Soldiers Fight While Civilians Fret

[Keepitsimple]

Rosie DiManno has been writing some excellent columns on Afghanistan for the Toronto Star. She's embedded with our soldiers and is one of the few journalists who is listening to our soldiers. Here's just a few extracts so I don't contravene copyright rules - but I encourage people to read the entire article.

Link: http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/218349

On the first day that this country enjoined in the Battle of the Somme, some 2,600 Canadian men died.

Newfoundland, not yet in the Confederation fold, had sent its precious youth into the fight at the beginning – July 1, 1916 – and about 250 of them fell, their blood spilled on foreign soil.

That anniversary approaches but July 1, Canada Day, means something else now, all balloons and festivity.

By the time the battle was over in late November – the Great War would grind on for another two miserable years – 24,713 Canadians and Newfoundlanders had been killed. Ten times as many Canadians dead as are now serving in Task Force Afghanistan. Corp. Matthew McCully, 25, became the most recent combat fatality on Friday, the 55th soldier lost since Canada deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2002.

A nation shudders.

But the angst is ours, not theirs, the soldiers who have most to fear and perhaps to doubt. They may rage at times over the enemy's tactics – ambushes, roadside detonations and suicide bombings that more often kill Afghan civilians – and occasionally their spirits sag. Yet they've never lost heart or resolve. Which is so much more than can be said for the hand-wringing Canadian public.

Canada has adopted Afghanistan. That means not giving it back when the ward becomes too much of a handful.

To do so would be dishonourable and disastrous – for Afghanistan's future and Canada's present. This country stands for something, which is why it has stood with Afghans, which is why Canadian soldiers recoil from the very suggestion that our troops should seek safer havens, whether in Kabul as a security force or in provinces calmer than Kandahar.

They do not want this. As hard as it may be for many Canadians to understand, combat troops thrive on soldiering. They hate being tucked in the safe sanctuary of the Kandahar Airfield. They routinely express disdain for allies that rarely venture outside the wire. It is a matter of pride and principle.

Pity that so many Canadians share neither that pride nor those principles.

[g_bambino]

On the first day that this country enjoined in the Battle of the Somme, some 2,600 Canadian men died.

By the time the battle was over in late November – the Great War would grind on for another two miserable years – 24,713 Canadians and Newfoundlanders had been killed. Ten times as many Canadians dead as are now serving in Task Force Afghanistan.

I often think exactly this when I see the hours of news coverage dedicated to the return of the body of one - one! - soldier. It also came to mind when the whole furor over the ceasing of the half-masting of the Peace Tower flag erupted around a year ago. It illustrates completely the existence of...

...the hand-wringing Canadian public.

I don't advocate war, but if it's necessary, then it's a job to be done and we should all suck it up and be prepared to pay the consequences; not to cease analysis, or be unquestioning, but to understand that certain things - most things - have a price. Unfortunately, it seems too many don't comprehend this. More than just the clash between this war and decades of propaganda about Canadian soldiers being candy-strewing peace-keepers, I think this "hand-wringing" is more broadly demonstrative of a couple of generations of Canadians being brought up to believe that everything is handed to you at no cost - along the line of "the Taliban will stop doing bad things if we just ask them to, nicely."

As hard as it may be for many Canadians to understand, combat troops thrive on soldiering. They hate being tucked in the safe sanctuary of the Kandahar Airfield. They routinely express disdain for allies that rarely venture outside the wire. It is a matter of pride and principle.

Pity that so many Canadians share neither that pride nor those principles.

Too true.

[Rue]

I have always been unfomrtable with "embedded" journalists. They necessarily form a strong emotional attachment to the soldiers and therefore the conflict which distorts their ability to remain neutral and report the facts in an objective manner.

I do not believe journalists should be embedded and should remain dettached from the news and events they are reporting.

Embedded journalists become in fact mascots and cheer-leaders.

That said, I have nothing against what our troops are doing and do not question their integrity and honour.

I am simply discussing a point as to journalism.

With due respect I find Rosie's columns exactly what one would expect from an embedded journalist-bias and far from neutral.

True war correspondents have made a point to avoid being embedded and remain independent.

The above point I have raised is a hot topic in journalism schools and is something Walter Cronkite and other famous war correspondents have argued.

[Figleaf]

Canada has adopted Afghanistan. That means not giving it back when the ward becomes too much of a handful.

NO. No no no no no. We have not, and we must not. (And was a condescending notion anyway.)

Keepitsimple, you said this material discussed what is being accomplished in Afghanistan, but I don't see that information.

[Remiel]

Anyone who tries to forward an argument on staying the course by referrencing the Battle of the Somme should just stop. They have already lost.

[Keepitsimple]

Canada has adopted Afghanistan. That means not giving it back when the ward becomes too much of a handful.

NO. No no no no no. We have not, and we must not. (And was a condescending notion anyway.)

Keepitsimple, you said this material discussed what is being accomplished in Afghanistan, but I don't see that information.

I did not say that. I simply said that Rosie was one of the few journalists who actually listen to the soldiers - the front-line men and women who actually see what is going on. And over and over, you hear soldiers say that they believe in their mission and that they see the improvement that they are helping to make happen - and that's in the very worst part of Afghanistan - our media only seems to report on the bad things. I wish they would spend more time explaining the tremendous things that other countries are doing all the other provinces in Afghanistan - because to a large degree, Canada, along with the US, Dutch and British, is helping with all that redevelopment by holding back the Taliban. Here we are, thousands of miles away, sitting smugly in our living rooms - arrogantly thinking that we have all the answers:

1) The NDP - get out right away and go to Darfur as peacekeepers - even though we're not wanted.

2) The Liberals - tell NATO right now that we are not going to be in the South after Feb 2009 - find somebody else. We want more of the easy stuff. We've done our job - somebody else should step in becuase we are not going to carry on - end of story. We don't even want to have a PLAN for after Feb 2009 because we won't be there.

[Army Guy]

Keepitsimple:

Good post, I think you've uncovered the frustration that most of Canadian soldiers feel about this mission. the frustration of being unheard, the furstration of our government and media doing a piss poor job in explaining this mission to Canadains.

Rue:

Embedded journalists become in fact mascots and cheer-leaders.

There may be some truth to this, but in the rare case of this, they've earned the trust in those soldiers , not an easy task considering soldiers don't really trust the media for alot of reasons...and the results is not so much of them bending the trurth or building up those soldiers but telling the truth something the media does not always want. a good example of this is christie (i can't remember her last name) She did many articles with the PPCLI battle group, and just a few with us. Any way she was removed , i think shes working out west now for a different paper.

The rest of them are junk, how someone can write a full article on an event that happend and never leave the camp, the same event covered by many reporters each with a different tale told...and none of them actually where there or talked to anyone that was, they got thier info from the military press brief..

[rogue state]

Army Guy:

get back home, get a real job, or welfare, and stop blackmailing and spending the country's money because army guys cannot do anything else!

the army should be for protecting the country only.

[Army Guy]

rogue state;

Nice post, very informed, very well put together, Nice argument...head of your debate class, very nice.

Yes rogue state thanks for the support, but unlike you, soldiers do not have a chioce on whom and what we support "we" stand on gaurd for thee" that includes the red necks and tree huggers, the smart and the mentally challanged it includes every Canadian.

[rogue state]

what do you mean, you didn't have a choice ? it is not compulsory military service, is it ?

[Michael Bluth]

what do you mean, you didn't have a choice ? it is not compulsory military service, is it ?

No, but once somebody serves the serve at the wishes of command.

"I'll serve only under these conditions and in these areas."

Don't think that would go over very well.

[Topaz]

AS Bush said from the beginning, this is a different kind of war not like the WW wars. The only thing that is the same are the death among the soldiers and the civilians! First of all, Afghanistan has so much corruption within the government that one could start to wonder who is the enemy? I heard we are going to setup a committee to look after the drug trade. I don't think we will get to far when the President of this country doesn't want it stopped! Our soldiers want to help the people and that's good but you can't get far when the government is part of the problem over there! Our government is too stupid and immature to know what is going on behind the scenes ovet there. I feel the war will get worse, when Britain pulls out of Iraq and the US is force to reduce their forces. I think Afghanistan will become the hot spot, but our guys are doing what they want to do, but I not sure of the outcome of it. If you would like to read another Canadian journalist view, Arthur Kent, has one at www.skyreporter.com He talks to some of the people there and he investigates the country and you will get a different view than what our govt says.

[jdobbin]

2) The Liberals - tell NATO right now that we are not going to be in the South after Feb 2009 - find somebody else. We want more of the easy stuff. We've done our job - somebody else should step in becuase we are not going to carry on - end of story. We don't even want to have a PLAN for after Feb 2009 because we won't be there.

The Conservative plan seems to be an open-ended commitment with no exit strategy.

[M.Dancer]

2) The Liberals - tell NATO right now that we are not going to be in the South after Feb 2009 - find somebody else. We want more of the easy stuff. We've done our job - somebody else should step in becuase we are not going to carry on - end of story. We don't even want to have a PLAN for after Feb 2009 because we won't be there.

The Conservative plan seems to be an open-ended commitment with no exit strategy.

The exit strategy comment is silly. This isn't like Iraq where we are the single largest component and where our departure will plunge yhe nation headlong into a deeper crisis. All that it would take is 12 to 18 months notice. With that NATO can plan around the end of our current deployment.

Hopefully though, after a rest and a sharing of the experience we've gained, we would return again to take up the burden.

[jdobbin]

The exit strategy comment is silly. This isn't like Iraq where we are the single largest component and where our departure will plunge yhe nation headlong into a deeper crisis. All that it would take is 12 to 18 months notice. With that NATO can plan around the end of our current deployment.

Hopefully though, after a rest and a sharing of the experience we've gained, we would return again to take up the burden.

So long as the Tories indicate that Canada will be there whatever our NATO allies do, it seems they are content to let us stay on the frontline. Worse, they seem prepared to leave the areas they're in now.

[Guest coot]

I think the post title that civilians are fretting about the war is grossly overstated. The vast majority of civilians don't think about this war at all. Many are probably completely unaware of Canada's involvement. Since few know anyone who has been personally affected, and since the overall standard of living in Canada is higher than it's ever been, nobody is paying any attention.

The tiny segment of the population who actively oppose the war can at least be credited with giving a rat's ass when a soldier dies. Most of the rest shrug their shoulders and change the channel.