News: Canadian Military Relying on Afghan Contractors for Security
It’s interesting to hear what the salaries are for local nationals in Afghanistan. The Iraq local national security companies pay almost the same amount to their guards. -Head Jundi
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Military relying on Afghan contractors for security
JESSICA LEEDER
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
October 28, 2008
ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan — To an untrained observer, it might seem odd that nearly 50 Afghans have been given free rein to gallivant around a foreign military outpost in their dusty Toyota 4Runners, armed with Kalashnikovs.
They shout at each other in Dari, a Persian dialect spoken in northern and western Afghanistan that is unintelligible to most Canadian soldiers and their hired Pashto interpreters here in the south.
Around the clock they churn up gravel as they dart between lookout towers along the base perimeter. As they blew by one of the senior officers on base the other day, leaving him shrouded in dust, Sergeant Major Shawn Mercer let a wide grin cross his face.
“They’re fast, like light,” he said.
