Monday, July 23, 2007

I got this today.....


Many know not why I really joined the military many moons ago-even as a reservist; and what I carry in my heart today. Lets just say I do what I can in support of the military all these these long years.............

Canadians In Afghanistan - remembrance

Today an article.. I have not been able to check the validity, but I know our Canadian history & I know it is true to that which they reference...

Subject: Interesting Article

Classification: NON SENSITIVE INFORMATION RELEASABLE TO THE PUBLIC

Good Moring Scott,

It's now about dinner time in Afghanistan and I believe you all are just starting work, time change is an amazing thing. A fellow Canadian Captain serving in Afghanistan was sent this article about Canada's contribution to the world stage from a British newspaper. An interesting read.

Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and
>modest nation - Kevin Myers,
>
>The Sunday Telegraph
>
>LONDON - Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan ,
>probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that
>Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury
>its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its
>sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
>
>It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid
>both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is
>over, to be well and truly ignored.Canada is the perpetual wallflower that
>stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for
>a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow
>dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired
>and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those
>she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting
>her yet again.
>
>That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with
>the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two
>global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two
>different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an
>address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never
>fully got the gratitude it deserved.
>
>Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world
>wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada 's
>entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during
>the First World War, and nearly
>60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by
>Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British
>order of battle.
>
>Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its
>unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as
>somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War provided a
>re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and
>ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More
>than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during
>which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished
>the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the
>world.
>
>The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the
>previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film
>only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in
>which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching
>scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has
>any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
>
>So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood
>keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary
>Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William
>Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and
>Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher
>Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a
>Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as
>unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved
>quite unable to find any takers.
>
>Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of
>its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of
>them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone
>else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's
>peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been
>the greatest peace keepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and
>six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor , from Sinai
>toBosnia .
>
>Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian
>imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control
>paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then
>disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for
>which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
>
>So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless
>friendship its northern neighbor has given it in Afghanistan ? Rather like
>Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honorable things for honorable
>motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a
>figure of fun.
>
>It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honor
>comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew
>that cost all too tragically well.
>
>**** **** Please pass the on to any of your friends or relatives who served
>in the Canadian Forces, it is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to
>serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.


Good reading all :D and a chance to reflect on a lot !!

2 comments:

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

I am not a Canadian but I am proud of Canada for its history and contribution to the world. I think being known as the peacekeeper is truly an honor (earned in sweat and blood and sacrifice) and has the highest value and should not be confused with policing. Josie at All in Good Time has a wonderful YouTube post on being Candian that addresses this issue on 1st July and I left a comment there too about recognising Canada's sacrifice.

MedStudentWife said...

Txs LGS.... :)

I have yet to check out Josie;s blog, but I will :D