UK SAS to Afstan/Blackout on our special forces
Month ago:
The Aussies are more, er, robust:
British SAS to be expanded for Afstan/Plans to increase army sizeLatest:
SAS take on Taleban in Afghanistan after defeating al-Qaeda in IraqCanadians, however, hear nothing about our special forces in Afstan. The government no doubt thinks the Canadian public are too sqeamish for details on what our forces actually do [one past rare account here, from someone rather senior], and that providing information would only undercut support for the mission. Sadly, the govenment is probably right. I mean, our media headline new "war wagons" for our special forces. Hurl.
The Aussies are more, er, robust:
Diggers kill Taliban specialist, not civilians, says inquiryUpdate: See milnews.ca's comment on offical Aussie forthrightness. And they still have an Air Chief Marshal...
Diggers dispute Afghanistan body count
Australian special forces kill Taliban commander
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 3:49 p.m.
6 Comments:
Good point. In fact, the Aussies are even brave enough to >>gasp<< issue news releases about some details of their spec ops successes - click here and here for recent examples - not to mention news conferences.
What is so bad about not hearing about their ops in the news. Silent professionals.
I'd never want our guys at (extra) risk from media coverage, but if the British and Australian militaries can share at least SOME information about the good work their SF guys are doing, surely there's got to be a safe way to do the same here, no?
Bob, what's so bad about complete silence is this: SOF work is expensive, and if the public doesn't know even the tiniest thing about what you do and why you do it, your capabilities are going to be the first thing cut when the budget tightens.
It's awfully tough to build and maintain the sort of taxpayer support that gets politicians' attention that way.
It's a darn shame for a number of reasons. From what one can glean from Torch, Strategy Page, Military.com and various and sundry other websites, Canadian Special Forces have earned enormous respect for their professionalism and achievements from their Anglo and other NATO peers.
Canadians ought to be told this and it ought to be a point of pride for the Canadian people. Saying this as an American friend, Canadian valor and military prowess such as was shown the world at Vimy Ridge and Normandy is very much alive and well today.
I just found a fascinating article in today's London Times about the British SAS, entitled "SAS Take on Taliban after Defeating AL Qaeda in Iraq". (Traditional Brit modesty...there were some other non-British folks there, as well, lads! :-)
The article gives some really compelling reading on the SAS action in Iraq as well as their arrival in force in Af-stan. Damn shame that most of these stories are classified as they'd make some incredible books and movies.
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