The truth about soldiers
From a Canadian (in the Toronto Star!):
The recent spate of attacks on Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan should remind Canadians that the core mission of all armies is not to wear blue helmets and "peace keep," but to fight wars and to prepare to fight wars — and that the word "peacekeeper" is not a synonym for "soldier."..
Canadians and their NATO partners are there [in Afstan] against the opposition of the previous rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban. The Taliban will do whatever they can to kill our soldiers, wound them, demoralize them, and intimidate the Canadian people to pull them out. The Taliban want Afghanistan back...
...[a] wide gulf...exists today between Canadians and the men and women who go in harm's way to protect them, to serve their interests and to uphold their national honour.
That gulf is one that Canadians seem to tolerate and indeed nurture. As long as it exists, Canadians and their military will continue to speak two entirely different languages.
David Bercuson is director, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary and director of programs, Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.
The recent spate of attacks on Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan should remind Canadians that the core mission of all armies is not to wear blue helmets and "peace keep," but to fight wars and to prepare to fight wars — and that the word "peacekeeper" is not a synonym for "soldier."..
Canadians and their NATO partners are there [in Afstan] against the opposition of the previous rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban. The Taliban will do whatever they can to kill our soldiers, wound them, demoralize them, and intimidate the Canadian people to pull them out. The Taliban want Afghanistan back...
...[a] wide gulf...exists today between Canadians and the men and women who go in harm's way to protect them, to serve their interests and to uphold their national honour.
That gulf is one that Canadians seem to tolerate and indeed nurture. As long as it exists, Canadians and their military will continue to speak two entirely different languages.
David Bercuson is director, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary and director of programs, Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 10:00 a.m.
1 Comments:
If the transition of troops in Afghanistan had been gradual and unannounced, then do you suppose there may have been no show of force by the Taliban?
They burned schools and put on a show of force with bombings and the axe attack. Schools were equipped and encouraged by us in the west.
Those things may have been avoided if we had not announced an abrupt change of command from USA to Canada. Should we not match the stealth of the Taliban?
Is it depressing that our military planners do not think of these things?
Watching the discussions between our troop leaders and the Afghanistans using local interpreters was not very assuring.
I thought that many of the locals looked very negative and had expressions that were more treasonous than cooperative.
Watching the forces out in the open, struggling with heavy guns and equipment mired in the wet sand muck made me very uneasy.
Sitting ducks comes to mind. Sorry, I support our guys 100% but I wonder if the leadership are made up of Liberal friends, brothers and cousins?
I'm ex-military, and this looked like a random parade of equipment for show that got bogged down in the muck. Lucky they were not under attack at the time.
Easy to criticize, you say. Well that's just it. Professional maneuvers should not be easy to find fault with. TG
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