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WELL, IT'S BEEN A GOOD

WELL, IT'S BEEN A GOOD RUN... DOUBT THAT'LL BE ENOUGH TIME FOR THE LEAFS TO WIN A STANLEY CUP AGAIN, THOUGH

Professor calculates humanity faces genetic extinction in 3 million years. (link)

THIS IS VERY COOL Map

THIS IS VERY COOL

Map of the "Blogosphere"

GUCKENHEIMER RETRACTS (See previous story)

GUCKENHEIMER RETRACTS

(See previous story) Pte. Matt Guckenheimer of the 10th Mtn Div has retracted his quotes in the Ithaca Journal (courtesy The Comedian):

If those [Afghan] women and children showed hostile intent, we were ordered to kill them as hostile forces, just like any other hostile force we encountered.

This is, of course, completely different from his original quote:

We were told there were no friendly forces... If there was anybody there, they were the enemy. We were told specifically that if there were women and children to kill them.

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON MEDALS What's

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON MEDALS

What's interesting about the Canadian military medal system is there's no medal equivalent at all for the U.S. Bronze Star (or Purple Heart for that matter). All the Canadian "valour medals" (as opposed to the MSC and OMM, which are generally given for leadership on a grander scale) are given not for just pure superb military competence, but only for putting one's own life in extraordinary danger to some military end (saving the lives of your squad mates, knocking out a machine gun nest, etc.). Just getting wounded (or killed) in the Canadian system doesn't get you a medal... nor does just a superb act of soldiering, if it doesn't also put your life in much greater jeopardy than those of your comrades.

This is obviously a problem for soldiers, like artillerymen or snipers, who tend to kill at a distance. Never seeing the whites of the enemy's eyes means their accomplishment often goes unrecognized. This is the real problem between the U.S. offer of Bronze Stars to several Canadian snipers who served, and by all accounts served well, in Afghanistan. Our defence department would like to give them some matching recognition... unfortunately, what they did under the existing Canadian rules might not qualify them for anything, medal-wise.

However, obviously they are going to do something. Basically, they've got two choices. They give the first-ever awards of the Medal of Military Valour (MMV) to some or all of the Canadian Bronze Star recipients. This would be unusual, for the reasons outlined above. As well, awards tend to be defined by those who first receive them... there is likely some discomfort about defining a new medal by these soldiers' actions. Alternative #2 is to do what would have been done 50 years ago, when we were more sure of ourselves... that is to note the soldiers as being "Mentioned in Dispatches" (the closest equivalent to the Bronze Star). It sounds archaic, but being Mentioned is still a recognized honour... soldiers so honoured wear a special clasp on their service ribbon for the theatre in question. The trouble is, after the negative press in the National Post and elsewhere about DND hesitating to honour these soldiers, it may not be seen as enough.

ADDENDUM: The CF bravery medal system ethos is best summed up in another section of the Canadian Forces Administrative Orders, section 18-26: "All who remain steady in their duty in the face of gunfire or other active combat hazards are courageous. Military Valour Decorations, therefore, recognize those who are the bravest of the brave, who knowingly sacrifice themselves for others, or who set an extreme example of devotion to duty." Hence no Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Yellow Diamonds or Green Clovers. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) The force in Kandahar may also be hobbled by the restriction that in general only 1 soldier in 750 in a combat theatre can be awarded a military valour medal (MMV or SMV) in any six-month period. Since the Canadians only had around 800 soldiers in Afghanistan, if they follow the rulebook they only have one medal to give out... and several snipers are up for an American Bronze Star. Likewise, they have a ceiling of about 3 mentions in dispatches (1 per 300 soldiers is the maximum recommended), assuming only ground troops are counted in the total... if the thousand-odd sailors and airmen doing Arabian Sea duty are counted into the total of Canadians in theatre, however, those numbers obviously go up proportionately.

SECOND ADDENDUM: Option 3 for the government is to give the snipers a non-combat Meritorious Service Medal, of course. That would just mean convincing the Governor General these are the best examples of Canadian soldiery, not so much suicidally brave as just a great credit to the organization (the equivalent in the old British system would be the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM)). Don't rule out that possibility either as the tie-breaker.