Large Fierce Mammal

The involvement of Canada’s military services in the open warfare that has flourished since the events of 11 September 2001 has led to an unsurprising and historically inevitable outcome: Healthy people are dispatched on the mission. Some come back fine, some die before the end of their tour, while still others come back broken. Wars have always worked that way.

For a long time, culminating in “unification”; i. e., the dissolution of the Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force into one body called “The Canadian Armed Forces” with its members wearing a generic green uniform bearing branch specific insignia; our politicians liked to gloss over the purpose of Canada’s military by focusing on it as a resource tailored to humanitarian missions instead of war fighting. Essentially, first responders to any international 911 call; ever ready to head off to trouble spots afflicted with any kind of shit storm running the full spectrum from bestiality to unsportsmanlike conduct.

The final phase of this travesty came to pass during the tenure of Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau whose very liberal philosophy of National government held Canada to have evolved beyond any need for war fighting, and that defence budgets were best spent setting a noble example for the rest of the world to follow. In this pursuit, who needed an Army, a Navy, or an Air Force as separate entities with all their pesky traditions and independent command structures when what the nation really needed was a glorified, cut rate, under respected police department? After all, if Canada were to ever come under attack, it would inevitably fall within the scope of all those expensive studies of Cold War Soviet military doctrine, therefore over the North Pole, and if Canada fell, the United States would be next, so they’d HAVE to come to our aid. Why should Canada pay for its defence when those south of the border have already been investing in the defence of North America? Yes well, Mr. Trudeau had his charms, but also had his head firmly lodged up his ass in more than a few matters of national defence.

Now I know there will be some who will say I’m over simplifying that phase of Canadian history, and to those I would suggest that you refer to the title of this piece. Moving on, this misguided experiment to prove history meaningless persisted until 16 August 2011 when:

“… the three environmental commands of the Canadian Armed Forces were renamed to reflect the names of the original historical armed services. Air Command was changed to the Royal Canadian Air Force; Maritime Command was changed to the Royal Canadian Navy; and Land Force Command was changed to the Canadian Army. The government made the changes to align Canada with other key Commonwealth countries whose militaries use the royal designation, and to indicate that it respected Canada’s military heritage.[5][6]

“The unified command structure of the Canadian Armed Forces was not altered by this change. Unlike the situation prior to 1968 where the services existed as separate legal entities, the current Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force have no separate legal status and continue to exist as elements of the Canadian Armed Forces.” ~ Unification of the Canadian Armed Forces

Up to that point though, we didn’t send the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force anywhere to do anything. We sent “aid” in the form of ships, aircraft, and personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces! We didn’t have Soldiers, Sailors, or Airmen; we had “Peacekeepers”, to the point where the blue UN beret became confused in the minds of Canadians as an integral part of Canadian military uniforms.

Since the return to distinct forces, we now once again have the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, making our nomenclature comparable to that of other Commonwealth militaries. Let this not be seen as a return to days of yore, but at least most Canadians don’t expect a Canadian Soldier shooting someone to come hand in hand with building a school and a hospital for the dead miscreant’s relatives the same afternoon.

I”d like to pause for a moment, Goode Reader, to ensure that you understand I am not, in any way, casting doubt on the members of our military who answer the call to duty, then or at any other time. Sugar coating their travails though politicians, then or now, may do or have done in the past, all you need do is read retired Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire’s excellent chronicle, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, to get the point of how decidedly UN-benign was the experience of Canadian Peacekeepers, and the wondrous new world that could be wrought under the blue beret:

“… LGen Dallaire was appointed Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) prior to and during the 1994 genocide.  LGen Dallaire provided the United Nations with information about the planned massacre, which ultimately took more than 800,000 lives in less than 100 days yet permission to intervene was denied and the UN withdrew its peacekeeping forces.  LGen Dallaire, along with a small contingent of Ghanaian soldiers and military observers, disobeyed the command to withdraw and remained in Rwanda to fulfill their ethical obligation to protect those who sought refuge with the UN forces.

“His courage and leadership during this mission earned him the Meritorious Service Cross, the United States Legion of Merit, the Aegis Award on Genocide Prevention, and the affection and admiration of people around the globe.  His defiant dedication to humanity during that mission is well-documented (e.g. The Last Just Man, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, The Lion, The Fox, and The Eagle), as are the personal consequences he continues to suffer and his subsequent commitment to fellow victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.” ~ Official website of LGen Roméo Dallaire

A different time. A different government. A new deployment, this time a “non-combat training mission” in support of Iraqi forces that will go toe to toe with the dread forces of ISIS. Shots fired, Canadian soldiers do what they are trained and equipped to do – kill people and break things – and this phenomenally unprecedented development sparks debate in Parliament, leading to Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking these words:

“This is a robust mission, we’re there to make those guys effective so they can take on the Islamic State and deal with them …

“If those guys fire at us, we’re going to fire back and we’re going to kill them, just like those guys did — and we’re very proud of them.”

I’m going to stop at the starting gate that marks the point where commentary uttered by Stephen Harper, or any politician, that commingles himself in any “us” that includes soldiers, and leave that for an unavoidable other day. What I’m going to do now is redirect your attention, Goode Reader, to something I said earlier; specifically, my opening sentence:

The involvement of Canada’s military services in the open warfare that has flourished since the events of 11 September 2001 has led to an unsurprising and historically inevitable outcome: Healthy people are dispatched on the mission. Some come back fine, some die before the end of their tour, while still others come back broken. Wars have always worked that way.

If Mr. Harper, as the first and foremost spokesman for the Government of Canada, can speak the word “proud”; hold it forth as being descriptive of his feelings toward Canadian soldiers; and do that without gagging or being hit by lightning, then to quote Kipling, “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!” Because when Canadian soldiers return from deployment, and look to their former employer for the entitlements they have earned and have every reason to expect, the Harper government has a funny way of showing its pride.

I’ll be wrapping this up by turning the final comments over to the inimitable Rick Mercer. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t give thanks to all that’s Holy that the Dread Prophet Rick saw fit to spring forth from The Rock (AKA Newfoundland) to deliver his Truth. A feature of his television show, Rick Mercer Report, is the famous Rick Mercer Rant, and today I’m going to give the floor to one of those. Listen now to Rick Mercer on Veterans and their treatment in the face of Canadian bureaucracy. Oh, and while you watch and listen, remember this – I’m not done.