Lessons learned in Africa, Afghanistan

A recent observation by Kentville native Military Police Cpl. Curtis Gibson the Afghan mission is how wars will be fought from now on appears to be true - given our military heritage.

It's déjà vu. Canada has been in a political and military situation very close to what our forces are facing in Afghanistan.

More than 7,000 Canadians took part in the Boer or South African War, 1899-1902. Among the Kings County men who took part in that conflict were Militia Minister Sir Frederick Borden's son Lt. Harold, killed in action at Witspoort July 16, 1900; and future war hero Sgt. Bob Ryan.

Though the motives for that conflict were dodgy - knocking over two puritanical agrarian theocracies that controlled huge mineral resources - Canadians acquitted themselves well. Though 89 of those serving in Canadian units were fatalities, and 252 wounded - others were in the Imperial forces - the public tolerated the numbers.

In October, 1899, forces of the two Boer republics - the Transvaal and Orange Free State, populated by agrarian puritanical descendants of Dutch and Huguenot settlers; attacked the British colonies in South Africa, sending the defenders reeling before them. The Boers - Dutch for farmers - had hoped to knock the British back and gain leverage for a negotiated peace that would leave them in charge of their countries, overrun with foreign miners pressing for voting and other rights. The war quickly became internationalized, with competing powers glad to see the British humbled.

This sounds very familiar.

The Boer forces, well armed because of royalty monies, also enjoyed foreign volunteers - particularly from the Netherlands and Germany, of course, as well as French and Irish nationalists. It was a great opportunity to take a swipe at the British lion.

An aside: one outfit fighting for the Boers, Blake's Brigade, was a small unit of Irish nationalists under an American Fenian, William Blake. The dour Boers were glad to see the back of that worldly, hard-living, Catholic crew.

There were even English and Scottish and American Boers - and the odd Canadian one, too.

Meanwhile, Canadian troops with the Imperial forces included the Second (Special Service) Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), the various battalions of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, the first of which became the Royal Canadian dragoons in August, 1900; Lord Strathcona's Horse and various artillery batteries.

Pictou County's Margaret Macdonald - later the Matron-in-Chief of the British Army in the First World War - was a nursing sister in the war.

The South African terrain was rough, hot and dry - to say the least. The enemy was tough and wily - driven by their religion and love of their threatened homeland.

Once they recovered from the initial blows and regrouped, the Imperial forces occupied the Boer capitals of Bloemfontein of the Orange Free State in April, 1900, and Transvaal's Pretoria in June. The republics were respectively annexed. The Boer citizen armies looked as though they were just about beaten.

Then the trouble began.

The Boers went into guerrilla-warfare mode. Like in Afghanistan, the Canadians and others had to be mobile and agile to catch small bands of Boer combatants. Scouts and constabulary, again involving Kentville's Bob Ryan, played major roles in the counterinsurgency.

The Boer population had to be monitored and controlled.

Unlike in Afghanistan, where Canadians are working to build Afghan society, the Boer farms were burned and huge swaths of the Boer population were concentrated in camps where they couldn't give support to the guerrillas.

Because of their rural lifestyle and their general lack of immunities, many Boer children died in the camps, giving the war effort a black eye.

It took nearly two years to crush the guerilla forces, disruption the Boer society and infrastructure to the point the victors paid reparations.

Though the Liberals were in power in Canada and in charge of the war support here, they were the anti-war opposition in the United Kingdom, impeding many of the options otherwise open to the government.

What was also different was, though the Boers' interests conflicted and the Boers were more puritanical than even the Victorians, they shared many traits with the British and were able to come to a negotiated peace by mid-1902.

Unlike the current Afghan Taliban, gangsters and warlords; the Boers were seen as chivalrous, noble and fair - people with whom one could cooperate. In fact, a number of Boer commanders - among them Louis Botha and Jan Smuts - became outstanding citizens of the Empire and the world in general.

Though the foreign volunteers remained, actual foreign government support for the Boers abruptly dried up with the collapse of the republics.

Since then, of course, there were the First and Second World Wars - huge conflagrations that were anomalies, but for which our and other governments prepared for the future, with the added nightmare of nuclear weapons.

In the blind rush by successive federal Liberal governments over the past 40 years to eradicate everything British and military from our collective heritage, a lot of useful - in fact, essential - lessons had been all but eliminated.

Some think the Afghan mission is impossible, not worth it. They point to the recent Soviet experience, and the British troubles with that country.

In fact, the British have never held Afghanistan. Actions there in the 19th Century have been to stop groups of Afghan brigands from harassing the Northwest Frontier and to keep the Russians from expanding their influence in that perpetually unfortunate country.

The NATO troops there now aren't reluctant, ham-fisted conscripts. Of all the places to have to pacify and bring into the modern era - for our collective security - Afghanistan is probably the furthest down the list as a desirable place to conduct operations.

That's the future. Let's not forget the lessons of South Africa or Afghanistan as we head into it.