Flit

October 28, 2008

Yes, consider that

"Consider that dance of wolves, the ferocious ballet of battered predators sniffing at each other, detecting the scent of death on their neighbors, coveting their remains; consider the tango of white-hot hate that has been discreetly called the 'drying up of interbank credit'." --Bernard Henri-Levy

I may be wrong, but I think that's going to be funny even when I get back to 'civilization' permanently. Preserved for posterity.

September 01, 2008

It's recognized that I have a funny sense of fun

Well, in case anyone comes back here wondering why it's been so quiet, I suppose it's time I let them in on what it is I've been up to.

Sometime in the next few weeks I'll be leaving to take up a position with the Canadian Forces mission in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. There I'll be working with the Afghan national security forces upon which so much of any hope for that country now rests.

I've been with the team training for this job since February. I'm sure no military personnel ever feel fully ready for anything, but it's fair to say we've grown into a cohesive unit under excellent leadership, and I really believe we're going to be able to further the progress that previous teams have already made in the military mentoring realm.

Without going into specifics, my job is not wholly different from that of the late Maj. Andrew Olmsted's in Iraq, whose writing I enjoyed and respected right up to his untimely death earlier this year. With a little bit of luck I'll enjoy the return home that he never could. But that's the thing about our commitments to Afghanistan, and the U.S.'s to Iraq: there's enough work for everybody to get a turn. Frequently more than once. And were I not to take this posting, someone whose already had their trial by fire would likely be going back for another round, while I sat it out. Pass.

I have no deep-seated love for the Afghan people, although I'm sure I'm at risk of developing one, given enough exposure. I am also mindful of the criticism that a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan frees up an American to go to a war in Iraq that my country and I cannot support. But I do believe that honor demands that Canada live up to the commitments our leaders have made to the world, through such devices as the Afghanistan Compact, just as honor demands that I live up to the commitments I made to the Crown when I took an officer's commission.

But even if honor were not in play, collective self-preservation would be, and a return of Afghanistan to its pre-2001 state would be the surest path to another 2001-style attack. I knew that day in September that sooner or later my deployment somewhere would be the inevitable consequence... it's only a surprise to me it's taken this long. But like I said, everybody gets a turn this time.

I also believe Afghanistan is the latest in the long line of displays of that strange Canadian altruistic militarism that continues to win us the respect of our allies and enemies. Years from now, when hopefully I'm bouncing grandkids on worn-out knees, I believe the Afghan War will have only reinforced the three basic truths about the Canadian military that every schoolchild should have learned: that man for man, Canadians are as good as any soldiers in the world; that we have never fought on the losing side, and that we have never fought on the wrong side, either. No other country in the world can claim that tradition. That's what makes us peacekeepers to be respected, as well as warriors.

It has taken a small army of civilian friends and supporters to get me here, many of whom I love very dearly. I know that in at least some cases their support has been more out of respect for my own personal desires and needs, rather than support for our government's position. I thank them for that. It is only my deep respect for their own privacy that, as always, prevents me from listing them here. I do hope they know who they are, and how much I love each of them.

I will write if and when I can... need to see the lay of the ground first... either here or through comments on the blogs of friends, or emails. With luck in a little over half a year my team and I will all return, a little wiser perhaps, a little dustier definitely, and all other things being equal maybe I will have something more interesting and valuable to say in this space, about Afghanistan and other things. Until then, hasta la vista, companeros. Y vayan con Dios.

August 31, 2008

Palin photo links

Without passing judgment on what appears at first glance to be one of those extraordinary claims requiring something something, this did seem to describe at the very least some very odd delivery day behaviour on the part of America's latest prominent public figure and her physician, at least as it's viewed in this extended household (where, your correspondent excepted, not everyone is entirely unacquainted with childbirth). Links to photo evidence below the fold.

UPDATE: The Times weighs in.

Continue reading "Palin photo links"

August 28, 2008

A couple things that need saying

(Post to be edited as I think of addenda.)

Before I wander off (see post above), a couple things that need saying.

Americans, seriously, if you don't elect Obama this fall your country will deserve the worst that history's luck can offer. He's the kind of leader that comes along maybe once in a generation. You may not agree with every position in his platform, and he would have to be superhuman to live up to the promise he's displayed, but sometimes you really need to opt for the man of the times over regular human mediocrity. This is that moment.

If Governor-General Jean were to go all King-Byng and ask Dion-Layton to form a government should the PM pull the plug this week, rather than put Canadians into yet another unwanted election, I would personally have no problem with that.

Aug. 29 update: The Palin VP pick may only demonstrate once again the fundamental contempt the Republican Party holds the average American voter in (the "look at all the stupid people falling for a celebrity" attack line being heretofore the most obvious exemplar) but all it does for me is remind me of that classic 1980s Doonesbury punchline on the occasion of a previous VP pick, "It's, it's an Irish setter... no, it's Senator Dan Quayle!" Remembering of course that it was none other than John McCain himself who said on the occasion of the Quayle pick, "I can't believe a guy that handsome wouldn't have some impact." Second time as farce, etc.

Aug. 30: I want to live in a Canada that includes both Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, regardless of what they might say about Muslims, and hell, even the Rev. Stephen Boissoin, too. I demand the freedom to read, if I choose, whatever hateful words people wish to write, on any subject. I reject all efforts by our non-elected "human rights commissions" to limit Canadians' fundamental right of free speech. Whatever other mediating influence they might wish to exert on our society, in the area of work grievances, etc., speech choice cannot ever be the realm of the censorcrats in a free society.

(As an perhaps unnecessary addendum to the above, I do support those self-regulating industry efforts, such as the MPAA's, to label potentially offensive content, when aimed at the average consumer. People have a right to know whether a movie will give their kids nightmares before they take them, or a computer game will mess with their heads before they view it. Description is not censorship. Neither, for that matter, is the withdrawal of government funding from art that voters might find distasteful. But I digress.)

July 31, 2008

Who's watching?

I want to note here for posterity that, at first glance I, too, feel the Watchmen trailer is extremely promising, speaking as a fan of the source. We'll see come March. But the Pumpkins theme was an inspired choice, musically, if nothing else. But then director Zack Snyder has already demonstrated the ability to stitch together a must-see trailer (300). Must-see movie, well, I can dream.

UPDATE: Yahtzee falls for the hype, as well, I see.

July 18, 2008

Best. Hockey Song. Ever.

I haven't laughed this hard in weeks. Awesome.

June 14, 2008

Prison break

Well, that's one way to close the Afghan detainee file.

Reports that Canadian law professor Amir Attaran has criticized the Taliban for not filling out the 1,005 copies of prisoner release paperwork correctly are, unfortunately, completely untrue.

June 07, 2008

Alberta fascism

What Levant said. I don't believe the values a lot of Albertans fought and died for in the wars are very evident in that province anymore. In Canada, it seems, the government can tell you what you must think. Well, here's what I'm thinking: fire them all.

June 01, 2008

In the company of intelligence

"There's never been a debate in Canada that I am aware of on running an intelligence company out of the Canadian Forces."

--NDP defence critic Dawn Black.

What Colby said. For the record, last time I looked there were 4 military intelligence companies in the Canadian Forces: 2 (Toronto), 3 (Halifax), 4 (Montreal), and 6 (Western Canada). All 4 have been pushing a steady stream of reservists overseas for the Afghanistan mission, as they did for other missions before.

Perhaps the reason that Ms. Black doesn't recall a debate being held on the establishment of organizations specifically called "intelligence companies" was because that momentous event occurred in 1948. Obviously, of course, there was a Canadian Intelligence Corps long before that, though... as Romeo Sabourin or Frank Pickersgill could have told her, if they had not, unfortunately, been executed in Buchenwald.

March 31, 2008

CHRC: an appalling abuse of authority

I'm with Lorne Gunter. When the government agency taps into an unknowing citizen's wireless network to cover their tracks, they've gone far, far too far. If they had no problem implicating one innocent Canadian in the posting of anti-Semitic remarks, they'd have no problem entrapping any one of us in like fashion. In Canada, "human rights" commissions have now become one of the greatest enemies our human rights now face. Shut them down.

February 05, 2008

No longer a republic

Back when people (like me) were saying the U.S. should follow its Constitution and declare war before invading Iraq, the inevitable response from war backers was that if Congress didn't want the war, it didn't have to fund it.

I see the creeping erosion of American liberty has now reached the point where Congress now can't do that, either.

So, how are those dictatorial primaries coming along?

February 04, 2008

A good start?

Alex Neve and Jason Gratl, in the Globe online today, arguing why Afghanistan's jailers need to be held to Canadian Charter of Rights standards:

"Does this mean that Canada has to take over the justice system in Afghanistan and start... shipping over lawyers? Clearly not."

Pity.

(The whole piece, like Neve, et al's entire argument, is a massive exercise in question-begging. They are not, in fact arguing in court that prisoners of Canadians, while still in Canadian military custody, "cannot be treated in ways that expose them to serious human-rights violations such as torture, arbitrary detention or 'disappearance.'" No Canadian would argue with that. No, they're arguing that Canadian soldiers abroad can only turn over any detainees they have to a system with comparable individual legal protections to Canada's, or face prosecution at home. Which is a case that, if won in court, would basically preclude almost all Canadian peace enforcement missions or peacekeeping, of any kind. You think we had our own jails in Cyprus or Suez? Neve is really arguing that, contra Bono, the world does not, in fact, need more Canada, regardless of whatever future massive human rights violations might seem to warrant Canadian military intervention, because we can't trust the jails of any country that might benefit from that kind of presence. It is an argument for just staying home and clucking instead, even if Neve and Amnesty don't want to cop to it.)

February 03, 2008

Afstan vs East Timor: a comparison

The NDP leader is saying the Afghanistan mission should be more like the UN mission in East Timor. The Torch says much of what needs to be said about that. A couple more things it misses.

I'm sure Layton wasn't actually thinking of the 2005-06 crisis that occurred after the UN pulled out for the second time, apparently prematurely, which has resulted in 1,000 soldiers from New Zealand and Australia being redeployed to the country (for a Timorese population of 900,000, those are roughly equivalent per capita numbers to NATO's in Afghanistan, interestingly enough). No, he was certainly peering back through rose-coloured glasses at the independence movement of the 1990s, and the foreign support for those Timorese freedom fighters.

Only one thing. The UN sort of failed there, too. The UNAMET mission in 1999, set up to oversee a peaceful referendum that everyone expected would result in independence, was driven out of Timor by force by local irredentists after the vote was lost. UNAMET was not a military mission, so no shame in them leaving once the shooting started, but it forced the UN to commission INTERFET (ie, Australia with some help) to go in shooting and stabilize the situation (much like NATO in Afghanistan). Only once the shooting stopped did the UN come back. (Of course, when it left again, the shooting started again, and Australia had to intervene again, which is where we are now, but never mind.)

There's four useful historical lessons from the experience in East Timor, none of which Mr. Layton seems to have grasped. One is that nation-building takes a long time: over eight years so far in East Timor's case, with an armed stabilization force still in country. Two is that the only effective response to an attempt to subvert both the UN's will and a fair election by force is with some force of your own. Three would be that there are some people, like Suharto hatchetman Eurico Guterres, that you simply can't negotiate with. Fourth and finally would be that Mr. Layton's "enormous impact" did very little for the up to 200,000 Timorese who died in the 24 years of Indonesian occupation while the West stayed out of it. If you could ask them, they'd probably have preferred a more forceful response, sooner.

A lot of us in the military and out are old enough to remember the Timor experience. The four lessons we learned, above, the lessons that elude Mr. Layton, have a lot to do with why we're supportive of the Afghanistan mission now.

February 01, 2008

A quiet plea

I feel compelled to use what little weight I might have to say to any American who's reading this: Hey. I'm Canadian. Like all Canadians, Americans are my #1 spectator sport. I find you all hugely entertaining to observe anthropologically, and I know you pretty well by now. That applies doubly to Democrats, who are after all, really just Canadians on the wrong side of the border.

So take some third-person perspective? Hey, I was right around this same time four years ago about Kerry, after all. At this point, I can't see the argument for anyone but Obama. At all. He's what you guys need right now. Clinton, for all the obvious dynastic and war-voting issues, is clearly the second choice to me (still superior to the Republican opponents, of course).

If you nominate Obama, it will be a Democratic blowout, a transformative moment in your history. If you nominate Clinton, it will be much too close for comfort for you. I really can't understand why Democrats wouldn't go for the sure thing here, and if you don't, well then you deserve whatever comes next. That's all I'm saying.

January 30, 2008

Hello, I'm inappropriately supervised

"For too long, the Canadian military has acted outside Canadian borders without appropriate supervision," said Paul Champ, the lawyer representing the rights groups." --Globe and Mail

Like all those renegade Canadian soldiers in Europe in the early 1940s. If only they'd had appropriate legal supervision, maybe they might have done some good.