War in Afghanistan, Canadian-Style

I don't think Americans are shown enough media coverage of the brave fighting being done by our coalition partners in the greater war on terror. Mitch Potter of the Toronto Star has written a great 8 part series called "War: Canadian-Style", that tells the story of Canadian soldiers combating the forces of islamic-extremism in Afghanistan:

SOMEWHERE NEAR GOMBAD, AFGHANISTAN - Eyes are watching tonight as the blackness settles in on the barren mountaintop. Eyes that seek Canadian blood. They have been watching for weeks, from the very first moment Alpha Company of the First Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group made its presence known in the high hills of the Shawali Kot region of northern Kandahar Province.

Everyone can feel the eyes.

"Tonight is different, something weird is going on," a Canadian soldier announces tersely, his face drawn with tension.

He points toward the distant shadows of the western valley below, where telltale car headlights push through the darkness. He points to the eastern valley opposite, and here too the single headlamp of a motorbike can be seen flickering along a goat path. All of this movement is wrong, because nothing in these war-ravaged valleys moves after dark. The night means danger, a time for the ethnic Pashtun villagers to stay indoors and wait for daylight. Those who defy the darkness are the dangerous ones.