getting anywhere”, adding that “things are going to have to change”.

But he said his call was not a “run for the exits” and that it was more urgent now to show there was “light at the end of the tunnel” by training Afghan forces so the Kabul government can gradually take responsibility for security.

“Sooner rather than later the transition must begin,” the former prime minister of Denmark said. “We need more resources for our training mission in Afghanistan, to develop the capacity of the Afghan security forces.”

“We should expand our training mission. I consider it easier for European countries to contribute to our training mission with personnel as well as with finances, than with combat troops.”

When we start talking about the easier options, we begin to understand why we are losing this war. There are no easy options in war, they are all difficult. This tends to reinforce the view in my previous post about Europe’s reduced enthusiasm for the Afghan war. Canada has also indicated it will with draw from Afghanistan in 2010.

Al Jazeera English – CENTRAL/S. ASIA – Nato urges new Afghan strategy.

ER-MCV at Lashkar Gar

Interesting comment left by one reader as follows:

Interesting speculation here. ER-MCV was under contract to UK MOD. Asset not declared to NATO. Logistical resupply only. UK and NATO troops are not authorized to fly on aircraft without ballistic protection and Self Protection Suites. This asset strictly moved cargo…cargo supplied largely by British Forces. Can’t comment of the specifics of the mission that day. Asset and contract was managed in theatre by SkyLink Aviation Canada. I don’t see comment from them or anyone asking them questions.

So the asset was not directly on hire to Nato but directly to UK MOD if this is correct and not declared to NATO so working purely for the British.

Good to here that Troops were not authorised to fly on the helicopter but  the proviso of ballistic protection and Self Protection Suites could mean that it has been used and we may have been lucky.

According to Wikipedia Skylink Aviation are

SkyLink Aviation Inc. is a Canadian based international aviation group that specializes in Project Management, Air Charters, Aviation Support, Aircraft Maintenance, Air Courier, Executive Air Charters as well as Flight Planning and Clearance Services.

SkyLink launched 25 years ago and is in the business of transporting people and cargo, whether leasing a helicopter for food distribution and relief programs or chartering the world’s largest aircraft (AN-124) around the world.

SkyLink Aviation has also performed rapid deployment of peace keepers and international humanitarian aid, including food and equipment, during war, major disasters and pandemics for clients such as the United Nations, World Food Programme, USAID, United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (Homeland Security), IOM, the Canadian Government, the Red Cross, the Italian Interior Ministry and other national governments and various NGOs.

SkyLink Aviation is a Member of: HAI – Helicopter Association International; HAC – Helicopter Association Canada; CDIA – Canadian Defence Industry Association; IATA – International Airlines Travel Association.

According to this presentation the  UK Ministry of Defence has leased 2 MI-8 MTV’s and 1 MI-26 from SkyLink Aviation. The Canadians also have six MI-8′s chartered to them from SkyLink.

Yorkshire Ranter has an interesting post on SkyLink and the crash of a MI-8 in Iraq back in 2005.

It gets murkier and murkier as we learn more about what is going on.