[Rerun]

Big deal.

I had to chuckle a bit over this paragraph...

Indeed, it has been one of the most active members, supplying troops under allied command in Bosnia, Kosovo and in Afghanistan, where it has suffered significant losses.

I looked up troop losses in Afghanistan on Wikopedia and as of March 2009, these are the casualty numbers...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaliti...in_Afghanistan

Coalition deaths in Afghanistan by country
USA: 588
UK: 149
Canada: 111*
Germany: 30
France: 25
Spain: 25
Denmark: 23
Netherlands: 18
Italy: 13
Poland: 9
Romania: 9
Australia: 8
Czech Republic: 3
Estonia: 3
Norway: 3
Hungary: 2
Portugal: 2
South Korea: 2
Sweden: 2
Finland: 1
Latvia: 1
Lithuania: 1
TOTAL: 1,028

10 of there 25 casualties came in one action... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbin_valley_ambush

The Uzbin Valley ambush occurred when ISAF troops were ambushed by Afghan militants in eastern Afghanistan on 19 August 2008. It took place outside the village of Sper Kunday, of the Surobi District of Kabul province and resulted in heavy casualties to the French ISAF contingent.
A NATO report of the incident summarised that the surviving members of the Coalition forces were "lucky to escape" since they were poorly equipped, ill-organised and faced a well-prepared enemy. However, this version was denied by the French governement.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...rnational/home

A NATO report on the incident obtained by The Globe and Mail provides the most in-depth account so far of an attack on Aug. 18 that shook the countries involved in the increasingly bloody campaign. The NATO report, marked “secret,” reveals woefully unprepared French troops surprised by well-armed insurgents in a valley east of Kabul. Ten soldiers were killed, the report concludes, but the other soldiers were lucky to escape without more deaths.
The French did not have enough bullets, radios and other equipment, the report said. The troops were forced to abandon a counterattack when the weapons on their vehicles ran out of ammunition only 90 minutes into a battle that stretched over two days. One French platoon had only a single radio and it was quickly disabled, leaving them unable to call for help. Chillingly, in an indication that the French troopers may have been at the mercy of their attackers, the dead soldiers from that platoon “showed signs of being killed at close range,” the report said.

These are not the guys you want covering our Canadian boy's backs.