This is my first news post here (I'd like to share some highlights of media coverage of Canadian military issues from time to time) - all feedback (good and otherwise) appreciated!

On September 1, the New York Times (as well as its sister publication, the International Herald Tribune), told the world, "A year after Canadian and U.S. forces drove hundreds of Taliban fighters from the area, the Panjwai and Zhare districts southwest of Kandahar, the rebels are back and have adopted new tactics. Carrying out guerrilla attacks after NATO troops partly withdrew in July, they overran isolated police posts and are now operating in areas where they can mount attacks on Kandahar, the south's largest city."

The Globe & Mail, Can West News Service and other media outlets picked up the story, attributing the NYT. A later version of the New York Times story indicated, "The seesaw nature of the conflict is evident in Kandahar, where the local governor cites a slight drop in suicide bombings in the provincial capital as a sign of progress. But police officials and villagers bitterly complain that Canadian forces abandoned Panjwai and Zhare."

Canadian Forces officials denied leaving Afghan police in the lurch, while a later Can West story took a slightly different tack later on -- it's the AFG police's fault that the ground wasn't held.

All this while various media outlets (including Canadian Press, the Hamilton Spectator, and Legion Magazine -- a magazine put out by the Royal Canadian Legion) were offering post-mortem coverage of OP Medusa, a Canadian-led offensive by elements of ISAF and the Afghan National Army that began in August 2006, in which 12 Canadian soldiers were killed. During the OP Medusa, Pte. Mark Graham was killed, and a number of troops injured, by fire from an American A-10 in Panjwai.

A first rate Canadian military news blog, The Torch, gave General Tim Grant, then-Commander of Canada's Task Force Afghanistan, a chance to give more of his side of the OP Medusa story. Back-and-forth (including comments from bayonets who say they took part in OP Medusa) also continued on a thread of Army.ca, a public internet forum NOT connected to the Canadian military.