Ray Wiss - A Line in the Sand: Canadians at War in Kandahar

praise for
A LINE IN THE SAND

With A Line in the Sand, Ray Wiss has given us a moving and personal account of his second tour of duty as a doctor with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. Frank and thoughtful, the book brings into sharp focus the day-to-day doings of the interesting array of characters among whom he finds himself. We get a feel for the strange stresses of war... the pain and uncertainty, as well as the humour and camaraderie that make the awful reality bearable. The lines in the sand are clearly drawn with humanity and grace. This is a book for anyone who cares about the human face of mankinds oldest activity. Highly recommended reading!
BRUCE COCKBURN, OC, singer/songwriter

Volunteer paramedic with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Canadian infantry platoon commander, emergency-department director and combat doctor, Ray Wiss has never compromised in his brave and distinctly Canadian idealism. Now as a battle diarist, Wiss is every bit as uncompromising in his devotion to the unadorned truth about life and death in the merciless heat and amid the bombs and bloodshed of the Afghan front. This is a gripping, heartbreaking and inspiring book. Its about ordinary Afghans and ordinary Canadian soldiers whose humbling, everyday bravery will take your breath away. The Afghanistan you will encounter in A Line in theSand is not the country youve read much about in your newspapers. The Afghanistan in the pages of this book is the one that matters. It is about the cause that matters, and why so many young Canadians have died fighting for it.
TERRY GLAVIN, award-winning journalist and author

A doctor with an infantry background, Captain Ray Wiss gives us a unique insight into the lives and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers outside the wire in Afghanistan. Read on and be proud to be Canadian.
MAJOR-GENERAL (RETD) LEWIS MACKENZIE, CM, OOnt, MSC and Bar, CD

Captain Wiss captures the soldiers view on the ground and in the thick of it. Just as they did on the muddy battlefields of Europe in the First and Second World Wars, the steep hills of Korea and numerous peacekeeping missions around the globe, Canadians distinguish themselves today on the dusty roads of Afghanistan. Words like valour, commitment and sacrifice are just as apt today when describing the current generation of Canadian heroes. Thankfully our nation has awakened to this reality, and within these pages you find the stirring stories to keep their memory alive.
THE HONOURABLE PETER MACKAY, Minister of National Defence

A LINE IN THE SAND

Captain Ray Wiss, M.D.

A LINE IN THE SAND

Canadians at War in Kandahar

DOUGLAS & MCINTYRE
D&M PUBLISHERS INC.
Vancouver / Toronto / Berkeley

Copyright 2010 by Captain Ray Wiss, M.D.
First U.S. edition 2011

10 11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher
or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright).
For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800 -893-5777.

Douglas & McIntyre
An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7
www.douglas-mcintyre.com

Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
ISBN 978-1-55365-592-3 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-55365- 654-8 (ebook)

Editing by John Eerkes-Medrano
Jacket and text design by Naomi MacDougall
Front jacket photograph by Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Back jacket photos courtesy Ray Wiss

All illustrations courtesy of the author, except courtesy Eric Leinberger; courtesy Master Corporal Julien Ricard; Louie Palu/ZUMA Press,
reprinted with permission; courtesy Deb Ranson, official photographer for the
prime minister; courtesy Combat Camera Team, Department of National Defence (DND),
reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services,
courtesy Master Corporal Ken Fenner, Combat Camera; and
artwork by and courtesy of Silvia Pecota.

The lyric quoted is excerpted from the song If I Had A Rocket Launcher, written by
Bruce Cockburn, 1983 Gold Mountain Music Corp. (SOCAN). Used with permission.

Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Text printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer paper
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

For my daughters, Michelle and Julianne.
Why do soldiers risk their present, if not for their future?

And in memory of Nico, Conan, Boomer, Glen,
Michael, Colin, Kristal and, most of all, Andrew. These combat
medics lived and died by the words Militi Succurrimus (We aid
the soldier) and provided the finest battlefield medical care this
planet has ever seen. It is an honour to wear the same badge they did.

On ne lchera jamais.
We will never quit.

Motto of Bravo Company Combat Team
Second Battalion, Royal 22e Rgiment / Royal 22nd Regiment

Les Van Doos
Kandahar, Afghanistan, 2009

CONTENTS

by the Right Honourable
Stephen Harper, M.P., P.C.

T HROUGHOUT CENTURIES OF conflict, ethicists have struggled to determine when a war may truly be said to be just. Occasionally, one occurs whose circumstances leave little room for argument. Such is the international intervention in Afghanistan, on behalf of that troubled countrys governmentsanctioned by the United Nations organization, undertaken by NATO and fully supported by Canada.

We all know the story. Nearly fifteen years ago, the Taliban regime seized power in Kabul and imposed its reign of horror upon a nation already wearied by many years of war. The regime brutalized Afghan society. Men were forced to conform to the arbitrary dictates of often-illiterate religious leaders. Women were deprived of all rights as human beings. Few children received even a basic education. And in stadiums where once people played soccer, summary public executionsoften for modest offencesbecame a frequent occurrence. It was a detestable and nihilistic regime, dedicated only to destructionof art, of anything Afghans took pleasure in, of any hint of personal choice that deviated from its own narrow strictures, of human life itself.

Hidden away in the remote mountain fastnesses of Asia, east of Iran and north of Pakistan, the Taliban might nevertheless have stumbled along for years, but for its leaderships fatal alliance with al Qaeda. However, by making common cause with Islamist terrorists determined to take their self-declared jihad to the West, the Taliban transformed itself into a present danger to the international community. It sheltered the al Qaeda organization, even as al Qaeda planned and perpetrated multiple outrages against Western interests abroad over a period of several years.

Then, on September 11, 2001, terrorists used hijacked airliners to destroy New Yorks World Trade Center and to attack the Pentagon. A total of 2,976 people died that day in the two attacks and in the related crash of Flight 93. Among the casualties were twenty-five Canadians. These actions were conceived and planned in Afghanistan.