Ryan Paul

The Americans need to make up their mind

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (L) is embraced by his Honduran counterpart Manuel Zelaya upon his arrival at the Honduran Air Force base in south Tegucigalpa, 15 January, 2008. Chavez is in Honduras in official visit and will meet Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to sign a subsidized oil supply agreement between Honduras and Petrocaribe. AFP PHOTO/PRESIDENCIA (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images)

Intelligent and mature people watch the news. Self centered plebs don’t. All the intelligent people in the world know about the situation in Honduras where the left-wing President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly removed from power by the Honduran Army with the backing of the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress.

Basically… Zelaya wanted to see if the Honduran people would support a constitutional change allowing Presidents to stand for re-election. The right wingers in Army, Congress and Supreme Court basically said “HELL NO”.

Most of the world condemned his removal from office, including the United States of America – that makes no sense to me. Zelaya is an ally of Hugo Chavez who is hated by the U.S… so why in the blazes would the U.S condemn the removal of a democratically elected ally of their enemy? The United States of America has never cared much about morals when it comes to securing its own interests (even though mostly their interests are in line with my own)… so why bother putting up a charade condemning the situation?

With Zelaya out of power… support for Hugo Chavez is a little harder to come by in South America. I thought America would love that.

October 5th, 2009 | No Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook

British soldier does the biz!

It takes a real soldier to do this sort of stuff…

A soldier from Selby has been awarded the Military Cross – the third-highest gallantry award – for his bravery during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan.

L/Cpl Cpl Colin Spooner, 22, of the 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, suffered extensive shrapnel wounds in the attack last October.

Despite intense pain, he continued giving orders and refused a stretcher as it would be a drain on manpower.

The Army said he had shown “exemplary leadership and courage”.

L/Cpl Spooner was leading a patrol in Helmand when they came under attack by about 40 Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

As he ran back and forth across an exposed compound to relay messages to his comrades, a shell exploded directly behind him.

He was thrown into the air and suffered 32 shrapnel wounds.

Receiving his award at a ceremony in Plymouth on Thursday, L/Cpl Spooner said: “One of my mates came out , dragged me back into cover and gave me medical attention.

“Due to the amount of fire that was coming it would have taken four blokes to carry me so I took it upon myself to walk as much as I could so those four blokes could carry on fighting.”

He said he was “very proud” to receive the Military Cross, but was also proud of his regiment and the support they had given him.

“My mum was overwhelmed [by the award],” he said.

“My mum cried. My dad shed a little tear.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Spooner’s decisive action, exemplary leadership and courage as Section Commander with B Company Group contributed enormously to the successful outcome of a difficult situation.

“His outstanding contribution took place despite extraordinarily dangerous circumstances and the pain that resulted from the extensive shrapnel wounds he had incurred.”

Makes me proud to be British seeing our boys step up and open a can of whoop ass on those murdering fucks!

September 12th, 2009 | 13 Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook

Stand By Me – Andy, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora & Friends

Free MP3 download: Stand by Me - Andy Madadian ft. Bon Jovi (205)

On June 24, Iranian Superstar Andy Madadian went into an LA recording studio with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and American record producers Don Was and John Shanks to record a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran. This version of the old Ben E. King classic is not for sale – it was not meant to be on the Billboard charts or even manufactured as a CD…..it’s intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people…to give voice to the sentiment that all people of the world stand together….the handwritten Farsi sign in the video translates to “we are one”. If you know someone in Iran – or someone who knows someone in Iran – please share this link

CREDITS:

Andy – Vocals
Jon Bon Jovi – Vocals
Richie Sambora – Electric Guitar and Vocals
John Shanks – Acoustic Guitar
Don Was – Bass
Patrick Leonard – Keyboards
Jeff Rothchild – Drums
Tiffany Madadian and Nikki Lund – Background Vocals
Produced by Don Was & John Shanks
Recorded and Mixed on June 24, 2009 by Jeff Rothchild at
Henson Studio C, Hollywood, CA

Thanks to Faryal Ganjehei

Written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller
Farsi lyric by Paksima Zakipour
Video Edited by Gemma Corfield
Mastered by Stephen Marcussen

September 10th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Share: Digg | Facebook

BMQ Instructors

Anyone who’s been on BMQ (that’s basic training for Canada’s military) will almost certainly tell you they had problems with certain instructors. I know I definitely did.

No names obviously because that’s not professional but he weird thing is by the end of the course I ended up greatly respecting those instructors I had problems with.

For instance… during a classroom lesson I volunteered to go down and fill up the huge water can for everyone. I had to go to a different than normal water source because a Corporal told me the one we’d been using wasn’t drinkable water. So off I went. Once I got back to the classroom, everyone was waiting outside on a break saying I was in trouble. Turns out I’d left my C7 rifle beside my chair during the lesson and didn’t take it with me. I naturally assumed that buddy next to me would look out for me because I was doing something for everyone else. So when the class went on a break and buddy didn’t pick up my rifle the instructor took it. The remedial training I received was that Read more...

September 6th, 2009 | 2 Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook

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?

August 31st, 2009 | No Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook

Fallen Soldiers

I always grieved when a soldier died in the line of duty… but now that I am a soldier it makes it all the more relevant.The following video of the funeral procession of Sgt First Class John C. Beale was enough to choke me up.

One of the commentors on the video made a very interesting comment…. ‘Freedom isn’t free. We have to fight to be free’.

I’m probably not allowed to voice an opinion such as this… but I cannot help but admire the Americans for the amount of respect they pay to their fallen soldiers. I just cannot comprehend why people would talk bad about people who give their lives in service. Right or wrong… fallen soldiers are public servants who have given their lives doing a job that others could not or would not do.

August 28th, 2009 | No Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook

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.

August 28th, 2009 | No Comments | Share: Digg | Facebook