Canada's Best Legacy in the World
The Canadian Forces is not an overnight fix, for sure! Especially now that people are dying and the newest direction of Canada's military involvement is looking more like a watered down apology, to the Yanks & Brits, for our less enthusiastic approach to their world wide policing action. Wasn't the Vietnam lesson enough? And if Harper gets in we become merely another Company or Platoon in the American Brigade war effort. Nah, that's not the Canadian Forces I want. Once the Americans screwed us out of the Arrow and our rightful place in history, being peacekeepers was the best decision ever made by our government. Pearson had the scattered good idea...
It is not Canada's historical design or place to merely act as another strong arm to enforce American will. Canada's first and most important role in foreign military intervention should be as a peacekeeping force. The second and probably only other reason to visit or work in foreign arenas is to be visible goodwill ambassadors for our country. It is why we are generally less hated around the world than Americans. Because we don't enforce the will or policy of anybody and we try to maintain a protective force for civilians while participating in the rebuilding of countries in turmoil; we are generally placed in high regard by the civilians in the war-torn countries we "visit".
One of the many reasons I left the military when I did was because of the average age of people in the military was over 30, close to 35 yrs old. There was no room left for advancement and my butt-kissing for a promotion was never quite as good as some other "Yes" men & women that I’ve worked with. Non-commissioned member recruiting was way down and attrition was only eroding the qualified people who were stagnated from upward progression due to the bottleneck created by the government when they came up with the "Force Reduction Plans". The “Old Boy’s Club” is another daily hurdle in the Air Force & the Navy but I can only speculate that it is the same in the Army. Once they get into the OBC, it’s warm and career progression is nice but they hafta live with the memories of the ideas they have stolen and the backs they have walked over to get there.
No, Ed Hollett's point that, "[The Forces]: unrealistic plans to expand ... beyond what can even reasonably be recruited," is very real. What he didn't say was that the reason it is so desperate is because the Liberals decimated the Forces and it is only now starting to recover following a gapping wound delivered by his "fiscally responsible" morons in Red. It became a less viable option for kids getting out of school to join until recently but if we join Bush and his cronies with a newly elected Blue jacket, and Canadian kids start dying daily, well, let's just not get to that point. We will notice our brothers and sisters dying a lot faster on CTV way faster than Americans do on CNN.
The Canadian Forces is in an outpatient recovery program that needs to return to its roots as does the Canadian Governments policies on world intervention and missions. We are peacekeepers and our good nature, coupled with our dedication to that task is a much better use for our people than is the George Bush method of ramming democracy down someone’s throat.
No matter who gets in, they must realize this truth and shy away from the saber-rattlin' bar...
FredfromCBS
It is not Canada's historical design or place to merely act as another strong arm to enforce American will. Canada's first and most important role in foreign military intervention should be as a peacekeeping force. The second and probably only other reason to visit or work in foreign arenas is to be visible goodwill ambassadors for our country. It is why we are generally less hated around the world than Americans. Because we don't enforce the will or policy of anybody and we try to maintain a protective force for civilians while participating in the rebuilding of countries in turmoil; we are generally placed in high regard by the civilians in the war-torn countries we "visit".
One of the many reasons I left the military when I did was because of the average age of people in the military was over 30, close to 35 yrs old. There was no room left for advancement and my butt-kissing for a promotion was never quite as good as some other "Yes" men & women that I’ve worked with. Non-commissioned member recruiting was way down and attrition was only eroding the qualified people who were stagnated from upward progression due to the bottleneck created by the government when they came up with the "Force Reduction Plans". The “Old Boy’s Club” is another daily hurdle in the Air Force & the Navy but I can only speculate that it is the same in the Army. Once they get into the OBC, it’s warm and career progression is nice but they hafta live with the memories of the ideas they have stolen and the backs they have walked over to get there.
No, Ed Hollett's point that, "[The Forces]: unrealistic plans to expand ... beyond what can even reasonably be recruited," is very real. What he didn't say was that the reason it is so desperate is because the Liberals decimated the Forces and it is only now starting to recover following a gapping wound delivered by his "fiscally responsible" morons in Red. It became a less viable option for kids getting out of school to join until recently but if we join Bush and his cronies with a newly elected Blue jacket, and Canadian kids start dying daily, well, let's just not get to that point. We will notice our brothers and sisters dying a lot faster on CTV way faster than Americans do on CNN.
The Canadian Forces is in an outpatient recovery program that needs to return to its roots as does the Canadian Governments policies on world intervention and missions. We are peacekeepers and our good nature, coupled with our dedication to that task is a much better use for our people than is the George Bush method of ramming democracy down someone’s throat.
No matter who gets in, they must realize this truth and shy away from the saber-rattlin' bar...
FredfromCBS
posted by Fred Harris | 11:42 AM
2 Comments:
Good to see you back.
I couldn't agree more with your desire to see our military continue down the peace keeping road versus the Afganistan Peace making road.
We would do much better going back to Ethiopia and Eritrea which is about to come undone. When I left there we left the Indian army in charge of the south sector and they had nothing no Equipment no experience just lots of numbers.
I actually sent an email to our politicians suggesting we build some hospital ships for our navy to stay in line with our peace keeping and humanitarian objectives rather than more frigates.
I received a very favorable response from NDP MP Peter Stoffer.
As for recruiting you hit the nail right on the head about the Liberal decimation of our troops and their moral. I to unfortunately had to live and serve through those years.
The military is a great vessel to help impoverished regions of our country. I fail to see why Alberta whos economy is booming has no less than 5 five bases Edmonton, Calgary, Cold Lake, Shilo, Wainwright. a couple of which have brigade sized troop levels 5000 while NL has two bases in name only with little more than maintenance sized staff numbers?
The way I see it the reason NL doesn't have any military presence is because all of the Canadian military bases werer already established by the end of WWII and since NL didn't join Canada until 1949 after WWII we were left out of the loop and have continued to be so.
Fred,
I wanted to let you know that added your blog to a NL Blog Roll which links all blogs in the province. If you wanna display the roll on your blog, get the code here: http://nlblogroll.blogspot.com/
Take care,
Stephen
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