Poison pen

As soldiers from Valcartier prepare for their upcoming deployment to Kandahar, the City of Quebec and 5 GBMC are teaming up to organize a big farewell activity on June 22nd in Quebec City. This is a time for families and troops to get together before going on pre-deployment leave. As is the case in many occasions, the TF is scheduled to parade on the street and guests and the public will be invited to say farewell.

Which brings us to the protesters.

Not content to pollute the public discourse with their shameful distortions of the Afghan mission and the CF's part in helping that heretofore forsaken country rebuild itself, they've decided that intruding upon the lives of the soldiers involved and that of their families - and not of the politicians who decide what missions the CF takes on, mind you - is the most productive use of their time that day. So they're scheduling "une marche pacifique" - riiiight, let's see how that turns out - for the same day.

Like our soldiers and their families don't have enough stress to deal with as their deployment date approaches, without worrying about a confrontation with a bunch of uninformed, loudmouthed, belligerent nut-jobs on the streets of Quebec City. Asshats.

Not only that, but they've decided to go the junk-mail route and put out a few thousand copies of an open letter - again, not to the politicians who make the decisions, but to the soldiers who are required to follow the legal orders of their chain of command.

The english text of that letter is available online, if you care to hike up your hip-waders, tighten your nose-plugs, and muck your way through it. One excerpt needs to be seen to be believed, though:

As armed forces soldiers, you know better than anyone the potential consequences of resisting orders to participate in this mission. But you can refuse to participate in this war. Already, one Canadian reservist has refused to serve in Afghanistan. Daily, US soldiers resist orders to serve in the Middle East, and many have come to Canada to seek refuge.

We write this letter in the spirit of dialogue and debate. We write also to offer our concrete support, in confidence, if you do decide to consider resisting deployment to Afghanistan. Our contact information is below; don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Others have questioned the legal status of anyone who "attempts to incite or to induce a member of the Canadian Forces to commit a traitorous or mutinous act" and pointed out the penalties on the books for such an act. Of course, those charges would never be laid in the first place - not only would it give these idiots more press than they could ever dream of otherwise, but I suspect many in today's society would see it as an unreasonable infringement upon free political discourse.

Those are the same people who will bring charges of hate speech at the drop of a hat when it suits their purposes, but don't point that out or you're a hater too. Asshats.

I'm not going to go through the letter line by line to point out every inaccuracy and misrepresentation. It would take far longer than I'm willing to devote to these cretins.

But I will point out that these wrong-headed twits, who are obviously bitter about having missed the 60's, haven't thought their incitement to mutiny fully through. You don't want soldiers deciding which legal orders they'll follow any more than you want firefighters to decide which blazes they'll extinguish when the alarm sounds. Convince your military that orders are like a buffet, where you can pick and choose which you want to follow and which you want to ignore, and you've opened up a Pandora's box.

What if the next mission you want to send them on is a purely humanitarian one in some corner of blighted Africa...and they refuse. "Why the hell would I agree to spend six months away from my family fighting dehydration, chancing malaria and any number of other nasty diseases, worrying about whether the locals will pick up on the whole 'suicide bomber' tactic, just so that they can go back to starving and killing each other when we pull out after we decide the crisis has ended? Especially when my Rules of Engagement are going to be ridiculously tight and my logistic train won't allow any decent personal comforts?"

Going into a flood zone to soak yourself to the bone and risk drowning? Forget it!

Standing on the side of a burning mountain with a shovel in my hand, trying to stem the forest fire? Are you nuts?

Welcome to the land of unintended consequences, morons.

These morally stunted individuals call themselves a "Coalition of Peace." Nice name, but they haven't really got the chops to back it up - I mean, what concrete and personal actions have they taken to bring peace to Afghanistan? Carrying a placard with a profane slogan down the centre-line of a downtown street in rush hour while chanting "NO BLOOD FOR OIL!" doesn't count in my book. How many guns does that little exercise in moral masturbation take out of the hands of the misogynistic thugs who kill little girls for the crime of becoming literate?

You want to know who the real "Coalition of Peace" is? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, that's who. Peace isn't something you achieve by clicking your heels together three times and wishing to the Good Witch of the North. Building a lasting peace is tough and dangerous work when entrenched interests are being threatened - just ask guys like Trevor Greene who put their lives on the line to get Afghanistan to the point where their citizens' slow and painful progress becomes unstoppable by the fanatics who would drag them back into the dark ages.

I think the last word on this topic should go to Colin P at Army.ca, who says with delightful brevity:

"I certainly hope the letters were written on a soft but absorbent paper, so they can be used by the soldiers for a function appropriate to the contents."