Myth versus reality
The Calgary Herald's Nigel Hannaford has an excellent run-down of some of the latest books released regarding Canada's military, past, present and future.
Brave Battalion: The Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion in the First World War
Canada's Black Watch: An Illustrated History of the Regular Force Battalions 1951 - 1970
Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883 -1953
Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, the Taliban and the Battle That Saved Afghanistan
Kandahar Tour: The Turning Point in Canada's Afghan Mission
Soldiers Made Me Look Good
The Beginners's Guide to Canadian Honours
Military titles shoot down Canada's peacekeeping mythHere are the listings from Amazon.ca for all the books mentioned in the article:
Nigel Hannaford
Calgary Herald
Sunday, January 18, 2009
What's New In Military
Non-fiction
Books about Canada's military continue to fill store shelves these days. Here's a look at several new ones.
There are three first-class regimental histories in Mark Zuehlke's Brave Battalion: The Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion in the First World War; Canada's Black Watch: An Illustrated History of the Regular Force Battalions by Simon Falconer,; and Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883 -1953.
All are strong reads and outline the foundations of Canada's modern Armed Forces. In fact, the Royal Canadian Regiment is now in Afghanistan and is one of the regiments profiled in two quite different books dealing with the war there.
Brave Battalion: The Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion in the First World War
Canada's Black Watch: An Illustrated History of the Regular Force Battalions 1951 - 1970
Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883 -1953
Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, the Taliban and the Battle That Saved Afghanistan
Kandahar Tour: The Turning Point in Canada's Afghan Mission
Soldiers Made Me Look Good
The Beginners's Guide to Canadian Honours
posted by WE Speak at 6:29 a.m.
1 Comments:
And a good letter in the "Toronto Star":
"The delusion of peacekeeping missions"
Jan 18, 2009 04:30 AM
Re:"Canadians fool themselves about modern peacekeeping", Comment, Jan. 14
The author Eugene Lang has hit it right on the mark. Too many Canadians live under the delusion that so-called "blue beret" peacekeeping is our sole enduring military history and that we should commit our troops to that alone. Setting aside our participation in two world wars that was far above our relative national size and capacity, the truth is that this type of mission, under UN Chapter 6 conditions (with the agreement of all factions, completely neutral and lightly armed for defence only) has not existed in many years. Even those such as Bosnia and Rwanda, which the government and media would have us believe were peacekeeping, were anything but; they were warfare. The other delusion is that peacekeeping allows us to maintain a military "on the cheap." Successive governments have slaughtered military spending since the end of the Cold War, initially declaring a "peace dividend" and then simply not spending money that didn't get votes. Much of the military's infrastructure as well as logistic capabilities and equipment are decades old and long past their serviceable date.
Even if the ideal textbook peacekeeping mission were to present itself tomorrow, and assuming sufficient troops were available for it, the reality is we couldn't get them there and support them in any kind of timely fashion.
L.V. (Len) Aitchison, Wyebridge, Ont."
Mark
Ottawa
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