Only en Canada - Stolen military equipment in Afghanistan

CBC.ca/
By Community Team
There was a great deal of reaction from the CBC Community to our story, originally reported on Power & Politics, that Canadian military equipment in at least 10 shipping containers has gone missing.

Chris Alexander, parliamentary secretary to the minister of defence, said that the containers had been broken into and their contents replaced with rocks and sand. The theft was discovered when the containers from Afghanistan were opened in Canada.

The top-rated comment on the story came from a CBC Community member, Maple Guardian, who says he served in Afghanistan.

"When I was coming home in '07 the Leo 2's were just coming into the country. I was there when two Leopard 2 power packs (Engine and Transmission units) were received.

I took a peek in one and the carton was empty and looked in the other and it had a pack in it. I mentioned it was weird how they had to use a new pack so fast as the Leo 2's had not moved further then the tarmac to the Armoured SQ lines. That was received with a quizzical "What?" and the SQ had a look.

Sure enough, it was gone and it was supposed to be there. It was stolen in transit by the Russian air Carrier (or the pilots) that made an unscheduled stop in an unnamed country. This is business as usual in Afghanistan. That is also why Canada should be moving its own equipment and not leaving it up to private contractors that have honesty problems."

Many of the commenters said that soldiers and sailors, not private contractors and shipping companies, should be handling military equipment.

• "As a Canadian citizen with families serving the military for many generations, I do not want private companies fulfilling military functions. Ever. Costs be damned. I want my nation in charge of all things military. Not a private company. EVER," wrote Mentalist.
  
• "I'm sure if we had left this job with our public employee soldiers, the cargo wouldn't have been replaced with rocks," wrote AaronBroad.

Others pointed out that the Canadian military simply doesn't have the trucks or ships needed to do it on their own, and that hiring private firms is standard military practice.

• "Our soldiers don't have any container ships. Never did. Neither do our sailors. Also never did. When you have cargo to ship, you hire a cargo ship," wrote MortimerSnerd.

Another informative comment came from NepeanBaron.

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