KANDAHAR COP

RCMP Cpl. Barry Pitcher went to Afghanistan to train local officers
and came back with a new appreciation of his own home

Barry Pitcher went to Afghanistan to help train police officers. His
proudest accomplishment, however, has nothing to do with arrests,
drug seizures or crowd control.

Sitting behind his desk in St. John's, the RCMP corporal brings up a
series of photos on his computer.

He stops at a picture of himself applying a bandage to an Afghan
police officer's arm.

Two other Afghan men are sitting nearby, applying similar bandages
to each other's arms. This simple first aid training will help save lives.

"We made a small team of Afghan policemen medics because we found
that, quite often, we'd have a truck pull up to our gates. They'd
have driven for two or three hours and they've have two or three
policemen that had bled out in the back of the pickup," Pitcher explains.

The casualties would be the result of their vehicle hitting an
improvised explosive device (IED), he says.

"Three of four would have limbs missing and they didn't know what to
do - casualty care, triage, they didn't know. So we took it upon
ourselves to do this course and it was a huge success."

Each photo that Pitcher brings up on this computer screen tells a story.

Bomb disarmed

"This was a suicide vehicle that had come into Kandahar from Kabul
with a shipment of explosives," he says of an older model beat up,
white four-door sedan.

"It's a rigged car and these jerry cans were filled with gasoline
and soap. What this does is create a homemade bomb," Pitcher says of
two large yellow plastic containers next to the car.

The main explosives of the bomb were stored in the trunk.

The suicide vehicle was stopped just outside the gates where Pitcher
was policing.

"He was likely waiting for one of our patrols to come out through
the gates where he would ram his vehicle into it and explode it,"
Pitcher says.

"It would have destroyed two city blocks and would have obliterated
our vehicles."

Moving to the next photo, Pitcher points to a field covered in green.

It's just one example of the flourishing marijuana crops that are
abundant in Afghanistan.

Plants grow 12 feet high, he says.

"There's nothing done about it. It's a way of life. There are fields
as far as the eye can see. In many of the villages you'll hardly see
mud huts anymore because there is so much marijuana drying on the
roofs. And as you drive through the villages, it's all you can smell."

Drug trade balancing act

Pitcher's next photo is of another field. This one is filled with
beautiful white and pink flowers.

Ninety-per cent of the world's opium now comes from Afghanistan, he says.

Every pink flower has a bulb, Pitcher explains, which is sliced with
a small razor by Afghan farmers.

The residue from the bulb is dried and eventually becomes heroin.

"It's then refined and moved over the mountains and most of the
opium then moves from Pakistan into North America - the United
States and Canada."

Peacekeepers are very much aware that the Taliban and al-Qaida
groups operate from what they make from the opium fields, he says.

However, even though such corruption and drug cultivation has become
a way of life in Afghanistan, putting an end to the trade is
"counterproductive to battling the insurgency," Pitcher says.

"If we dip too much into trying to shut down people's way of life
with the opium growth, we create more enemies and, therefore, we
create more allies for the Taliban."

During his year in Afghanistan, Pitcher was embedded with the
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at Camp Nathan Smith where he
helped train members of the Afghan National Police Force in basic
police procedures such as handcuffing and searching for IEDs.

In 2007, he says, 656 Afghan police officers were killed in Southern
Afghanistan.

"I always tell my teammates we are the voice of the (Afghan)
officers at the checkpoints; the little man in dress shoes, a ripped
hat, a tattered uniform and an AK-47 with five bullets in it."

Household explosive

A dirty looking aluminum pot is the focus of the next photo.

In Canada we'd use it to boil eggs.

In Afghanistan, it's used to kill people.

"This is the most common IED," Pitcher says.

The cover is bolted to the pot. The explosives are inside, he says.

The bomb, which is detonated by four C-cell batteries and can be
activated by a common device such as a garage door opener, can "blow
a hole through a light-armoured vehicle," Pitcher says.

Pitcher's job also involved combat operations with the Canadian military.

"One minute you could be training them in handcuffing, the next
minute you could be shot at," he says, turning to a photo which he
calls "the Taliban trench."

He and two Afghan officers are sitting on the side of the trench.

The mountains are the backdrop for the photo.

"This was probably one of my most intensive experiences because it
was direct-action combat. We were being fired at and the dirt from
the bullets was being kicked up in my face," he says.

Before joining the RCMP, Pitcher spent seven years as an officer in
the military.

That experience helped him adjust to life in a war zone, he says.

Community policing

While there are several photos of police officers with firearms in
hand and in convoy situations, the pictures that bring a smile to
Pitcher's face are ones where he's chatting with the country's most
vulnerable citizens.

"The difference we make in Afghanistan is going to be with these
children right here," he says, pointing to a photo where he's buying
peanuts from some children.

"They're so innocent, they're uncorrupted and they're so fascinated
with us," he says.

While he was in Afghanistan, several day-care centres and schools
sent him supplies.

"Every time I'd get a box of gifts I'd distribute them to the
children. They loved getting crayons," he says, pointing to a photo
of two shy-looking children accepting his gift.

Pitcher is from Mount Pearl. He has a wife and two children. The
hardest part of the mission, he says, was being away from his family.

Afghanistan life has taught him many lessons, he says. The little
things in life now mean much more to him.

"You don't take things for granted anymore, ... To be able to drive
in traffic and not worry that someone's going to try to ram your vehicle."

Pitcher is adamant that Canadians are making their mark in
Afghanistan and need to be there for the long haul.

"But it's small steps. And even in these small steps we've
sacrificed a lot," he admits.

He'll now draw on his experience to help educate students and other
groups about the Afghan mission.

"For every one run-in with the Taliban, there are 100 instances
where we've done something good. And that's what I hope to talk about.

"Everybody who goes over there believes in their hearts that they're
doing the right thing. And, when somebody dies over there, it's the
children that they're dying for."