Canada’s peace-mongering army. Oh wait, isn’t that an oxymoron?
POST EDITED, SEE COMMENTS FOR DETAILS.
What do countries get an army for? Well, the short answer is that they usually get an army to defend themselves, pursue their interests, or defend others if need be.
But Canadians want it to be different. They appear to want an army just for the prestige of it. Not that the Canadian Forces are prestigious and respected (in my opinion, they inspire more pity than admiration) in the world, but hey, at least they’re there, huh?
So when our newly-elected Prime Minster, Conservative “war-mongering U.S.-follower” Stephen Harper -oh wait, no, it was a Martin government decision but the mainstream media sure isn’t telling- decided to affect Canadian soldiers to take over the Kandahar region in Afghanistan from U.S. military forces, it apparently caused an uproar in the public opinion. According to a poll published in the Globe and Mail and La Presse, “62 per cent of Canadians are against sending troops to Afghanistan, while only 27 per cent are in favor. Furthermore, 73 per cent of those surveyed said parliamentarians should have the chance to vote on deployment.”
It’s even worse here in Québec. We’re not proud of our leftist cowardice we call “pacificity” for nothing, you know, as 76% of those surveyed in Québec were in disagreement with the idea of sending troops to Afghanistan, even though the brave American army has cleared roughly 95% of the dangerous mess since Operation Enduring Freedom started back in October of 2001. This reminds me back then, when I was in high school and that September 11 was just fresh on our minds, my school (a catholic private institution in Métabetchouan QC) had ordered a special vestimentary code on an October day just when Operation Enduring Freedom, a legit and righteous retaliation for the September 2001 attacks in my opinion, was about to start: students were to wear a white garment (t-shirt, pants, whatever) or a white scarf, wristband, or anything, white being the color of peace, in order to protest against the war-mongering big, bad United States and their “imperialistic” ways. I don’t think I need to tell you that I purposely made sure I wasn’t wearing the slightest thing that could be even remotely close to being white before leaving for school that morning. Instead, I dressed in red and blue, the colors best representing (without white, of course) my support for the U.S. Believe me, if I had that small U.S. flag lapel pin I now have I would really have worn it that day. I was outraged, literally outraged at the attitude of the school, and of those around me who sheepishly complied with the school’s improvised vestimentary code on that October day. And while I got a lot of comments on my choice of clothes, and had to go through the “hatred for peace” they tried to paint on me, (remember, this was high school) nobody actually agreed with my point of view.
*Sigh*
Now where were we? Ah yes, the opinion of the Canadian public on the Afghanistan takeover. You see, Canadians would rather use their army for other purposes, like underfunding them, making them ride crashing Seaking helicopters, making them sink in poorly-patched submarines, stationing them on bases and never getting them out, making sure they’re squeaky clean 24/7, let them participate once a year for the Canada Day parade and other events, then quickly storing them back in their bunkers, where they will stay in pristine condition until the day of their retirement. If it’s going to be like this then I’d rather Canada have no army at all. It’s more costly than anything, if you’re not going to use it. Plus, if anything bad happens, we can always ask our friendly neighbor to the South to defend us, neighbor on which we like to pick on so much about nothing just because we’re SO better than them… but don’t ask us to actually “help” them defend themselves: Canadians are virtually allergic to participation in any military operation that requires us to fight alongside the States.
And this goes even for the War on Terror, which ALSO protects us from islamo-fascism: According to that same poll, only 48% of Canadians support defending the Western World. An astonishingly high 43% of respondents position themselves AGAINST the War on Terror - this means WITH the islamo-fascists, folks - and 9% don’t have an opinion on the matter.
Methinks those 43% of respondents must be the same kind of people who are actually comfortable with apologizing to Muslims for the Muhammad cartoons published recently in Western newspapers…
—
Sources:
Le Canada remplace les Etats-Unis dans le sud de l’Afghanistan,
La Presse, February 24th, 2006
Majority Opposed to Afghan Mission
The Globe and Mail, February 24th, 2006
You really should go take a look at the history of the PPCLI. They have a long and storied history as a regiment. Nasty sounding names aren’t everything in a military unit.
Comment by BBS — February 25, 2006 @ 11:55 pm
Get this straight: “Princess Patricia” is not the “nickname” of the regiment - it’s full name is Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry - with a proud history in several wars, up to an including fighting in Afghanistan where they were praised by the Americans - I really don’t want to bother reading the rest of your comment right now, I may even agree with you, but geez, man, do your homework. And if you tried that ’sissy name’ stuff on any of the PPCLI, I would fear for your health.
Comment by CMP — February 26, 2006 @ 12:07 am
Is this for real? The unit’s name - not its nickname by the way - is the “Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry”. It has fought with distinction in every one of Canada’s wars since WWI and on several “peacekeeping” missions as well. I’ll bet you think the Blackwatch is a dumb name too… sigh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Princess_Patricia’s_Canadian_Light_Infantry
And please get off the MSM’s habit of calling everything military a “group”. It sounds like it’s a committee or something. I’m not sure how many of the PPCLI’s battalions (not “battalion groups”) are over there but we seem to be sending a brigade-sized force over there, so that’s what the entire force should be called - a brigade (and not a “brigade group”).
Comment by David P James — February 26, 2006 @ 12:19 am
OH. MY. GOSH. What have I done?
Mea-culpa. Big, giant mea-culpa.
Sorry if I offended anyone. Really deeply sorry. I hope you understand I didn’t mean to insult/offend/prejudice anyone. I really do respect the men and women who serve in the Canadian Forces.
I’ll admit I do not know anything about Canadian Infantry brigades (thanks David P. James! Remember though, English is my second-language, plus I’m not too good at military terminology, even in French).
I totally edited the post, changed the title and made sure there are no more references to the names of both brigades. However, how I saw it in La Presse today really made me assume they were talking about “nicknames”.
Thanks to you all for making me learn something tonight. I truly appreciate you telling me. I had no idea.
Hope you’re not too angry or anything…
Comment by Xavier R. Dubé — February 26, 2006 @ 12:42 am
The decision to commit Canadian troops to Kandahar was not made by the Harper government but by Martin’s Liberals in the summer of 2005.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story
/CTVNews/1121433777212_154
Minister of National Defence Bill Graham then made three speeches last fall explaining the new mission.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Newsroom/news_e.asp?cat=8
Our media however essentially ignored the new mission until the last couple of months. No political party raised it as an election issue. No wonder the populace seems surprised.
Mark
Ottawa
Comment by Mark Collins — February 26, 2006 @ 9:02 am
i wonder what its going to take to wake some people in this country up ? a plane crashing into the tower in toronto ? or into the forum during a playoff game ? a bomb in the skydome ? it seems like more than half the population has its head buried in six feet of warm fuzzy sand .
Comment by john demerais — February 26, 2006 @ 11:30 am
Well Mark, like you say, the fact that the main-stream media has ignored the Liberals’ decision to affect troops to the Kandahar region of Afghanistan until now really does make it assimilated to a Harper decision. People are right to be confused about this all. Maybe if we told the Canadian public that the decision was taken by the Martin government, they would oppose it less? One has the right to wonder…
And John, I don’t know what’s it going to take to make people care here but I sure hope it never happens.
I always make sure to tell people around me when the issue of terrorism in the U.S. is raised that Canada is “not as safe as they think”. They don’t seem to realize that the islamo-fascists are targeting anyone that is not Arab, Muslim and that does not grow a long beard, that is, “Infidels”. That includes most of the Western World we cherish, and is a direct threat to our values. We’re at war here. The recent events, -i.e. the Muhammad Cartoons- prove it too well. Hell, what would it look like if we really had threatened them? They’re out to get us all, and they would if the U.S. wasn’t there to offset the balance of power and set the rules of the game.
So that’s why I, a proud “Infidel”, will always stand behind the U.S. when they defend the entire Western World. And that’s why I’m always puzzled at the left’s attitude which always seems to be bowing before them - do they want the Western World to lose or what? Apologize to the Muslims? Refrain from publishing the cartoons? Is the left sick or what?
The U.S. work in the entire Western World’s interests.
It’s time we realize it and start helping them help us.
Comment by Xavier R. Dubé — February 26, 2006 @ 12:22 pm