A Tribute

16 Replies to “A Tribute”

1. Thanks for that link. We really need to have these reminders more often. Just to stop and take time to Thank the men and women fighting for freedom.

2. How many times have we seen Iraqi children happily greeting Canadian Troops on Canadian TV ?
   How about a three part special on The National, Peter ?

3. ron… we haven’t because apart from some exchange folks, we don’t have many troops in Iraq. Now Afghan kids happily greeting Canadian troops, that I’ve seen before, but mainly in the Maple Leaf rather than via the MSM.

4. I cannot help but be struck by the beauty of the Afghan children that originates in their eyes. Contrary to the progress of the “progressives”, I know that there will be progress in this world when the same beauty radiates from the eyes of the Palestinian children. There’s a dream – when the gaze of a Palestinian child can melt the heart like these Afghan children do.

5. Of course, .. I meant Afghan Children.

6. Thanks for the link to CJunk but I think you should know that that blogspot websites have now been blocked by the firewall on DND computers in Afghanistan.

7. Joe: It is absolutely critical that DND do so for security reasons. Soldiers, on any deployment, should not be able to comment on blogs … ever. Let them chat it up once they are home … and even then cautiously. All it takes is one loon, and an operation, or security, or delicate personal info could be blown; not to mention the names of killed or wounded let out before family members are all notified. They are not playing “blogger” over there.
   Furthermore, one CF blogger who did start blogging from Afghanistan was a complete embarrassment to the forces in what he was posting … I’d have yanked his chain ASAP. You can’t have an NCO watching over each guys shoulder … and out of the 2500 over there, plus civilians, it’s a recipe for trouble.

8. Great video.
   Thanks for posting.

9. Thanks for the link Kate. Cjunk also had a few good postings besides. The voice sounded distinctively Maritimer. “Rough men who go out into the night so we sleep safe in our beds”. God Bless them all.

10. Thanks Paul at cjunk, and Kate, as always. We have to always bear in mind that our
    brave soldiers are fighting a war we must win.

11. Joe I agree with the idea that we don’t want military members posting inappropriate materials on blogs. My point is that only blogspot has been blocked. going by what you write then I shouldn’t be posting on this blog as whell and they should all be blocked. The idea is not feasable though because members have access to a local internet connection that they can pay for, as well all the ISAF countries here also have some form of internet access.

12. Joe: Point well taken. I wonder if it’s a result of the one CF blogger I mentioned? Come to think of it, if my thinking was “their” thinking, they’d block all internet access from Kanahar.
    Hmmmm?

13. DND’s policy regarding online communications, including blogs, can be found via this post at The Torch. Needless to say, I’m not a fan. Some additional context can be found here.
    Canadians have a different set of rules to work with than Americans (QR&O’s aren’t the same as the UCMJ, and our constitutional foundations to free speech are notably different), but it’s instructive to compare the American policy of register & supervise to the Canadian one of pre-screen everything.
    And people wonder why there’s a thriving milblog community in the U.S. and next to none up here…
    (I’ve been tilting at this particular windmill for a couple of years now, so pardon the bitterness.)
    And Paul, while I’m a big fan of CJunk and your support of the CF, I’m in disagreement with you on the necessity to block soldiers’ access to the blogosphere. The one guy who stepped over the line should have been regarded as a growing pain in this new communications era, not as an insurmountable roadblock.
    Put it this way: if a reporter comes up to a soldier in Kandahar, sticks a microphone & camera in their face, and says: “MCpl Bloggins, you’re a section commander in an infantry platoon. What’s that job like?” the good soldier is allowed to answer the question, right there. But if he were to try to post that information to a website – exactly the same information, mind you – he’d have to clear it through his chain of command first, according to the CANFORGEN. It’s insane.
    Either we trust CF members to speak, or we don’t. But the current policies can’t decide, and they serve no one well.

14. Damian: It’s my opinion that DND is far too restrictive as you say, but they must protect themselves from the numpty factor. There is one in every crowd, and one mistep from a sh#t-pump destroys the good words of 50 class act soldiers. Maybe another way of viewing it is, that DND is protecting it’s soldiers from a ravenous leftist media that’d love to get it’s hands on something to feed the “loyal” oppositon. Just a thought 🙂
    US forces are now restricted in what they can blog from deployment because of the problems I mentioned above. I also think that the USA policy was far too open in the beginning. I don’t think that posting vids of marines torturing dogs and donkies was good for the US military. We all know it’s a very miniscule percentage that engage in, or fall into, that sort of thing … but when it gets out, it dirties all the good ones.
    So, I have mixed feelings, especially since DND is doing such a horrible job of promoting the mission.

15. The crazy thing is, Paul, that DND does a far, far better job of telling soldiers’ stories in Afghanistan than any other department operating over there, and better than the brain-trust at PMO and PCO.
    As far as one numpty tarring all of them with the same brush, again it’s instructive to look south. When guys pretending to be soldiers pop up, who smacks them down hardest? The milblogs. When some criminals disgrace their uniform, who’s at the front of the line wanting to throw the book at them? The milblogs. When you let soldiers speak, when they can develop a healthy enough diversity of voices, then the outliers get marginalized.
    In other words, because soldiers are used to discipling themselves and their peers, the numpties don’t get much play when a large enough online community develops.

16. Joe @ 28APR08, 11:31 PM – I looked into your comment about Blogspot and the DND firewall, since my blog, The Torch, is hosted by Blogspot. I discovered it couldn’t be accessed by some of the computers at KAF. So here’s what I found out via e-mail from DND:
    Many sites use technologies which are not well supported by the current firewall configuration. For technical or security reasons these technologies are being blocked (ie.: JAVA, ActiveX, VBScript). This often results in poor functionality on certain sites. If an essential site functionality is being blocked, please contact your local Helpdesk with the specific URL of the site and a short description of the problem.
    So, if a particular site posts a link to a JAVA script, it may be blocked by the firewall. If the next post is purely text, the site will likely be accessible. Regardless when a site is blocked, DWAN users do have the option to contact their IT help desk to get permission to view the site if there are no technical or security concerns. Over the coming days we’ll see if the site continues to be blocked at KAF, or whether this is a result of site content at the time that the member was trying to access.
    I’ll keep an eye on this.