Where Defence and Development meet
Apparently, some Canadians think our CF should be digging wells instead of fighting murderous and fanatic misogynists in Afghanistan.
Well, here's a photo for you:
You see what I did there? A pun on the word "well." Oh, come on, it was funny...OK, clever at least...
My point in posting this? Not much of one, except to say the CF can - how to put this delicately? - create insurmountable difficulties for Taliban fighters to take even one more breath, and at the same time dig wells and win hearts and minds. Concurrent activity, folks. Walking and chewing gum.
Not that putting the Taliban thugs into a shallow grave doesn't win hearts and minds, because it does. Imagine: your village has been terrorized by these butchers, your elders threatened, your teachers shot, your neighbours forced to grow opium crops by a bunch of thugs.
Then one day the Canadians show up and engage in a little pest control, ridding your tiny hamlet of its Taliban infestation. Not a single well is dug, and yet Canadians have won some goodwill.
The soldiers with the Maple Leaf on their shoulders then follow it up by helping bringing your village into the National Solidarity Program. They help you elect a village council, bring in a Village Medical Outreach, approve a bunch of micro-loans (mostly to women), pay your local men to refurbish their irrigation canal, donate an electrical generator, help you build a decent road, and yes, dig a frickin' well so you and your kids don't get sick when you do something as simple as take a drink.
Now how do you feel about the Canadians?
Well, here's a photo for you:
You see what I did there? A pun on the word "well." Oh, come on, it was funny...OK, clever at least...
My point in posting this? Not much of one, except to say the CF can - how to put this delicately? - create insurmountable difficulties for Taliban fighters to take even one more breath, and at the same time dig wells and win hearts and minds. Concurrent activity, folks. Walking and chewing gum.
Not that putting the Taliban thugs into a shallow grave doesn't win hearts and minds, because it does. Imagine: your village has been terrorized by these butchers, your elders threatened, your teachers shot, your neighbours forced to grow opium crops by a bunch of thugs.
Then one day the Canadians show up and engage in a little pest control, ridding your tiny hamlet of its Taliban infestation. Not a single well is dug, and yet Canadians have won some goodwill.
The soldiers with the Maple Leaf on their shoulders then follow it up by helping bringing your village into the National Solidarity Program. They help you elect a village council, bring in a Village Medical Outreach, approve a bunch of micro-loans (mostly to women), pay your local men to refurbish their irrigation canal, donate an electrical generator, help you build a decent road, and yes, dig a frickin' well so you and your kids don't get sick when you do something as simple as take a drink.
Now how do you feel about the Canadians?
posted by Babbling Brooks at 12:34 a.m.
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