From a member of the Canadian Forces (slightly edited);
It has been an eventful month so far and I have been doing pretty much the same thing as last month with one major difference. It’s even hotter now, we hit +39 C yesterday and it certainly takes your breath away. The low temperature at night is now around 24-25 Celsius and they have finally gotten air conditioning units into our work areas and tents so it’s a little easier. It’s only when I’m on the road where it becames brutally hot and I find that I’m drinking 6-7 litres of water per day now. Luckily they give us free gatorade crystals so there’s lots of electrolytes being pushed.
I must admit that time has been literally flying by for the last month and I haven’t noticed much of a change in the countryside other than where it is now green in this area. Kandahar province has (had) extensive irrigation projects throughout the region and it is actually a significant producer of fresh fruit and in a country where the average income is pretty pitiful they had a profit of more than $27 million on fruit exports last year so something is working in this country. Unfortunately a large amount of the irrigation systems were destroyed during all of the time in conflict and they are slowly recovering. It is absolutely amazing to see green things growing in the middle of a barren brown field where temps push +100 Fahrenheit.
One of the more rewarding things that I got to do a few days ago was to participate in a humanitarian aid convoy. This is where we load up blankets, packaged food, bulk bags of rice, clothes, some kids toys and go out to a local village. The one I visited was Morgan Kacheh and is around 20 km away from here. The trip was with the Romanian White Sharks so let me tell you that it is very weird travelling around Afghanistan following the old “Evil Empire’s” worn out armoured personnel carriers. The trip was quite exciting and was really the first chance I had to meet the locals in their own environment and the kids were a lot of fun. The village elder is invited out to look at the truck and decide whether or not he would like to receive the goods (bit of a no-brainer really as the village was very hard done by) and then it is all put onto the ground. The actual distribution of all of the goods is conducted after we leave and the village elder is the man in charge.
The kids were very curious about us and were all wanting to get pencils and gum and everything like that. And if you know any uppity kids back home the treatment of the ones who act up a bit is a little different than Canada. A kid who was around 12 years old looked like he was back-talking one of the elders and before you could say anything the old guy had grabbed the kid and gave him a couple of smacks to the head. It looked like the kid was pretty used to it and broke away running and the old guy just grabbed a couple of rocks and chucked them at him as he was running away. Certainly a different culture that’s for sure. On the whole though they were very appreciative of all of the supplies and it looked like it would go a long way. The village was also quite different as all of the huts had actual mud roofs on them and were quite well designed as I only saw two or three of them that had collapsed. All in all a very rewarding expedition though.
I’m getting very close to vacation now and can definitely need the break as it looks like I won’t be out of here till early September now.
These guys are working their asses off in difficult conditions, and as we were today reminded – at significant risk. Take a minute sometime this weekend, click on the “Write A Soldier” icon on the sidebar, and let them know we appreciate what they’re doing.
(There are more photos accompanying this report, along with earlier ones I’ve been sent from friends serving in Afghanistan in this directory.)
WOW. Excellent post. Thanks for the insight.
This is a very informative and inspiring post.
Thank you Kate.
I want to say thank you for your service and I pray for Gods blessings for all Canadian soldiers.
Also, the part about these soldiers following the old “Evil Empire” around puts my back up.
Nice photos. Looks a bit like Oman.
I’m always amazed at the flocks of kids being raised in such desolate countryside.
Good luck and thanks, guys.
“A kid who was around 12 years old looked like he was back-talking one of the elders….. the old guy …. grabbed the kid and gave him a couple of smacks to the head. … the old guy just grabbed a couple of rocks and chucked them at him as he was running away.”
Do you think that this old guy would be willing to adopt BCL?
The post is clearly reflective of a crusader nation with neo imperialist ambitions along with being a zionist lackey and haliburton puppet….
………Not……
Makes me proud to read.
Four more dead kids today, people, in an apparently safe area North of Kandahar. You might take a moment from flag-waving to contact your nearest Tory MP and ask again the terms and duration of the mission: how long will we be here? what will “victory” look like? And so on. You know the drill. Remember, you claim to be Canadians, so think, don’t just wave the flag.
BCL
You are an idiot beyond parallel.
We already had that debate in parliament, remember?
And how many showed up again?
Wonderful post.
Worthy of what we can find at CENTCOM’s site.
Wish the MSM would have the fairness and honesty to report on the good things that come from the Coalition being in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The people have a right to know the positive as well as the not-positive, but are largely being deprived of this right by the ignorant MSM.
Also I wish that the Free World understood that these children in the pictures may be the lucky ones, for it’s a fact that there are many evil Muslim clerics who actually program people from birth to know nothing but the Koran in its unsanitized form and the twisted, hateful, murderous, imperialistic interpretations forced upon them by their slavemasters. It is these many, absolutely powerful, evil clerics from which jihadism sprouts.
And we the Free World are currently doing what we can to rid the Middle East of these evil clerics, one by one, and their minions. In Afghanistan it’s the Taliban. There’s much more work to be done.
If Islam doesn’t modernize and adapt to today’s progressively free and democratic world, then they’ll end up attacking the Free World and consequently finding themselves getting what Imperial Japan got due to Pearl Harbor. And the United States successfully transformed Japan into the thriving, economically powerful, democratic, lawful and human-rights-respecting nation it today remains. Something the left doesn’t want to acknowledge. I would recommend that any Islamic nation that dares to use WMDs against the Free World be treated as was Japan.
Same goes for China and North Korea. If they attack the Free World, then we must forcibly democratize them. It’s better than the Free World being forcibly Islamified or communified.
Big city lib,
Always good to ask questions so before anyone answers yours why dont you answer the following
1) Should the afghani people be left to fend for themsleves and be forced to “retalibanize”
2) Should Canada not fulfill a Nato and other alliance obligations to assist an ally who was attacked ultimately from afghanistan
3)Define failure, as opposed to demanding a definition of “victory” by the way what did “victory” in all of the peacekeeping missions look like (siani, cyprus, bosnia, etc etc etc)
4)Should armies always avoid casualites? is a casuality a sign of failure?
5) should our army ever be deployed outside our borders?
Answer those questions and then perhaps it might be worth having a discussion with you.
As for unthinking flag waving….can you not admire the work of these people, clearly they are acquitting themselves well on a mission that they have been ordered to do. I may not particulalry think curling is an appropriate Olympic sport but I can be proud when the Canadian team does it well and wins a gold medal. So one doesnt have to agree with the ultimate mission wholly to appreciate a job being well done, especially by those with maple leaf’s on their arms.
I’m a Canadian, and very proud of it…now that the socialist horde of thieves has been turfed out. We Canadians can think quite a bit more profoundly than the self-centered, shallow libs and recognize that freedom does NOT mean appeasement or yielding to the terrorist cause.
Libs received votes from terrorists such as the Tamil Tigers of Eelam & Hamas, attended their functions, and gave them Canadian taxpayer dollars to pursue spreading terrorism, allowed known terrorists to enter & settle in Canada, and generally did everything but formally espouse terrorism as liberal policy. Thank God we had the sense to wake up, and elect a good man as PM, one who almost immediately cut off funding for Hamas & the Tamils.
You see, bigcitylib, we conservatives wouldn’t sell our principles for votes. And we actually have principles, unlike most libs such as yourself. So give your head a shake, or better yet, go pound it against the nearest brick wall, like you’ve been doing since Jan 23rd.
bcl- You have an interesting perspective.
Your view of the world is that people who need help, should not be helped. What if you needed help?
Your view of the world is that if people are being run over by criminal gangs and mobs, then, no-one should come to their aid and get rid of those criminals. What if you needed help?
Stephen- what’s your point? Are you, as usual, trying to define Canada only by setting up a fallacious image of the US, and then, defining Canada as Not-That-Fallacious-Image?
The US is not a neo-imperialist, zionist driven, blah blah.
And, one can find stories such as told by these Canadian soldiers, on US soldiers’ blogs too.
The point is – these people need help. If one is like bcl, you refuse to help. I’m not sure why, but – you refuse.
The problem is – when people stand by, and watch other people being enslaved – as the world also watched in Rwanda, in Darfur, in the Third Reich – how does that help the world? I wonder if bcl can answer that.
Excellent post! Facinating and touching.
BCL, remember, guys like the soldiers in the post died by the millions in WWII for your freedom to talk out of your ass. I’d be a bit more grateful…
Well, more to the point, Lee, BCL’s calling them “kids” infantilizes everyone who’s joined the Canadian Forces, regardless of reason, and is disingenuous and manipulative to boot. Everyone’s somebody’s “kid,” but in reality, these are all self-aware adults who made conscious and informed decisions to join a Force that could put them in harm’s way. Labeling them as children dishonours those decisions, and the people who made them.
I get really tired of this old “our children are dying!” mantra from the naysayers. Reminds me of the semi-hysterical refrain of the pastor’s wife on “The Simpson’s”: “Will somebody please think of the children!?!”
Oh, and on a tangential point: what would failure look like? (To me, it would look like the cities formerly known as Toronto or Montreal just after some madrassah-“educated” nitwit walks his backpack nuke into the centre of said cities, screams “Allahu Akhbar!” and presses a button.)
I must say that the left is very myopic in its view if it only focuses on Coalition casualities. After all, more Canadians have been gunned down in Toronto in the last number of months than have Canadians in Afghanistan since they first went there. Within the Free World, many, many people are murdered by scumbags who leftist judges let go to acquire more weapons on the black market and go shoot more innocent people on the streets of urban, suburban and in rural Canada. So Canada needn’t listen to any myopic, narrow-worldview big city so-called “liberals” who are the cause of the nation’s problems. And who would allow the problems in the Nonfree World to reach such a saturation point that the Free World would be attacked… likely with nuclear weapons.
Those who valorously and honorably gave their lives so as to defend freedom, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and country as well as innocents abroad deserve to be honored to the maximum. And this is what I will always do.
Hey Stephen, you’ve must not know much about curling, at least in olympic curling there’s more than three teams that are going to win a medal, unlike womens hockey. They shuold be asking themselves if the rest of the world is ready for womens hockey yet, besides Canada, USA, and Swedens goalie. The rest of your post was awesome. BCL you’re like a bad case of Herpes.
Stephen,
As to 1), we have merely replaced the Taliban with the warlords they replaced, and added a puppet head of state on the earlier Soviet model. When we do leave that puppet government will fall and the Afghans will have to sort things out for themselves.
2) Our NATO obligations have an expiry date (sometime next year) when they can be renewed or discharged. If Harper allows a vote on this in parliament next year, I will probably tell my MP to vote for leaving. Frankly, the States have bungled too many wars lately, and we are not obliged to clean up this one for them.
3) Failure in Afghanistan is what we are doing now, slowly. Victory would involve decisively quelling the insurgency, but that would involve moving into Pakistan, and that will not happen.
As to “admiring their work”, that doesn’t do them any good does it? Might make you feel better. ALl the flagwaving, all the apple pie baking, all the prayers in the world…you might as well fart in the general direction of Afghanistan for all the good it does. You want to set up some kind of private fund to help them buy body armor, fine. The rest is bullshit.
So, do you start answering questions now, or is that permanently up to me?
bcl:
1. The LIBERALS sent our troops to Afghanistan, so we should be asking our LIBERAL MP’s. True, the Tories are keeping them there, but that is what responsibility is all about…we were asked to help, we agreed and we’re gonna stick it out until someone else is ready to take over. Responsibility is NOT running away from your post when you get a bloody nose (not to demean the sacrifice of our gallant soldiers by the “bloody nose” analogy). Were you the type of kid who taunted and then hid behind mommy’s apron when someone stood up to you?
2. You cried for a debate in parliament (despite the fact that the time for debate was long over) and you got one…but your cowardly, irresponsible and selfish “side” lost the debate. Deal with it.
3. Part of the Canadian identity is bravery in conflict (from our gallant efforts in WW1 and WW2)…so instead of suggesting that WE may not be true Canadians, I suggest that it may in fact be YOU who is not the true “Canadian”.
YOU are the type of person that makes “most Canadians” ashamed. Shame on you, coward. God bless our troops!
Inner City Metrosexual said: “Four more dead kids today…”
Kids? Girlfriend, members of our armed forces and their families find calling our brave men and women “kids” or “boys” insulting. So do I. They are men and women we have serving in Jean Chretien’s war. Canada does not send children to war, contrary to your sicko fantasies. Can’t really blame you for being ignorant of that, though; I’ll bet you don’t even know anyone in the military, do you? But you know many, many homosexuals, right?
In other news, holy crap:
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran�s envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday the Islamic republic had reached a �basic deal� with the Kremlin to form a joint uranium enrichment venture on Russian territory, state-run television reported.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12435189/
And one:
As Iran faces international pressure over developing the raw material for nuclear weapons, Brazil is quietly preparing to open its own uranium enrichment center, capable of producing exactly the same fuel.
Brazil – like Iran – has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and Brazil’s constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy.
Also like Iran, Brazil has cloaked key aspects of its nuclear technology in secrecy while insisting the program is for peaceful purposes.
While Brazil is more cooperative than Iran on international inspections, some worry its new enrichment capability – which eventually will create more fuel than is needed for its two nuclear plants – suggests that South America’s biggest nation may be rethinking its commitment to nonproliferation.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/world/story/0B8D4922BF5954F586257157000D2FA6?OpenDocument&highlight=2,%22brazil%22
The enemy within: Treason of the Intellectuals;
Islamist terrorists; and,
bigcitylib. +
Terrorists Plotted in Toronto: FBI
Two Atlanta-area men met with Islamic extremists in Toronto, where they discussed “strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike,” according to an FBI affidavit made public Friday. +
Queen’s University: ‘ We’re Too White’
Queen’s University, one of Canada’s most academically elite schools, admits it has allowed a “culture of whiteness” to take root that fails to welcome visible minority students and professors. +
via nealenews.com
Leftists make me infuriatingly sick to my stomach because they don’t want to understand that they are free and have human rights and democracy and all because others have died to ensure that they would have these gifts.
Leftists are so stupid, arrogant, selfish, greedy and would gamble away EVERYONE’S freedom, democracy, rule of law, human rights and country.
Hey, leftists: your “rights” are actually gifts which were paid for by many altruistic souls with their lives. Don’t you bloody understand that? If not, then please shut up, because rational people, like most of us here on SDA, will not pay any more attention to you.
Just understand: there are many in the Nonfree World who will definitely try someday to put an end to “rights”. But you’d rather live the high, decadent, hedonistic, devil-may-care lifestyle on the belief that this is highly improbable.
Many others don’t share your crazy, gambling-with-freedom philosophy. It’s time you came to realize this. We don’t owe you anything. It’s enough that we want you to be free, able to vote, be protected by enforceable laws, and have human rights. It’s not our problem that you abuse these gifts, waste them and gamble them away.
Leftists… *spit*
The underlying deceit of leftists like bigcitylib extends beyond their anonymity on blogs – it goes to their ideological core.
BCL isn’t concerned about “defeat” – quite the opposite. She craves it. It is what she yearns for. Beneath all the empty electrons of protest, BCL subscribes to an ideology of self-loathing. It would be a thing to be pitied, if there wasn’t such a concerted effort on her part and that of her kind to inflict it on the rest of us.
BCL said,” You want to set up some kind of private fund to help them buy body armor, fine. The rest is bullshit.”
Look at the pics in the post, Those men ain’t wearing down vests, thats ARMOR. Combined with the kevlar helmet, they are well protected.
“we have merely replaced the Taliban with the warlords they replaced, and added a puppet head of state on the earlier Soviet model.”
Wow, the soviets had democratic elections? Amazing that the rest of the WORLD didn’t know that…
Kate’s right. I’ve for some time now also held this analysis.
It’s part, also, of the apparent “culture of death” of leftists. Their love of abortion, assisted suicide, near-ignorance of the gun violence in big cities, acceptance of the Intifada, apologism for jihadism and the refusal to stand up for the great gifts we enjoy which were paid for in many, many unselfish lives cannot be ignored.
Then there’s the adamant atheism that actually seems to have become a religion in and of itself and their culture of self-harm, drug-induced stupidity and apathy, serial fornication in the face of AIDS and other STDs, their apparent nihilism…
It all adds up to the analysis that leftism is indubitably a mental disorder. A mass psychosis, if you will.
History is littered with great societies that fell due to their devil-may-care, hedonistic decadence and laziness and sitting-duck position with respect to their enemies…
One is reminded of the paintings from over the centuries of fat, pale people lazing away, pigging out, fornicating, while demons gather nearby, waiting for the right moment to take them…
Mary McCarthy meet bcl from Canada’s Taliban.
“2001: McCarthy and Richard Clarke work on a plan to counter the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
BTW, Mary do not leak on bcl! +
All about Mary McCarthy
Flopping Aces has a very large backgrounder on Mary McCarthy, the CIA operative who is being accused of passing classified information to the Washington Post. Nearly all of it is circumstantial, but startling nevertheless. Here are some snippets.
1998: Washington � National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger announced June 16 the appointment of Mary O�Neil McCarthy as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs.
2001: McCarthy joins the CSIS think tank. Three of her fellow experts are Zbigniew Brzezinski, General Wesley Clark, General Anthony Zinni
2001: McCarthy and Richard Clarke work on a plan to counter the Taliban in Afghanistan.
There’s much more.
Since McCarthy had reached a fairly senior level it was only natural that she should interact with these individuals. Still, it looks like the start of a pretty interesting week. +
http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/
The Democrat Mole in the CIA fired
http://www.floppingaces.net/?p=1551
bcl – you haven’t answered any questions. In fact, you never do. You simply post illogical and ungrounded, nonfactual opinions. You expect others to accept these opinions as ‘truth’, and when you are asked to provide objective evidence and logical correlations – you simply remain silent.
Now:
1. The people in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) need help to free them from dictatorial and repressive regimes. You seem to reject helping them. Is this true – and why?
2. You state that all that has been accomplished is the replacement of the Taliban with the Warlords. Please provide proof of this – and an explanation why you are ignoring their constitution (2004) and their elections (2004, 2005) and their democratically elected president.
Please provide some kind of probability evidence that this regime is a ‘puppet regime’ (wasn’t it elected by the Afghan people?) and some kind of probability proof that it will fall. What stats are you using and what is your data base?
3)The fact that you will ‘tell’ your MP not to renew the NATO committment is quite minor. Wouldn’t it be more politically accurate to say that you will ‘suggest’ to your MP, rather than ‘tell’ him. He’s not your lackey.
4)Please provide proof that ‘the States’have bungled too many wars lately’. Which ones are you referring to? Wouldn’t it be more accurate and honest to preface your statement with “I think that…” The problem, bcl, is that you seem to consider that YOUR OPINION is the Truth. It isn’t; it’s simply one small opinion, and, sadly, is most often just subjective, unsubtantiated and illogical.
5) ARe you seriously suggesting that the Taliban and Warlord situation in Afghanistan is due to the US???????????????
6)Please provide proof of our ‘failure’ in Afghanistan – other than your subjective opinion. Do you know the difference between a tribal political and a civic political system and how one doesn’t just hop from one to the next as if going through a sliding door?
Quelling the insurgency? That will never, completely, happen.
After all, can one quell the mindlessness of the postmodernists – i.e., the big city liberals and their sophistry? No, postmodern relativism and their ignorance of the realities of different economic and political modes – will always be around. And, these types will always think that the Best Solution is a top-down socialist welfare state gov’t.
So- how about answering some questions bcl. So far, you have never, ever, answered any of mine, or of others.
BCL,
Thanks, most opponents of the involvement hide behind the questions. So I will say thanks for your answers…I wouldnt say that they are the answers but they are answers, and I dont know if they were answers to the questions asked.
Lets take #1 for example
1) Should the afghani people be allowed to fend for themselves so thay can be retalibaized…your answer is we have only replaced them with warlords and a puppet…So are you saying that Karzai wasnt elected? I dont remember their being anything near a free election for naji bulla (sp?) the soviet strong man. Would Karzai survive without their being US, Canadian and other military power on the ground…no….does that make him the equivalent of a soviet installed dictator??? Missing something there.
What has happened is the Taliban have been overthrown (do you have any issue with that?) and the country IS in a power struggle. This starts to cut to what does “victory” look like.
Victory for who…Canada…I dont think canada is in there for victory, our participation is tactical toward a startegic goal. We are there for a time frame to contribute to the larger goal of Afghani stability and self reliance in a democratic form. That is the home run…Failure, well failure is retalibanization and/or afghanistan becoming a narco criminal state that becomes a home for organizations that do do harm to us and our allies.
Is Canada supposed to have 2,500 troops on the ground at all times to gain the victory or avoid failure…no….but we will likely be involved in this mission on and off till it is done, i.e. victory. Please highlight the alternative.
I believe this addresses 2) as well.
You really didnt define victory in other circumstances….what did victory look like in Bosnia….did we “win” there? Or per my last question, which you did not answer, should Canada never deploy troops abroad?
re Pakistan, are you saying we should go into Pakistan? or are you saying it is a childrens crusade because we cant do what is required therefore we shouldnt be there at all? Just looking for clarification.
So we are failing their now? Try reading stuff from Peter Bergen, an experienced observer of iraq and afghanistan. He doesnt like what is going on in Iraq but calls afghanistan a qualified success to date, still far to go.
So I think I defined Victory of the mission and our contribution to it, being a part of the mission. I agree, we may not be able to sustain our presence past our current committment. All that means is the nature of the committment changes not the our participation.
The last two questions remain unanswered…are any casulaties considered failure? And once again should we ever deploy outside our border?
I believe we were correct not to participate in the Iraq mission..quite frankly the US didnt need our help to overthrow Saddam. Afghanistan was and is a different story. They housed and provided succor to the group that attacked an ally, along with being a repressive regime. The regime got what they deserved and it would be irresponsible of Canada, the US and all those who DID participate in that war (un sanctioned etc etc etc etc) to let it slip back into what it was. For our own sake and for the sake of the Afghani people.
BCL I belive you mean well, and the issue should be clearly understood. The last government tried to keep it hidden. The current government is at least standing in full and clear support of the 2500 Canadian citizens that are in harms way.
If you choose to oppose the mission fine but state it clearly rather than relying on process questions like those you asked.
ET…read my post again, major sarcasm involved. So to be clear I am not setting this up as a sanctimonious comparison to the US. IT is more that criticizers, Mooreites, generally make the argument as I jokingly did. Of course those stories exist on the US soldiers blogs. Lots of good people involved. I hope that clarifies things.
Butcher re curling. Enjoy the game, just probably doesnt belong in the olympics….but hey while it is there, go canada go.
Canadian Sentinel – I agree with a lot, but not all of what you’ve said against the leftist relativism and sophistry.
But you wrote: – Then there’s the adamant atheism that actually seems to have become a religion in and of itself and their culture of self-harm, drug-induced stupidity and apathy, serial fornication in the face of AIDS and other STDs, their apparent nihilism…”
I’m an atheist. All of the above is simply untrue. Atheism is NOT a religion (which is faith based). Atheism is a rejection of faith-based ideologies. And most certainly, your attempt to link atheism, which is a rejection of metaphysical causality – with ‘self-harm’, with ‘drugs’, with stupidity, with apathy, with ‘serial fornication’, with nihilism’ – is not merely a total fabrication but is really ignorant.
I’m an atheist. Again, atheism means a rejection of metaphysical causality. I don’t accept that some metaphysical force caused/causes the universe. I’m a scientist; I deal with empirical, observable facts, with hypotheses that are open to experiment and question, and with the search for physical, biological and social causality. Not meta-physical causes.
And, I most certainly don’t have any of the ‘attributes’ which you define as indicative of atheism (drugs, serial sexuality, stupidity, apathy and so on). Sorry – but there is absolutely no way that you can define atheism as also having those values/attributes.
No offence intended, ET. I should apparently have put them into separate paragraphs.
But I meant that some atheists are so adamant about their atheism that they seem to believe that atheism is “better than” theism, almost sounding like religious fanatics themselves. I wasn’t referring to yourself. I was referring to leftists who go nuts with the anti-religion thing.
As for the other stuff, I never meant to link atheism to it. At all.
I guess it’s an error of writing I made there. A miscommunication that led to a misunderstanding.
Sorry I caused you to think I was doing that.
Thanks, Stephen. I didn’t catch the sarcasm – my apologies. I wondered, because you other posts were so good…that I couldn’t understand the point of ‘that post’.
The ‘answers’ that bcl gave, weren’t answers, just more unsubstantiated opinions. I’d be interested to see if he/she? can answer questions, or is it always and only, subjective and unsubstantiated opinions.
Canadian Sentinel & Theodore Dalrymple have it right.
The barbarians are at the gates.
The trojan horses of multiculturalism, political correctness, feminism, enviromentalism, Islamist terrorists, and their left liberal allies are within the city.
The battle for civilization is joined.
Civilization or barbarism? That is the choice.
Paganism or enlightenment? That is the choice. +
The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris
Theodore Dalrymple
Intro:
Everyone knows la douce France: the France of wonderful food and wine, beautiful landscapes, splendid ch�teaux and cathedrals. More tourists (60 million a year) visit France than any country in the world by far. Indeed, the Germans have a saying, not altogether reassuring for the French: �to live as God in France.� Half a million Britons have bought second homes there; many of them bore their friends back home with how they order these things better in France.
But there is another growing, and much less reassuring, side to France. I go to Paris about four times a year and thus have a sense of the evolving preoccupations of the French middle classes. A few years ago it was schools: the much vaunted French educational system was falling apart; illiteracy was rising; children were leaving school as ignorant as they entered, and much worse-behaved. For the last couple of years, though, it has been crime: l�ins�curit�, les violences urbaines, les incivilit�s. Everyone has a tale to tell, and no dinner party is complete without a horrifying story. Every crime, one senses, means a vote for Le Pen or whoever replaces him.
I first saw l�ins�curit� for myself about eight months ago. It was just off the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in a neighborhood where a tolerably spacious apartment would cost $1 million. Three youths�Rumanians�were attempting quite openly to break into a parking meter with large screwdrivers to steal the coins. It was four o�clock in the afternoon; the sidewalks were crowded, and … +
http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_the_barbarians.html
I have not been on for awhile & i see things have not changed.
–BCL.. people like you make me sick, your nothing but a Hypocryt, your Liberal government made that decission, not the current gov’t.
and as usual when they cry wolf where are they.
Did you complain about Bosnia,Cyprus, Korea….
you show no respect at all to our men & woman in uniform, you just sit in your little cozy world.
Just remember on the 11th day 11month do a favor for all veteran’s, Just stay the hell at home & remember your freedom..
They do not need disrepectfull %^***#$(**$0 like you there..
…. Look at the faces, the kids are smiling, most likely the first time in years… that’s what it is all about.. Freedom..
I think it’s about the stuff they’re getting, actually. Heh. They’re kids, after all.
Still waiting for bcl to answer some questions. I’ve posed specific questions; so has Stephen.
Well, bcl – can you handle specifics, or are you someone who lives in a Platonic Fictional Cave and has no grasp of reality whatsoever, who lives only within his/her own self-made images and is unable to deal with reality?
I’m a big city person; and I’m a real liberal, in the classic sense of pro-individual, against big government, pro-reason, pro-objective reality and pro-personal responsibility.
So, bcl – are you real or only a shadow in a Platonic Cave? How about answering some questions.
I wouldn’t hold my breath wrt BCL, ET. BCL is, after all, one of those leftists who only utters what they’ve been told and cannot respond to rational inquiries as have been made above.
Often, leftists demonstrate little human intelligence and just sound like a computer application responding to keywords, often providing irrelevant garbage.
I suspect that bcl is just a poser…a parrot…a contrarian. Poses for the camera, talks without substance to hear “itself” (I always assumed bcl was a he, but Kate says she), and immediately and without thought takes exactly the opposite point of view or opinion of that posed by anyone “it” doesn’t like.
I suspect if a Conservative were to say “the sky is blue”, bcl would retort that “most Canadians KNOW that the sky actually has no colour”. Mindless contrarian drivel. So, ET, Sentinel, Stephen, et al, I suspect your wait will be a long, unfulfilled one.
Yo Kate, I guess a google search of “Canada Kandahar” turns up your blog topspot. You should be sending me money.
Since BCL is now a “she” I guess that rules out a swift kick in the nuts ever serving any purpose.
Although the wise Old Squid did have a real common sense solution a few months back.
I’d have to let Squid post that one himself cause I’m pretty sure I couldnt do it justice.
BCL, as a Canadian soldier who just lost another 4 brothers in arms, I cordially invite you out for a drink. Lets discuss politics and patriotism, and how you get to live in a great country safe and free because of the actions of other brave patriotic individuals who give their lives so sleezeball left wing moonbat liberals like you can armchair quarterback our nation policy. When was the last time (if ever) you out your sorry ass on the line for this country you piece of crap? Sorry folks, but I have had enough of this piece of shite!
BCL:
I’m not going to call you names; frankly, if one believes in free speech, which I do, then it follows that one is going to hear things that are disagreeable. But I don’t agree with what you said about our presence in Afstan.
Quite apart from providing safety and security, and the mission of going after the taliban/terrorists, the mere fact that our soldiers are interracting with the afgans, especially the children, just has to be sowing some positive results. I have a friend who was a child in Holland when the Canadian troops liberated her town. It left a lasting impression on her, even though she was so young at the time. In a region filled with so much ignorance and hate, that alone has to be a postive development for the future. Another positive aspect of our mission there is the increasing number of Afgan exiles who are leaving Canada to return, at least temporarily, to Afstan.
That said, I’m glad that there were few persons in Canada with your views during WWII; had that been the case, I’m sure the world would look quite a bit different than it does today, and that would not be a good thing.
What would happen if we just igored what bcl has to say? I don’t like excluding people–in fact, I’ve always befriended underdogs and people at the margins of any group–but methinks bcl needs to be marginalized…
If the posters at SDA stop feeding her, maybe she’ll look somewhere else for food.
It is good to see photos of our soldiers going about their business in Kandahar. They must be very uncomfortable in all that gear in those temperatures. I’m very sad that four Canadian soldiers died today. “Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord; And may light perpetual shine upon them.”
There is always a cost to freedom and if we are unwilling to die for anything, if there is nothing worth dying for, then what are we living for? If it’s just for our own comfort and gratification, then we’re going to die anyway, because when you lose your soul, when you lose any sense of being your brother’s/sister’s keeper, then you’re engaged in a living death, whether you are aware of it or not.
I agree with posts above, that casualties do not equal failure. The equivalent of failure is to do nothing in the face of Evil, to stand by and watch those who need help fend for themselves without the resources to do so. I am very happy that Canada has opted not to do this–and I’m even happier that we now have a government in place which is principled and courageous and, along with many of us, is saying to the narcissistic, nihilistic, hedonistic lovers-of-themselves-and-that’s-all: “Enough is enough.”
To stand on guard for the freedom of one’s own country by standing on guard for the freedoms of others is a costly enterprise. But it’s one that if not engaged in, has a higher price: serfdom and Dhimmitude.
bcl –
No, you can’t get out of being responsible, even if the responsibility is only to justify and corroborate what YOU, yourself, wrote.
You can’t get out of responsibility by now, trying to praise yourself as having ‘brought more readers/posters’ to Kate’s blog.
That’s due to her, her selection of topics, and her writing.
You aren’t responsible for bringing bloggers to Kate’s blog. Your self-praise is empty – and notice, again, all you focus on is your own self-defined image.
That’s like saying that we should praise the 9/11 bombers because they brought a huge audience to the TV news channels that day.
Again, be responsible for what you say. Answer the questions about what you wrote.
NKOTB: Yours is probably the best approach, however, I suspect that she (?) will just continue to get shriller and shriller demanding attention. I’m not sure we could hold back on commenting.
As the saying goes (although the sentiment is not really appropriate) “children should be seen but not heard”. In a blog, seeing is equivalent to hearing…unless her(?) comments are just posted as blanks. I take it you can’t do that, can you, Kate? Otherwise, banishment would be the most practical (though not most democratic) solution.
I am making a commitment to never respond to another of bcl’s posts. What’s the point in trying to have a conversation with someone who won’t honourably enter into a debate? So, she gets shrill? Plug your ears and hold your nose.
Below, a statement from the PMO about the death of four Canadian soldiers in Kandahar:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/
April 22, 2006
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement today, upon learning four Canadian soldiers were killed when their armoured G-Wagon was struck by a roadside bomb near the Gumbad platoon house at about 7:30 a.m. Kandahar time this morning.
�This morning, I learned that four Canadian soldiers had made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. They were Corporal Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell, Lieutenant William Turner and a forth soldier whose family has requested he not yet be named. All died serving their country.
�These men were working to bring security, democracy, self-sufficiency and prosperity to the Afghan people and to protect Canadians’ national and collective security. We will not forget their selfless contribution to Canada.
�On behalf of all Canadians, I extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and co-workers of these four brave men. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
�Canada�s mission in Afghanistan faces significant risks such as this daily. I am proud of the work that is being done there, and the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to do it.�
Quoting from the official history of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
http://www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/Official_Histories/CEF_e.PDF
“Official post-war calculations of Canadian killed,wounded and missing, including casualties from gas, show a total of 18 officers and 262 other ranks for the final two days of operations.”
That’s right. Almost three hundred casualties in the final 48 hours of a brutal war, from a Canada that had one third of it’s present day population. This is not to belittle the sacrifice of those that have fallen, in that war or in Afghanistan; it is merely to say that Canadians today need to get a little perspective when the CBC blithers about “mounting casualties”.
Pond life like BigCityGlib have the nerve to make war into a partisan issue, supporting it when the Liberals commit to it, and opposing it when the Conservatives continue the EXISTING commitment. War should NEVER be a political football; it’s just too serious for that. I for one am truly proud to see Canadians back on the international stage, standing up for what is right. I hope BigCityGlib and the CBC will take the time to research the Canadian led missions to Rwanda and Congo in the nineties, and consider what a totally unacceptable job the Liberals did, putting Canadian troops in harms way for the sake of optics and then wriggling through the backrooms of the UN to ensure that the missions would fail, but with zero Canadian casualties. These are the antics that have cost Canada dearly on the world stage. It is refreshing to see that we have a government that appreciates that sending troops to a war zone is inherently dangerous. To do so with the intent of hamstringing the mission to limit casualties would be a dissservice to everyone involved.
Sometimes, sanctimoneous carping from the sidelines isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to take some risks.
Canadian Sentinel (CS) and ET: I’ve appreciated both your posts over the long run. However, CS, I’m dismayed by your total capitulation to ET’s fallacious reasoning re the negative fallout of what has become, in effect, in Canada, state-sponsored atheism.
CS, you wrote,” Then there’s the adamant atheism that actually seems to have become a religion in and of itself and their [sic] culture of self-harm, drug-induced stupidity and apathy, serial fornication in the face of AIDS and other STDs, their apparent nihilism…” Then ET, a confessed atheist, claimed–and I believe him–that he doesn’t subscribe to this kind of behaviour. Then, CS, you said, in effect, “OK, I didn’t mean it”.
As far as I’m concerned, you’re both right and wrong. There is, indeed, a culture of atheism–scientist ET, we can both play this card: Like the existence of God, there’e no proof, either, of His non-existence. The idea that no religion (or no religion at all) trumps any individual’s idea of what they are or not, de facto, diminishes religion to meaning all and nothing, which is, of course, a complete contradiction. This sophistry has allowed multiculturalism (egalitarianism) and political correctness to become the new “religion” of the West.
Believe me, as a self-censoring Christian–which I didn’t have to be ten years ago in order to keep friends and my job–the coerciveness of this ideology has become oppressive. Tell me and others like me that Canada’s still a free country. ET, as a “classical liberal”, you should be very concerned about the state’s heavy handedness re non-conformists–usually Christians, e.g., Bishop Henry, Scott Brockie, Chris Kempling, Ezra Levant (not) et al.–who have been hauled before Canada’s version of the kangaroo court, e.g., the Human Rights (sic) Commissions. CS, the culture you describe has been coined–by Pope John Paul II–the “Culture of Death” It is indeed.
This “Culture of Death”, which sees hedonism– putting oneself and one’s pleasures–before all other imperatives, is alive and well in Canada. The truncated and juvenile thinking of individuals spawned by this culture–and they are becoming a critical mass of the population–do not understand sacrifice or deferred gratification. (I hand it to our Muslim enemies: They understand both these concepts, which, if we don’t wake up and smarten up, may very well be our downfall.)
The “white feather” crowd, populated by the likes of bcl–not ET, though the philosophy that he (and liberal Christianity) subscribe to incubates such types–are constitutionally unable to understand Canada’s investment in the Middle East. They can’t perceive–has one noticed how atrophied their imaginations are?–that some losses now will prevent far greater ones–such as living in dhimmitude–later on. (“What’s ‘later on’ and why should I worry about it?” I can hear them saying.) This lack of imagination renders it impossible for them to spare any compassion or concern for future generations–or even for themselves a decade or two down the line. Supporting our troops through thick and thin just isn’t a concept these navel gazers are capable of wrapping their myopic little brains around. How sad, and possibly tragic, this is for all of us.
Thanks, CS and ET, for your thoughtful posts. God bless Canada and our brave troops.
Kate, Once again I really appreciate your sharing the news from Afghanistan. My son is there still and I appreciate any info on the situation that is as personalized as the author of this one sent. Please share my thanks with him.
lookout – just a few points on your post. Thanks for your comments.
1) The assertion that there is no proof of god’s existence, and also, no proof of his non-existence, might mean as a result, that ‘god DOES exist’. This is an ancient argument but is without substance.
After all, I can’t claim that ‘unicorns exist’ – and base my proof not on the fact that there is no proof that unicorns exist, but that there is no proof that they don’t exist’ (in some hidden Harry Potter style rainforest).
2) You said: “The idea that no religion (or no religion at all) trumps any individual’s idea of what they are or not, de facto, diminishes religion to meaning all and nothing, which is, of course, a complete contradiction.”
Sorry- but I simply can’t figure out what the above means.
3) I confine the definition of atheism to mean only a rejection of a belief in metaphysical causality. Period. Therefore, it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with multiculuralism, with relativism.
Atheism, which is a rejection of metaphysical causality, doesn’t lead one to consider that ‘all that lives is equal to each other’. There is NO way that the first axiom (no metaphysical causality) leads to the second axiom (full equality of all physical actualities). I certainly don’t think that a single cell paramecium is functionally equal to a complex biological organism. I don’t equate the information content and adaptive capacities of a 3,000 member clan, operating within a sustenance economy, to that of an industrial society. etc, etc.
You seem to be implying that a belief in a metaphysical causality ensures that one doesn’t come to these relatavist and false conclusions. I don’t think there is any such link. A belief in a metaphysical causality CAN, however, lead you to other types of false beliefs, such as racism, such as ‘aliens having populated the earth’ and so on.
4) As a classical liberal, I am indeed very concerned about Canada’s multicultural policy, which I consider is an outrage, which acts against freedom, because it not merely balkanizes groups into isolate, self-identifying modes, but, it refuses to evaluate them. And, lifestyles are NOT equal. I am also against our Charter of Rights, which I consider a deeply flawed instrument – and which supports this multiculturalism.
5) And I’ve posted elsewhere against the HRC, which have nothing to do with human rights, which have far exceeded their original mandate – which only had to do with equal treatment in housing, employment and services. Now, HRC have moved into the totally subjective zone of political correctness; now, they deal with subjective feelings, and are all about privileging special interest group agendas. They should be completely outlawed; there is no longer any need for their original mandate, and their current actions are repressive.
6)I very much agree with your description of a ‘lack of imagination’. Perfect. You know, humans have this very special quality- of reasoning, which includes that ability to ‘imagine’, to ‘hypothesize’…about WHat IF… People like bcl don’t hypothesize or imagine about ‘what if’…and, as you say, they live simply within themselves. That’s why I define them as trapped within the false self-defined images of Plato’s Cave.
Thanks for your post.
Lookout wrote: ” Then, CS, you said, in effect, “OK, I didn’t mean it”.
Actually, Lookout, it was a *writing error* I had made, and I pointed it out, rather than capitulated.
Anyone can make an error in the construction of a sentence and then overlook it in the proofreading preview. It’s a brainfart.
May I try again: although I did have the word “atheism” and the other things within the same sentence, and separated by an “and”, it wasn’t my intention to imply that atheists necessarily are about any of the other things. I really meant to refer to leftists, who often display many of the mentioned characteristics, although the characteristics must be understood as being independent rather than mutually inclusive. Though a leftist who practices some weird, harmful stuff can be an atheist, it doesn’t follow that an atheist will be a practitioner of any of the weird stuff any more than would a Christian. And I’m sure there are some stupid leftists who nevertheless live clean lives and take care of themselves. Ah, well, I think you’ll get my meaning ok by now.
And I actually don’t have a problem with folks who don’t believe in a deity. Far from it… I only have a problem with those of them who wish to actually impose their atheism upon others as the way things must be. These atheist-supremacist folks are intolerant of people of faith and that is a problem in a “tolerant” society.
This aside, I think we’re (myself, ET, Lookout and others) in concurrence that the leftists don’t understand why we’re in Afghanistan and how we came to be free in the first place.
Posted by: “lefties lose again”
And you can include the media in that group of lefties too. Even this article trashes Afghanistan as “controversial”, and uses bogus statistic to hype up the body count figures upon which they’re so fixated.
—————————————
Recruits flock to join military
Seeking good pay, adventure
Published: Saturday, April 22, 2006
Despite a controversial mission in Afghanistan and the highly publicized loss of Canadian lives, Canada’s Armed Forces are exceeding recruitment targets as people come in search of high pay and big adventure, according to recruiters.
Capt. Holly Brown of the Canadian Forces Recruitment Group, headquartered at CFB Borden, said that success has come in the face of advertising embargoes on government agencies during the Gomery inquiry and federal election.
“We exceeded our targets this year and that was without being able to advertise,” she said. “I think Canadians are patriotic people. The young people we’re seeing come in have that patriotism and want to get there and change the world.”
As of April 1, the Armed Forces had 63,000 regular forces and 23,000 people in primary reserves.
In the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2006 – the first of a five-year recruitment drive – Brown said more than 5,800 people signed up for full time regular service in Canada, surpassing the target of 5,500. + more
http://www.voy.com/178771/1508.html