It is only recently that I have found myself paying close attention to the activities of the Canadian military. A close friend from high school is currently based in Kandahar. My very recent ex-boyfriend has joined the air force. Another friend is “in the Navy Now...” This connection has made our mission in Afghanistan all the more personal for me.
If you ask a typical Canadian about his or her feelings on our military and their current activities, you will likely be met with an unsubstantiated, anti-war rant or complete indifference. “We are peacekeepers, not fighters” is also a common response. Yet the new military recruitment campaign uses “Fight with the Canadian Forces” as its slogan, and depicts scenes of military personnel in combat in its television ads. There is an obvious disconnect between what the Canadian public perceives our military’s international role to be versus the realities faced by our soldiers in action.
The mythology of Canada as a “nation of peacekeepers” started exactly 50 years ago with the proposal by foreign minister Lester B. Pearson to deploy an international peace force under the UN flag during the Suez Canal crisis in November, 1956. This was our country exercising an independent Canadian foreign policy, one which infuriated and defied the Americans (as well as the English and the French). Pearson later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of the first United Nations Emergency Force to stop a war.
Since this time, we have embraced this notion of peacekeeping as part of our national identity. The problem however, is that our world has changed a lot in the last 50 years. And a whole lot more in the past 5 years. Traditional notions of peacekeeping, involving unarmed or lightly armed UN troops patrolling between easily identifiable factions, are simply archaic in post 9/11 times. Terrorism is a reality, and it exists both domestically and internationally. To not recognize this, I see now, is simply ignorant.
Our military now speaks in terms of “peacemaking,” “peace support operations (PSOs),” and “nation-building.” The Department of National Defence states that the Canadian army must be ready to fight the “three-block war.” The first block is the delivery of humanitarian aid; the second block is a commitment to PSOs; and the third block speaks to engaging in high-intensity fight, with simultaneous operations in close vicinity across both large urban centres and complex terrain.
In George Graham’s October 2006 commentary, he points out that Canada has sent 15,000 soldiers to Afghanistan since 2001 and that our military is almost solely responsible for maintaining what little stability there is in all of southern Afghanistan. My friend Lazlo reports that 99% of the people he has met in the country are grateful for the Canadian presence. Clearly, we have an important leadership role in this conflict.
Perhaps we all need to re-define our notion of Canadian identity. And do a little reading before forming an opinion on our military (I mean you, ranters and ravers!)
“In the future we must be prepared to move beyond national self-interest to spend our resources and spill our blood for humanity”
РLt. General Rom̩o Dallaire
If you ask a typical Canadian about his or her feelings on our military and their current activities, you will likely be met with an unsubstantiated, anti-war rant or complete indifference. “We are peacekeepers, not fighters” is also a common response. Yet the new military recruitment campaign uses “Fight with the Canadian Forces” as its slogan, and depicts scenes of military personnel in combat in its television ads. There is an obvious disconnect between what the Canadian public perceives our military’s international role to be versus the realities faced by our soldiers in action.
The mythology of Canada as a “nation of peacekeepers” started exactly 50 years ago with the proposal by foreign minister Lester B. Pearson to deploy an international peace force under the UN flag during the Suez Canal crisis in November, 1956. This was our country exercising an independent Canadian foreign policy, one which infuriated and defied the Americans (as well as the English and the French). Pearson later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of the first United Nations Emergency Force to stop a war.
Since this time, we have embraced this notion of peacekeeping as part of our national identity. The problem however, is that our world has changed a lot in the last 50 years. And a whole lot more in the past 5 years. Traditional notions of peacekeeping, involving unarmed or lightly armed UN troops patrolling between easily identifiable factions, are simply archaic in post 9/11 times. Terrorism is a reality, and it exists both domestically and internationally. To not recognize this, I see now, is simply ignorant.
Our military now speaks in terms of “peacemaking,” “peace support operations (PSOs),” and “nation-building.” The Department of National Defence states that the Canadian army must be ready to fight the “three-block war.” The first block is the delivery of humanitarian aid; the second block is a commitment to PSOs; and the third block speaks to engaging in high-intensity fight, with simultaneous operations in close vicinity across both large urban centres and complex terrain.
In George Graham’s October 2006 commentary, he points out that Canada has sent 15,000 soldiers to Afghanistan since 2001 and that our military is almost solely responsible for maintaining what little stability there is in all of southern Afghanistan. My friend Lazlo reports that 99% of the people he has met in the country are grateful for the Canadian presence. Clearly, we have an important leadership role in this conflict.
Perhaps we all need to re-define our notion of Canadian identity. And do a little reading before forming an opinion on our military (I mean you, ranters and ravers!)
“In the future we must be prepared to move beyond national self-interest to spend our resources and spill our blood for humanity”
РLt. General Rom̩o Dallaire
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