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.
Thankyou for this post.
As far as the high calibre of our soldiers is concerned, I agree with you…the vast majority of them are a cut above average.
Some of course will succumb to the allure of drugs, a few will commit crimes…but by and large they are good, decent people.
But as the soldier I spoke with told me…”We are servants of our government. We go where they tell us and do what they order us to do.”
The difference here is this: The U.S. military has countenanced wrongdoing at very high levels of authority; the CAF has not.
I have no doubt that if a Canadian soldier was asked to do something he or she felt was illegal, that soldier would refuse.