WhatFinger


Chinooks, LAVs, and Pakistan's radical Islamist warriors

Media ignores national defense



Yesterday I had the honor to be present at a luncheon that featured a speech by CanWest Global’s Matthew Fisher, one of Canada’s few real war correspondents. Fisher talked about the paucity of resources the Canadian Media has committed to military matters. His point was that as a nation we know precious little about a war to which we have committed our best and brightest.

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He took the Harper government to task for not adequately explaining the war and its necessity and he took the military to task for not offering a better rationale of why we are in Afghanistan. But he was hardest of all on the Canadian media whose incuriosity about military matters is legendary. He emphasized this point by citing the fact that the Canadian media devotes huge resources to political experts that go all-out in keeping the country informed during elections or hockey experts that cover the Stanley cup 24/7. But the number of reporters and commentators that are experts in matters of defense can be counted on one hand. Much of the audience was unaware that Canada had sold its fleet of Chinook helicopters to the Dutch military during the 1970s, which has severely restricted the operational capabilities of the Canadian soldiers currently engaged in a shooting war. Ironically, whenever a Canadian soldier has to be evacuated from the war zone, the evacuation is done using the Dutch Chinooks. Equally ignorant was the audience of the fact that the US Marine Corps reconnaissance battalions make heavy use of a military vehicle, the LAV (Light Armored Vehicle), built in London, Ontario, which had enabled these elite troops to penetrate deep into enemy territory during both Iraq campaigns. Fisher also talked about some other issues affecting the Afghan campaign, including NATO whose heaviest lifting is done largely by the Canadians and the Americans, the corruption within the current Afghan government and the awesome danger posed by Pakistan, which Fisher claims has become a haven for a worldwide network of radical Islamist warriors. It is disturbing that Canada’s national media is so incurious about military matters. Aside from Matthew Fisher, Christie Blatchford, Scott Taylor, Peter Worthington and a small number of other stalwarts, Canada’s media establishment appears to have given national defense a secondary role, unless the issue can be used to one-up the Americans or to tout our new age role as peacekeepers. As Robert Kagan so eloquently argued in his book The Return of History and the End of Dreams, the collapse of Communism has not ensured world peace forever. Far from it, as new challenges and threats arise almost daily. The Canadian media establishment’s smug attitude about there being no need for national defense is based in a worldview seen through a paradigm of rose-colored self-deceit. Today we need a robust and effective military more than ever, as the nature of warfare has taken on a much less civilized persona and has assumed a savagery of medieval proportions. While under conventional warfare civilian populations are to be avoided as targets, albeit admittedly both sides deliberately targeted civilians during World War II, the current trend among worldwide trouble spots is that civilians have become prime targets of terrorist bombings. Such wars cannot be fought or won in the traditional sense, as those who would practice indiscriminate terrorism through suicide bombing are beyond reason in any sense of the word. How can one reason with a rabid dog? Perhaps one of the best places to start a sound defense of one’s homeland is to understand the whys and wherefores of keeping a strong and robust military at the ready. The Canadian media’s failure to take interest in the country’s military matters is irresponsible and borders on treason.


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Klaus Rohrich -- Bio and Archives

Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism.  His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others.  He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.

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