BETWEEN ZHARI and PANJWAII, Afghanistan — Sgt. Malcolm Thomson was a tactical tracker with the South African Defense Force in 1978, hunting for guerrillas in Angola.

Three decades later Thomson, who is referred to as Grandpa by younger troops, acts as a patrol commander on convoys that sometimes hunt for the improvised explosives that the Taliban bury under roads in order to kill Canadian troops and Afghan civilians.

“Some of the soldiering here is the same as in southern Africa. We are trying to hunt down a fairly elusive enemy that blends in with the local population,” the 48-year-old Edmonton resident said after a morning spent leading troops along a treacherous stretch of road that cuts through the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

“A disadvantage here compared with when I was in Africa is that we don’t know the ground that well. Some of our troops have never been outside of Western Canada before.”

Thomson is a staunch supporter of what Canada is trying to achieve in Afghanistan because “if we don’t find them (the Taliban) here, when will we do it?”

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Note:  I think I’ve been saying the same thing for sometime now.  It will take that long to educate a new generation and have them take their places. 

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