Canadian troops are having a hard time dealing with the environment in Afghanistan — almost impenetrable forests of 10-foot high marijuana plants — reports Reuters:

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana. “The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It’s very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices … and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don’t dodge in and out of those marijuana forests,” he said in a speech in Ottawa.

Disrupting thermo? I bet the RMA folks didn’t see that one coming. Of course, we could just go Vietnam-style on them and burn everything to the ground but:

“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hillier said dryly.

Maybe the Canadian Forces could use that in the next recruiting campaign?

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