Devastating blow for the Canadian Forces

QMI Agency via Toronto Sun ^ | 2010-02-12 | Michael Den Tandt

[Clive]

It was inevitable, you have to figure, that Col. Russell Williams’ stunning arrest on charges of murder and rape quickly would lead to dark speculation about the fate of the Canadian Forces.

Will Canadians turn against the CF now that one of their senior leaders has been unmasked, allegedly, as a monster? Will all the hard restorative work done in the years since the Somalia debacle be for naught?

This is, as we say in the news biz, a crock. Canadians are not imbeciles. Come to think of it, some of us are rather clever and fair-minded. Some of us even have learned cipherin’ and figgerin,’ as Jethro Bodine used to say.

Canadians will not blame their military should Williams be guilty as charged. To even speculate that we would is ridiculous.

That said, the visceral shock of this case for the soldiers, sailors and airmen and women themselves is enormous and not likely to fade soon. Many will be deeply, personally wounded.

This man was not simply a senior officer. He commanded 8 Wing and CFB Trenton. There is no more important job in the CF, other than perhaps running Task Force Afghanistan, or being chief of defence staff.

CFB Trenton’s role in the Afghan mission has been largely unsung but is no less vital for that. Simply put: Without the aviators and their support crew, mechanics, engineers, stewards, loaders, there would be no mission.

Just about everything Canadian in Kandahar — the weather havens, the stacks of freight containers that become raw material for buildings, the toilets, the SUVs, LAVIIIs, Nyalas, Bisons, and of course the troops themselves and all their kit — is flown in.

Between Dec. 2005 and June 2006, Williams commanded Camp Mirage, the Southeast Asian support base whose location is kept secret because the host nation is touchy about having foreign troops on its soil.

Mirage is the lifeline of the Canadian military in Afghanistan. It is the entry and exit point, the safe haven and supply depot. Its commander is not merely a military executive. He also is a senior diplomat in a volatile and tricky part of the world.

All Canadian military officers, let alone the most senior, are repeatedly grilled and tested, throughout their careers, in the most trying circumstances imaginable. Whoever commands Mirage must be implicitly trusted at the highest level.

In training, which happens continuously, CF officers are denied sleep and food for days on end. In the field, their performance is constantly scrutinized through a formal system of after-action reports and evaluations.

All this is geared to insure that only the best, brightest and most reliable are placed in positions where their judgment can save or cost lives.

The fruit of this system, the result, is an esprit de corps that is palpable. Most Canadian rank-and-file soldiers respect and admire their officers. They know that no one gets to be a leader in the CF without having earned it.

Added to this, Canadian soldiers are, for lack of any better term, boy scouts. They are a corps of mainly young idealists who believe passionately that their armed might serves the good. By nature they see themselves as protectors — much like police, firefighters and other first responders.

If Williams is guilty, our troops — and not just those based in Trenton — will feel a deep and long-lasting sense of betrayal, grief and shame that one of their own could have done this. Canadians will grieve with them.

[Clive]

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[AntiKev]

Added to this, Canadian soldiers are, for lack of any better term, boy scouts.

Well...somebody hasn't been in Trenton, Belleville...or Barrie on a Friday or Saturday night.

[Clive]

I went to a Boy Scout meeeting when I was a teen. The place was full of boy scouts so I did not go back. I joined the Air Cadets instead.

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping, Clive.

[AntiKev]

Hah! That’s the only reason I’m a pilot. That and the chicks. Also...I’m now an Air Cadet officer, as well as being a Glider Instructor with the program.