The necessity of any armed force

I was having a little bit of a discussion with a friend yesterday about my decision to join the Canadian Forces. The lady I was talking to said she supported my decision but does not like the army.

She went into a rant in greater detail and explained that she hates the way young people often are victims in armed conflict and that war is profitable to major corporations.

I tried to be neutral and explain that whenever there’s an armed conflict and soldiers are sent into battle – they don’t go into a battle for profit; at least a Canadian soldier’s primary motivation into going into battle isn’t to get rich. I told her that Canadian soldiers serve and stand on the front line or stand on a wall to protect her and the rest of Canada’s population while they sleep, and that there’s a need for us to do that.

I also told her about the bumper sticker I saw that reads ‘If you don’t support our troops, feel free to stand in front of them’. Interesting caption huh?

News on the military ‘n myself

The last two months have been very eventful… and after 23 years of dreaming I finally made it happen. A slight incident cut it short officially by only two days but I’m making that up at the end of December on a weekend.  After that I’m hoping to get on my artillery course, all driving courses, and especially communications courses so I can get on those badass radios and do radio stuff.

Whilst on BMQ (L)… I experienced the awesomeness of IMP (individual meal packs) which are issued to the Canadian Forces.  Call me ridiculous but I loved them.  That may be that I was deprived of home comforts whilst in the field… nevertheless I now fully believe all my instructors when they say that out of all the western military powers in Afghanistan, we have by far the best meals.  Apparently the Yanks and British soldiers will always try to trade meal parts.  The bread in a packet rocks!  If you’re interested… you can actually buy IMPs from a surplus store.

I’m also glad that I did not join the British Army.  Not because of any perceived lack of dashing bravery, ruthlessness or competence… but because of the mere factor that our (Brits) squaddies bomb around Afghanistan in rag top Land Rovers, and their armour plates only cover their heart and not other vital organs.

Being a Canadian soldier I now have a lot of restrictions on what I can or cannot post on my website regarding the Canadian Forces particularly… so you might see the tone of my blog posts change somewhat.

One of our boys has passed away… Pte Kyle Whitehead from 3PPCLI passed away when his vehicle rolled on the Big River First Nation. What’s really uncanny is that his best friend ‘Sgt. Darby Morin’ from the same First Nation in Saskatchewan – passed away on the same day in Afghanistan whilst serving with the U.S Army.

According to this news story… the upcoming Olympics is pushing the Canadian Forces to the edge.  This article says that 4000 Canadian soldiers will be guarding the Olympics to protect all the heads of state.  That along with the Afghanistan mission and the upcoming G8 summit in Huntsville is testing the limits of our endurance according to this story.  My answer to that would be to quote one of my instructors on basic training… ‘We’re Canadian soldiers – we win!’.  I know one thing that would solve problems like this…  boosting Canada’s defence budget from $18billion to about $36billion to increase the size of our armed forces.

Pitbull – I Know You Want Me