reed writes

Quite Frankly, It’s A Shame.

Lord Anthony, a prominent, but un-named Canadian says on this blog that:

"It is paradoxical that members of the Canadian military are far less likely to come from the dead-end last-chance rust-belt societies which send young Americans into uniform, and come from a more humanitarian background. In theory at least they should be more assertive about immoral and inhuman behaviour".

By and large I agree, that is true.

But on the other hand…many soldiers may be good people and may have simply lost their bearings, when it comes to immoral and/or inhuman behaviour. I agree that theoretically at least, Canadian soldiers ought to be more peace-loving, justice-loving individuals because of their history.

But now they are engaged in a dubious war – at the behest of their government. It is entirely possible that the stress of battle has had a negative impact on the ability of some at least, to tell the diffrence between right and wrong.

Canadians have not examined this issue in sufficient depth. Our leaders are now faced with the effects of a situation which very few of us can understand. Our soldiers are increasingly affected by circumstances beyond their control

• The reasons may lie in the life-threatening experience of combat.
• It may be that in the past, Canadians have been involved more in peacekeeping than in shooting, bombing and killing and the change has been a systemic shock.
• It may be that – purely and simply – war – in and of itself – is a corrupting influence.

According to an investigation carried out by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the number of serious charges against members of The Canadian Armed Forces, is on the increase.

• According to CBC,  there were 1300 charges laid against members in 1998-1999.
• In 2oo6-07 – 2100 charges were laid.  (But      What       happened       in        between?)  

"Defence Minister" Peter Mackay said this: "Yes, there are serious charges, but there are charges pending such as sleeping in, leaving a post early, not having your uniform properly attired," MacKay said.

?… serious charges ?                                                 

?…sleeping in?

?…leaving your post early?

? "…not having your uniform properly attired". ?

A seemingly stunned Mr. Mackay didn’t address the increase in drug trafficking charges. Nor did he address the increase in charges of sexual assault.

Mackay, using his own brand of English, went on to say:  "young people today are not used to, quite frankly, some of the demands and the rigours and the discipline that is expected in the Canadian Forces."

"Requiring young people to comply with strict military doctrine and discipline is a greater challenge today, quite frankly, than it was 10 or 15 or 25 years ago," he said.

The primary difference between 1999 and 2007, is – guess what? (T__ W__ I_ A_________)

Mackay apparently believes that this problem can be solved by NATO.

"NATO has to do more," MacKay said.

Quite frankly, Mr. Mackay, Mr. Harper and the entire Canadian civilian governing establishment look – quite frankly - as if they are floundering.

_____________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: What is happening to American soldiers will eventually happen in Canada.

In the past year, the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs has received 55,469 calls on its suicide hotline.

By Lord Anthony

According to CBC there has been a large upswing in criminal and military charges for our lot in Afghanistan which include rape, cocaine and child-pornography. Surprisingly there is only onesubstantiated case of desertion.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/21/f-militarycharges.html

If our servicemen/women are having such a dreadful time  in this disgusting and futile war, why don’t they quit?

And why do they go back for second and third helpings?

There are an estimated 200 US war-resisters in Canada, many seeking asylum and rightly so. ReedWrites has declared its support for them and so do I provided they aren’t war-criminals on the run.

RW has also added its voice to the "support our troops" minority chorus which is fine too, except it gets shriller and more bullying as Canadian support wanes for combat in Afghanistan.

Why are young Americans using their hearts, souls and legs to detach as fast as possible from a stupid and unnecessary combat while  young Canadians are doing nothing of the sort?

It is paradoxical that members of the Canadian military are far less likely to come from the dead-end last-chance rust-belt societies which entice young Americans into uniform, and should come from a more humanitarian background. In theory at least they should be more assertive about immoral and inhuman behaviour.

After all, their parents and grandparents would remember Lester Pearson. Thank goodness he isn’taround to witness this national disaster.

It’s difficult to win hearts and minds when people are terrified by those who would liberate them. Incidents like this will continue to occur as long as we maintain the fiction that we know who the "enemy" is.

When the U.S. recently strafed and shelled a wedding party, it was a "mistake".

A few days ago 4 civilians were killed at a checkpoint. They were caught in the middle of a firefight.

Every month a few more civilians lose their lives either as a result of mistakes of some kind, or because they get caught in a crossfire.

Every time the western forces make these kinds of mistakes – either in self-defence or because of inadequate intelligence – and civilians are killed – the "enemy", whoever they really are – gain a few more recruits.

The United States and NATO countries have now been in Afghanistan since 2001. Many civilians were killed in the early bombing and over the past 6-plus years many more have lost their lives. We have no accurate body count of Afghan civilian casualties, because – apparently – they are considered less important than casualties amongst the NATO and American forces.

Recently I had the chance to have a long discussion with one of our dedicated soldiers. He told me about a situation where an Afghan under his supervision was friendly and quiet and reliable as a worker. Later on that same individual was identified as an insurgent.

The difficulty, he told me, was that it’s very often impossible to tell "the bad guys" from "the good guys".

I think that means that as long as we are part of a military occupation, there will be accidents, mistakes…call them what you will…and innocents will die. The more innocents who die, the more recruits the insurgency will be able to muster. It’s a circular process and the longer we stay there and pursue the present strategy, the smaller that circle will get, until we are trapped at the centre of it with no way out.

Remember the choppers taking off from the American embassy roof in Saigon.

Not a pretty sight.

Update:

The American military admitted Sunday night that a platoon of soldiers raked a
car of innocent Iraqi civilians with hundreds of rounds of gunfire and that the
military then issued a news release larded with misstatements, asserting that
the victims were criminals who had fired on the troops.

Lies on top of mistakes don’t win friends.

Read more about this here.

Why The West May Win Some Battles But Can Never Win The War(s)

Reason Number One: Western Stupidity In Iraq

Call it stupidity or ignorance, it doesn’t much matter. Whatever label one applies, the fact is – there is an intelligence-disconnect that plagues operations in Iraq.

Examples of this are far too numerous to mention and extend all the way back to the initial "planning" for this debacle.

The most recent concerns the shooting death of the son of the Iraqi Governor of  a northern province. Aides to the governor said American Special Operations forces broke into a house at 3 a.m. and fatally shot the governor’s 17-year-old son, Hussam. Maj. Muthanna Ibrahim, a spokesman for the governor, said Hussam was shot in his head, stomach and shoulder while he slept.

Hussam’s 23-year-old cousin, Uday Khalaf, was also shot and killed by the troops, Major Ibrahim said.

The deputy governor of Salahuddin, Abdullah Jabarah, said there had been at least two similar attacks in the area by U.S. personnel. “These troops usually use excessive force when they conduct operations,” he said. The Salahuddin Provincial Council issued a statement saying the attack was an indication of “how the American forces disregard the souls of Iraqi citizens.”

The Americans offered their condolences.”

It was just the latest in a series of operations that have resulted in the deaths of civilians or close associates of Iraqi government officials.

In late June this year, American troops shot to death three bank employees on their way to work at Baghdad’s airport. The Iraqi Armed Forces general command called the shootings cold-blooded murder.

Reason Number Two: Western Incompetence In Afghanistan

  Americans and their western allies kill lots of insurgents, but they also kill lots of their ‘friends’ as well. Over the weekend, they killed at least 13 friendly Afghans in two attacks that officials said were mistakes.

Nine Afghan police officers were killed Sunday and five others were wounded in western Afghanistan when a convoy led by American forces called in airstrikes on the officers, thinking they were militants.

At least four other innocent people were killed in another episode when two mortar shells went astray. One of the victims was a district police chief. The dead were boxed up and the wounded were  evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility.

In a footnote to the incompetence file…American lawyers in Kabul would like to work on the cases of Afghans detained at America’s Bagram Air Base. The lawyers are from something called the International Justice Network. They cited the case of Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan journalist detained for about nine months at Bagram along with some 650 or so – other Afghans.

None of the 650 detainees have been charged and none are allowed lawyers.

Reason Number Three: Western Arrogance Everywhere

no explanation needed

(if you can’t win the hearts and minds of your friends…then what?)

More War Will Not Bring Peace Nor Will It Overcome "Terror" whatever that is

It’s interesting that the Americans are now talking about beefing up their forces in Afghanistan. Five years ago, of course, they pretty much abandoned that south Asian country, to pursue their dirty little war in Iraq. Now, they think Iraq has been pacified, they’ve opened the way for the oil giants to set up shop and so they want a new (albeit belated) buildup in Afghanistan.

  American Presidential Candidates Are In Agreement

Backers of the increased aggression include the Democratic  candidate for the U.S. presidency, Barrack Obama. Both Obama and the other candidate, John McSame want to send at least 2 more combat brigades over there…that would be about 7,000 men and women. These are people who have done multiple tours of duty in Iraq. They are hardened veterans, heavily armed but morally challenged, as are the men who want to want to send them. Their presence in Afghanistan will only make matters worse.

The American military is now in roughly the same condition as the Roman Legions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. It is increasingly reliant on mercenaries from the private sector. Like the Germanic barbarian fighters hired by the Romans, the private sector corporations of America have little interest in anything other than making money. As long as armed Americans are stationed in Iraq there will be conflict.

The same is true for Afghanistan.

Those of us who have followed the Afghan debacle both historically and in present time, find the  Obama position astonishing in its naivete. He thinks the addition of a few more soldiers and helicopters will do the job. Hello? Has he read anything about the Russian experience?

Obama says he wants "more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more non-military assistance to accomplish the mission".

Senator Obama said he would leave a residual force of undetermined size in Iraq to "perform limited missions", such as training Iraqi forces and going after remnants of al-Qaeda…and of course protecting American and European oil companies.

I find it astonishing that after all this time an American candidate for the presidency still believes there is a viable "military mission" in Afghanistan, that will result in an end to terror. Senator Obama has mused that "Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been.". But then he admits that Afghanistan is not the central front either. It might be Pakistan.

In fact there is no central front. The fact is – terrorism breaks out wherever the western nations – led by America – set up camp.

The American obsession with fighting "terror" by deploying enormous numbers of combat troops in  places like Iraq and Afghanistan is truly mind boggling.

It’s the kind of madness that breeds more madness and in the end leads to more terror.

Peace cannot be achieved by unleashing the dogs of war.