Posted on 04/03/2006 9:22:09 AM PDT by NorthOf45
Our new military reality
Toronto Sun
By Peter Worthington
April 2, 2006
This week in the Globe and Mail, “defence specialist” Walter Dorn lamented that Canada’s military is “replacing the time-honoured concepts of (UN) peacekeeping” with a more belligerent “enemy-centred mentality.”
The battle-death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan this week seems to endorse this observation.
With the withdrawal of our 190 troops on the Golan Heights (after over 30 years on the job) Canada now has only 50 or 60 soldiers on UN missions.
With some 2,300 troops soon to be in Afghanistan, Prof. Dorn deplores this change of direction. He yearns for the glory days when Canada was not only the initiator of UN peacekeeping, but could “boast” its troops were the mainstay of every UN mission.
Those days vanished when the Cold War ceased, or rather, was won by default by the West when the Soviet Union imploded.
It strikes me that Prof. Dorn’s nostalgia, and disapproval of present military policy is out of touch with both our military and with reality. Odd, because the Globe implies he knows a lot about our military, describing him as “a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College” and as one who “has served with the UN in the field” in east Timor and Ethiopia.”
It sounds like he is one of those “experts” who lectures to military people about disarmament and conflict and writes articles without necessarily understanding the psyche of soldiering.
‘Impossible task’
In the Globe he mocks the concept that peacekeeping and humanitarian activities can be combined with war-fighting —describing it as “an impossible task.”
Having been exposed to a fair number of Canadian soldiers in both war and peace, I’d say the three-way combination is what our soldiers almost always do — far more than conventional “peacekeeping”.
Today’s senior military leadership stress fighting qualities of soldiers more than was done in the recent past — not Rambo Hollywood stuff, but the quiet, competence of professionals.
“Fighting,” or the ability to fight, is what soldiering is all about. It was the essential quality of peacekeeping which started in Gaza in 1956. The success of Canadian peacekeeping was precisely because the army was prepared for war, but could gear down.
The Soviet Union was the bogeyman our military was preparing to fight, if necessary.
During much of the Cold War, I was a reporter covering Canadian troops with the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Gaza and the Congo, and with the International Control Commission (ICC) in Vietnam.
The guiding military principle then — which is applicable now — was that while you can use a fire hose to water the garden, using a garden hose to fight a fire was useless.
Reduced effectiveness
Peacekeeping, without the wherewithal to use force, puts soldiers at risk and reduces their effectiveness.
General Rick Hillier, Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, seems bent on restoring our military to the fighting role for which it was noted in the Boer War, WWI, WWII and Korea. He’s a bit of a loudmouth, but maybe that’s necessary to persuade the media, politicians and the public that he’s serious.
In Afghanistan our soldiers are getting deeply involved in operations against an enemy that thrives on fighting. At the same time, our guys are helping civilians dig wells, open schools, repair bridges, and are providing medical help. Contrary to Prof. Dorn’s views, soldiers can simultaneously fight and yet be effective diplomats, social workers, humanitarians.
I’d argue that the further the Canadian military removes itself from UN control, the more effective and humane our military will be.
Peter Worthington Ping
What a fool. The US military have successfully combined peacekeeping, humanitarian activities and "war-fighting" throughout the history of our country, and the world is better for it. BTW, nice to see some Canadian newspapers criticizing their leftist whackos. There's a later thread mocking the Christian Peace Team loonies, as well.
Great quote: (You can water a garden with a fire hose, but you can't put out a fire with a garden hose.)
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<< .... the Cold War ceased, or rather, was won by default by the West when the Soviet Union imploded. >>
A good place to stop reading.
What supercilliously-wilful ignorance. ["There are none so stupid, my Grandma always said, "as those who will not learn"]
Just like their Euro-peon first cousins post WW-II's Canadians have wallowed and waxed fat under the umbrella of protection provided them by our nation's willing sacrifice of its blood and treasure. And while we funded and provided that sorry socialist state's defense and thus took care of its feral government's primary interest, Canadians have instead focused their every energy on having their well-deserved goverment, especially that of their Cli'tonesque traitor, Trudeau, become both their Robin Hood and their nanny - and provide them every opportunity to become members of the favored groups upon which their government squanders the confiscated wealth of Canada's less favored.
[Most of whom are by now, thank God, Americans!]
Another good professor off with the fairies!
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