A Line in the Sand
praise for
A LINE IN THE SAND
“With A Line in the Sand, Ray Wiss has given us a moving and personal account of his second tour of duty as a doctor with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. Frank and thoughtful, the book brings into sharp focus the day-to-day doings of the interesting array of characters among whom he finds himself. We get a feel for the strange stresses of war . . . the pain and uncertainty, as well as the humour and camaraderie that make the awful reality bearable. The lines in the sand are clearly drawn with humanity and grace. This is a book for anyone who cares about the human face of mankind’s oldest activity. Highly recommended reading!”
BRUCE COCKBURN, OC, singer/songwriter
“Volunteer paramedic with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Canadian infantry platoon commander, emergency-department director and combat doctor, Ray Wiss has never compromised in his brave and distinctly Canadian idealism. Now as a battle diarist, Wiss is every bit as uncompromising in his devotion to the unadorned truth about life and death in the merciless heat and amid the bombs and bloodshed of the Afghan front. This is a gripping, heartbreaking and inspiring book. It’s about ordinary Afghans and ordinary Canadian soldiers whose humbling, everyday bravery will take your breath away. The Afghanistan you will encounter in A Line in the Sand is not the country you’ve read much about in your newspapers. The Afghanistan in the pages of this book is the one that matters. It is about the cause that matters, and why so many young Canadians have died fighting for it.”
TERRY GLAVIN, award-winning journalist and author
“A doctor with an infantry background, Captain Ray Wiss gives us a unique insight into the lives and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers ‘outside the wire’ in Afghanistan. Read on and be proud to be Canadian.”
MAJOR-GENERAL (RET’D) LEWIS MACKENZIE, CM, OOnt, MSC and Bar, CD
“Captain Wiss captures the soldiers’ view on the ground and in the thick of it. Just as they did on the muddy battlefields of Europe in the First and Second World Wars, the steep hills of Korea and numerous peacekeeping missions around the globe, Canadians distinguish themselves today on the dusty roads of Afghanistan. Words like valour, commitment and sacrifice are just as apt today when describing the current generation of Canadian heroes. Thankfully our nation has awakened to this reality, and within these pages you find the stirring stories to keep their memory alive.”
THE HONOURABLE PETER MACKAY, Minister of National Defence
A LINE IN THE SAND
Captain Ray Wiss, M.D.
A LINE IN THE SAND
Canadians at War in Kandahar
DOUGLAS & MCINTYRE
D&M PUBLISHERS INC.
Vancouver / Toronto / Berkeley
Copyright ©2010 by Captain Ray Wiss, M.D.
First U.S. edition 2011
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher
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For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800 -893-5777.
Douglas & McIntyre
An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.
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Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
ISBN 978-1-55365-592-3 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-55365- 654-8 (ebook)
Editing by John Eerkes-Medrano
Jacket and text design by Naomi MacDougall
Front jacket photograph by Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Back jacket photos courtesy Ray Wiss
All illustrations courtesy of the author, except courtesy Eric Leinberger; courtesy Master Corporal Julien Ricard; © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press,
reprinted with permission; courtesy Deb Ranson, official photographer for the
prime minister; courtesy Combat Camera Team, Department of National Defence (DND),
reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services,
courtesy Master Corporal Ken Fenner, Combat Camera; and
artwork by and courtesy of Silvia Pecota.
The lyric quoted is excerpted from the song “If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” written by
Bruce Cockburn, ©1983 Gold Mountain Music Corp. (SOCAN). Used with permission.
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Text printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer paper
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
For my daughters, Michelle and Julianne.
Why do soldiers risk their present, if not for their future?
And in memory of Nico, Conan, Boomer, Glen,
Michael, Colin, Kristal and, most of all, Andrew. These combat
medics lived and died by the words Militi Succurrimus (We aid
the soldier) and provided the finest battlefield medical care this
planet has ever seen. It is an honour to wear the same badge they did.
On ne lâchera jamais.
We will never quit.
Motto of Bravo Company Combat Team
Second Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment / Royal 22nd Regiment
Les Van Doos
Kandahar, Afghanistan, 2009
CONTENTS
Foreword by the Right Honourable
Stephen Harper, M.P., P.C.
Introduction
The Diary—May 31 to September 27, 2009
Epilogue—2010
Glossary of Abbreviations, Acronyms and Initialisms
The Fallen
Foreword
THROUGHOUT CENTURIES OF conflict, ethicists have struggled to determine when a war may truly be said to be just. Occasionally, one occurs whose circumstances leave little room for argument. Such is the international intervention in Afghanistan, on behalf of that troubled country’s government—sanctioned by the United Nations organization, undertaken by NATO and fully supported by Canada.
We all know the story. Nearly fifteen years ago, the Taliban regime seized power in Kabul and imposed its reign of horror upon a nation already wearied by many years of war. The regime brutalized Afghan society. Men were forced to conform to the arbitrary dictates of often-illiterate religious leaders. Women were deprived of all rights as human beings. Few children received even a basic education. And in stadiums where once people played soccer, summary public executions—often for modest offences—became a frequent occurrence. It was a detestable and nihilistic regime, dedicated only to destruction—of art, of anything Afghans took pleasure in, of any hint of personal choice that deviated from its own narrow strictures, of human life itself.
Hidden away in the remote mountain fastnesses of Asia, east of Iran and north of Pakistan, the Taliban might nevertheless have stumbled along for years, but for its leadership’s fatal alliance with al Qaeda. However, by making common cause with Islamist terrorists determined to take their self-declared jihad to the West, the Taliban transformed itself into a present danger to the international community. It sheltered the al Qaeda organization, even as al Qaeda planned and perpetrated multiple outrages against Western interests abroad over a period of several years.
Then, on September 11, 2001, terrorists used hijacked airliners to destroy New York’s World Trade Center and to attack the Pentagon. A total o
f 2,976 people died that day in the two attacks and in the related crash of Flight 93. Among the casualties were twenty-five Canadians. These actions were conceived and planned in Afghanistan.
The Taliban could no longer be ignored: the justice of the world’s prompt and vigorous intervention in the Taliban homeland in response to the 9/11 provocation was, and remains, unassailable.
International law blesses self-defence. The moral tenets of every major religion endorse it. Common sense demands that when attacked, we remove the threat. And, even had time raised doubts, the lessons of the campaign would have settled them.
What we have now learned through fighting the Taliban revealed how deep was the chasm between our world views. There is a fundamental difference between Canada and our allies, and those we fight. The Western world view cherishes life and, however imperfectly, ascribes value to individuals.
Not so, this enemy.
This has been a widely reported war. However, there are valuable additional insights to be gathered from these writings of Dr. Ray Wiss. A Sudbury doctor who rejoined the army as an officer in early middle age specifically to serve on the front line in Afghanistan, he reveals through his vivid descriptions a layer of detail about the character of the enemy that horrifies, even as it informs.
It is not news, of course, that the Taliban place little value upon human life, although Dr. Wiss’s description of their specific atrocities is no less chilling for being carefully understated. It is in the more mundane cruelty, however, that the mist clears on the chasm that separates us. Wiss writes, for instance, of a teenager who dies, despite all that he could do, from injuries inflicted by a Taliban explosive—an event of a type “so common as to be barely worth mentioning.” And of a young boy whose broken leg becomes a lifelong impairment because, to the Taliban, taking him to a hospital would be an act of collaboration with the government.
It is true that there are accidents in war, but these were not accidents. Wiss expresses it with clarity: “[W]hen Afghan civilians are hurt by Coalition weapons, it is because we screwed up. When they are hurt by Taliban weapons, it is a direct and predictable result of intentional Taliban tactics.”
Canadian doctors—like Ray Wiss—treat even the enemy. Canadian soldiers strive to protect Afghans, even at great personal risk. And Canadians, and their allies, provide the conditions under which reconstruction projects—such as the Dahla Dam, which I visited in May 2009—are able to be developed.
Thanks to Ray, we have the chance to understand what Canadian troops experience on Afghanistan’s front lines, and why what they’re doing is worth it. Canadians should be very proud of our men and women in uniform, and of the extraordinary job that they are doing.
Importantly, he also reminds us of something we should never forget: yes, this is a just war.
Above all, it is also a war that we are fighting justly.
It is the Canadian way.
Just as with his previous book, FOB Doc, all royalties go to support the Military Families Fund, established by General Rick Hillier to assist the families of our service people.
I am delighted to provide this foreword.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE STEPHEN HARPER, M.P., P.C.
Prime Minister of Canada
Introduction
IWENT TO AFGHANISTAN in 2007 to serve my country. Canadians had been attacked by adherents of an ideology who considered our way of life abhorrent. It was clear that those ideologues intended to continue attacking us. Our choice was, and remains, to fight them now in Afghanistan or later closer to home.
I also went to fight for human ideals that are primordial. Idealism of this kind is often derided in modern society, but it is at the core of who I am.
My decision to go to war nonetheless shocked everyone who knew me. Interrupting a successful career was bizarre; putting myself in harm’s way in my late forties, while I had a wife and young daughter at home, was incomprehensible. It was to explain my actions to my friends and family that I began writing a diary.
Readers of that diary felt I had done a good job of explaining what was at stake in this war and why our country should participate in it. By a series of serendipitous events, my diary became a book, FOB Doc. This was a completely unexpected development, but one that had great potential benefit. To have more Canadians read my words would give these ideas greater exposure. That book, however, was an outgrowth of a conversation I had been having with those I was close to; my own experiences were the focal point.
When the Canadian Forces asked me to return to Afghanistan in 2009, I was determined to write a very different book. This second effort would be a conversation with all Canadians. I would look outwards, this time, and focus on the extraordinary men and women who were with me. I also wanted to write much more about the Afghans: those who were fighting to rid their country of the Taliban curse, those who fought against us, and the ordinary people caught between the warring camps.
This book is also an act of remembrance, and not only for our fallen. I hope that, by reading in detail about the experiences of one deployed group, Canadians will learn what life was like for all those who served in Afghanistan. To this end, I asked many veterans to read my various entries. They offered clarifications when I asked for them, and corrections when my all-too-human memory lapsed. I hope that, with their help, I have succeeded in being accurate. I will know I have succeeded when my fellow veterans tell me that I got it right, and that I helped them to explain to their own friends and families what they experienced. That will be the highest accolade.
Lastly, this book seeks to raise the awareness of Canadians about a tiny piece of ground halfway around the world, a piece that most of them have never heard of. Many of our citizens will recognize Kandahar as the Afghan province in which we have been fighting for the past four years. Very few will recognize the names of Shah Wali Khot, Arghandab, and especially Panjwayi and Zhari. Those are the province’s districts where virtually all the combat in which Canadians have been involved has taken place, an area roughly the same size as the Greater Toronto Area.
Why did we expend so much blood and treasure in such a small area? Because it is the birthplace of the Taliban, and the area where they have the most support. In 2006, with the Taliban resurgent, Canadians took on the toughest assignment there was. We paid a heavy price to do so: on a per capita basis, Canada has suffered more casualties than any other nation in the Coalition. For over three years, Canadian soldiers held the line against the worst the Taliban could throw at us. That is something all Canadians need to know.
As I write these words, the outcome of the Afghan war is still in doubt. I worry not only about what the outcome will be, but also about how Canadians will perceive our participation in this conflict.
Defeat is an orphan. If the war ends in some kind of fiasco, there is the chance that Canadians will turn their backs on this memory.
But what if we win? Victory has a large extended family, all of whom want to come to the celebration. The British and the Dutch deserve to be there—they did their share of the heavy lifting in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces respectively. Our other European NATO allies were conspicuous by their absence in the violent southern provinces during the difficult years, but they are sure to come out from their hiding places and demand a place in any victory parade.
In either scenario, there is the possibility that Canada’s accomplishments will be downplayed. That would be a grave injustice. Canadian soldiers have fought and continue to fight in Kandahar with as much tenacity as their forebears did at Vimy Ridge and at Juno Beach. It is essential that the names of Panjwayi, Zhari, Arghandab and Shah Wali Khot become as much a part of our nation’s collective memory as those storied places.
That is the true goal of this book.
The Diary
May 31 to September 27, 2009
MAY 31 | Departure
Going to war, a second time. How did I feel on this day? A lot different from the first time.
The last time I we
nt, my preparations were rushed and my emotions were completely focused on the task at hand. Like a lot of soldiers, I disconnected from my family before I left. I particularly did not attend to my daughter very much. Michelle was only two then and not very verbal. My civilian job often took me away from home for days at a time, and Michelle’s lack of a sense of time seemed to protect her from any feelings of missing me. I thought the same thing would happen during my deployment. I was wrong. In the second week of that first tour my wife, Claude, found Michelle crying silently one night in bed. She asked her if she was crying because she missed her daddy, and Michelle nodded yes. It would not be the last time she cried during that tour.
As happens with a lot of men, my connection to my daughter deepened after she turned three and began to interact in what I considered a meaningful way. I knew Michelle would react even more negatively to my absence this time, so I took a number of steps in hopes of lessening her pain. The most helpful thing was purchasing a high-quality video camera to record myself reading bedtime stories for her. I spent the first minutes of my last day at home recording a few more.
I had been videotaping for about half an hour when Michelle woke up and came looking for me. This is her normal practice, as we both wake up earlier than Claude. Michelle and I will often spend an hour or more together in the mornings.
For a couple of months before my departure, our routine had been the same: I would put Michelle in a backpack and work out on our Stairmaster while we watched a movie. This was the only time that Claude and I would allow Michelle to watch TV, so she looked forward to our morning sessions quite a bit.
For the past several weeks, she always asked for the same movie: Monsters, Inc., an animated film whose central plot revolves around a father-daughter relationship. Michelle quickly learned that DVDs can be controlled, and she would ask for her favourite segments to be played over and over. By far the part she liked best was the ending, a rousing chase scene where the father figure struggles to save his “daughter” from an evil monster. She never seemed to get enough of that.