Update from Iraq

[Trapper Paul]

Thanks John

 

We are proud of you guys over there.

I have a nephew over there somewhere.

 

Paul Kaiser

[Don S at Barefoot CNC South]

Thanks John,

Keep up the good work and we are all waiting for the day when you all come home.

[Glenn Bouman]

As a Canadian I am glad you are my neighbor. I am also embarrassed by the lack of support from my government against the war on terror.

 

Here is a snippet that exlains our "soft power"

 

Bill Graham, our then foreign minister, was interrupted during his vacation, as he frequently was in his brief tenure at Foreign Affairs. I remember him condemning the 2002 Passover massacre in Israel from his beach in Barbados. No, wait, my mistake. It was Israel's response to the Passover massacre that he condemned--"disproportionate," he tutted. Anyway, this time round he was vacationing on another island, Corsica, when reporters tracked him down and asked him about Mrs. Kazemi's murder. Certainly, no one could accuse Mr. Graham of a "disproportionate" response. The foreign minister expressed his "sadness" and "regret."

 

Would it have killed him to express a little anger and disgust along with the sadness and regret? Whoa, you don't want to go getting all "disproportionate." Mr. Graham wouldn't hear a bad word about the Iranians, insisting he was confident the mullahs would want to use this case to demonstrate to the world that they didn't tolerate human rights abuses.

 

A year later, a "trial" in Tehran ended in acquittal, and the regime has decided that "the death of the late Kazemi was an accident due to fall in blood pressure resulting from a hunger strike and her fall on the ground while standing." But Canada is still doing its best not to get all disproportionate. Bill Graham has been shuffled off to take his beach vacations from some other ministry of the Crown, and in his place is Pierre Pettigrew. As CBC Montreal put it: "The Canadian government is disturbed but has not yet chosen a course of action after an Iranian accused of killing a Canadian photographer was acquitted, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said on Sunday."

 

 

That's the problem for Canada: the dawn of this new century is an era of hard power. The Graham/Pettigrew approach--speak softly and carry a very small twig--advertises our impotence; in contrast, say, to the robust utterances of John Howard, prime minister of the nation that now fills Canada's vacated slot as the doughty third warrior of the Anglosphere.

 

"Without armed forces a state does not exist," says my eminent colleague at The Daily Telegraph], Sir John Keegan. Hard power does not mean military might alone. But military might is, in the broadest sense, a reliable indicator of how serious a country is.

 

Here's a small news item that caught my eye the other day: the Kingdom of Tonga, our Commonwealth cousins in the Pacific, have just dispatched 45 of their Royal Marines to Iraq. 45 guys? Big deal. Easy to scoff, especially if you're John Kerry, Jimmy Carter or one of those enlightened progressive Democrats who like to sneer about "Bush's fraudulent coalition" and "nations you can buy on eBay." But hold on. Tonga's population is 100,000. A proportional deployment by Canada would be 13,500 troops.

 

13,500 troops? Canada couldn't deploy that many if the enemy had landed at Halifax and were marching on Ottawa. We demand that Washington wine and dine us and whisper sweet nothings in our ear and then maybe, if they're very nice, we'll find a couple of hundred Princess Pats or Van Doos to send to Kabul. Tonga is a small, poor, nothing state in the middle of nowhere. Canada's a member of G7 and NATO. Which of us is punching below its weight?

[Clifford T]

John

Thank-you for your service! We'll keep you in our prayers.

Cliff

[Thee Cutterman]

John

quote:

---

I thank you

My family thanks you

My friends thank you

Everyone should thank you

And all your buddies.

---

Well said storkman.

John our family,s will be thanking you and all troops over there for many years to come

 

Stay safe

 

Reagards

Darren

[J Coulston]

John,

My family and I thank you for your service, take care.

 

Here are a few links for anyone looking to do a little more. Not all soldiers are lucky enough to know about the MC forum.

 

Adopt a Soldier

 

Operation AC

 

I just received the information on the solider my family adopted today and will get a letter off to him this week.

 

The silent majority sucks. Dont be a part of the silent majority!