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Canada has had a bad week in foreign affairs, losing the UN Security Council seat to Portugal (of all countries) and getting kicked out of Camp Mirage in Dubai. The Canadian military have just over three weeks to get out of Camp Mirage, the not-so-secret airbase in the United Arab Emirates. We might recall that Camp Mirage is a forward logistics base established in the fall of 2001, to support Canadian personnel deployed to the Gulf region. Losing the base will disrupt the Canadian military’s principal supply line to Afghanistan – the only other regular re-supply route for the military in Kandahar is an overland crossing from Pakistan, which to date because of countless Taliban attacks, has been reserved for low-priority items. Not surprisingly the announced closure has left officials scrambling for an alternative – especially since the base was expected to play a major role in the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan following the July 2011 end to the combat mission. Military logisticians will most likely ask to establish a temporary air detachment in Germany or Cyprus. As a final note; most of our Afghan troops went through Camp Mirage going in, while to/from R&R, and on their way back home. Lots of interesting stuff happened there over the past nine years – the infamous murderer Col Williams even commanded the base in 2005/06. Over the years I’ve heard many Mirage related stores from friends still in the CF, but for now what happened at Camp Mirage stays at Camp Mirage. MPC