Friday, January 18, 2008

On the Airborne Regiment...


I had posted a lengthy bit, ranting on about the demise of our beloved Canadian Airborne Regiment, in 1995. It was long, and rambling and rightly accusatory.

I deleted it and had no intention of re-posting anything on the topic, but clearly I just can't leave it alone. How could I? How could anyone who actually gives a damn about our military?

We have done much towards sapping the morale and strength from our military over the years. Unification in 1966 was a huge blow to the morale of all three services. There are literally thousands who are waiting for Paul Hellyer to die, simply so they may have the pleasure of pissing on his grave. You think I'm kidding you? Just ask anyone who served during the 'everyone wears dark green' years.

The disbanding of the 1st Canadian Submarine Squadron, also in 1995, was a callous blow to our submariners. To have the service absorbed under the banner of Maritime Operations Group 5 (MOG5) as an admistratively expedient move is one thing. To take away their identity as members of Subron One is quite another. How can anyone in the military (besides a mindless bureaucrat...) not realize that a unit's identity is everything! How non-military do you have to be to even conceive such an idea? So... R.I.P. Subron One, 1904 - 1995.

But by far the most eggregious, ill-conceived, insane decision ever taken in the name of political correctness, was the disbanding of the Canadian Airborne Regiment. I'm not going to get into it again but I will state my views on this in as short and concise a synopsis as I can, so as not to bore you all to tears.

1. You do not send your best fighting troops, soldiers who are trained and conditioned to kill, destroy and create the most amount of havoc possible, on a 'peacekeeping' mission. Peacekeeping missions are about spreading goodwill. The Airborne are what you send when you want to spread the most ill will our country is capable of mustering. That is their purpose in life...

2. When you establish Rules of Engagement, make sure they make sense and are not open to individual interpretation. Frankly, anyone who infiltrates an Airborne encampment, civilian or otherwise, in a hostile zone, should expect nothing less than a bullet between the fucking eyes. Period... End of story. If you can't or are not even allowed to defend your own perimeter, the rest of the mission has little chance of working out.

3. 1 Para has been accused of being racist. A Confederate Flag does not a white supremacist make. I wear the Stars and Bars on my riding gear and I can assure you I am no racist. By the same token I certainly do not apologize to any man for being born white. Nor would I absolve any racial group of a crime, simply because of their colour. I thank God every morning that I am white. And that I was born here, in this counry. I have an abiding affection for the Southern States and the people who live there. Their culture, their music, their food, their dialect. That flag is their history. It is as representative now as it ever has been, of the South. Anyone who would take exception with this flag, is in need of more therapy than I could ever provide. And oddly enough, those who revile this flag, never experienced what it is they are supposedly revolting against. It's all just ancient history.

There were many things that went wrong in Belet Huen. None of which would warrant or excuse the disembowelling of our military. It is incidents such as these, which lead me and no doubt many, many others to believe that our military leaders and their Political Masters, are not worthy of the men and women they command. For all the grief and heartache, we still learned absolutely nothing from this incident.

The military brass, the politicians and this time the CFNIS, once more turned to persecute our military, pursuant to a heroic and highly successful action carried out during Op Anaconda. This involved a sniper team from the 3rd Battalion, PPCLI in Afghanistan in March of 2002.

But that is a matter for another post.

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