WhatFinger


John Thompson

John Thompson can be reached at: johnecthompson@rogers.com

Most Recent Articles by John Thompson:

A Reflection on Remembrance Day

Ritual is an old human activity and some of the best ones operate at a more or less unconscious level combining symbolism with myth and belief. Our basic Remembrance Day rituals on November 11th seem right and fitting, and they evolved that way in the immediate aftermath of the First World War.
- Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Navigating Dark Waters

The dark web, terrorism, hacktivists, intruding drones, transnational organized crime – a dizzying array of problems are growing but these are only the froth of a growing wave of instability. The order we knew in past decades is no longer assured.
- Friday, December 18, 2015

The Engines that Drive the Jihad

In the days after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris and the thrilling response of the French people to the attempt to intimidate them, any number of media commentators have talked about ‘root causes’ of terrorism. They mention that Westerners have to reach out to tame the ‘angry young men’ who are the agents of the Jihad’s terrorism.
- Monday, January 12, 2015

Satire versus Kalashnikovs

The attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo that killed at least 12 people and injuring 7, have a number of lessons we all need to learn.
- Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Maple Leaf Mercenaries?

It doesn't take much to make the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) come over all faint sometimes, but the news in mid-November that former Canadian soldiers were joining Iraqi Kurdish groups to fight against ISIS seems to have done it again.
- Monday, November 24, 2014

Moscow’s Many Misdirections

When Putin met Harper at the G-20 this week, it is said that the Russian leader insisted to the Canadian Prime Minister that there were no Russian troops in the Ukraine. Last week also saw a Moscow television station insisting they had dramatic footage proving that the MH-17 flight downed over the Ukraine last July was actually shot down by a Ukrainian fighter plane; and not by a drunken Cossack in command of a Russian SAM battery.
- Monday, November 17, 2014

Huffing and Puffing and Blowing Houses Down

Huffing and Puffing and Blowing Houses Down
The Royal Canadian Air Force, (RCAF) is back in action again, dropping bombs on the slave-taking, throat-cutting rapists of ISIS. The morality of the situation is unequivocal, the effect of our contribution to the war on the new Caliphate is – alas – doubtful.
- Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The Ultimate Argument of Kings?

Forget gun control, maybe the world needs to urgently concentrate on rocket and missile control.
- Thursday, July 24, 2014


Boko Haram and Islamic Rape

By now, much of the world has heard about Boko Haram and the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in northeastern Nigeria; and many voices are clamouring for the girls to be rescued. Good luck with that but those girls were not kidnapped for ransom, they were kidnapped to be raped… repeatedly.
- Friday, May 9, 2014

Mob Politics: The Hysterical Lynching of Donald Sterling

With all due apology to John Donne, ask not for whom the mob rages, they rage for thee. Billionaire sports-franchise owners don’t ordinarily deserve our sympathy, especially when they turn up in public with their mistresses (er, ‘girl-friends’) rather than their wives.
- Thursday, May 1, 2014

Awaiting America’s Camlann

In Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, the legendary King Arthur had to confront the errant Mordred at Camlann. The two entered tense negotiations while their uneasy armies stood by, ready for the least sign of aggression from the other. One knight, however, was walking in the grass and came across an adder. He pulled out his sword to kill the snake and two armies took that as a signal. The resulting carnage was – literally – almost total.
- Thursday, April 17, 2014

Tom Main

This is the third of my explorations into the wartime service and experiences of the family of my maternal grandparents. John’s brother George died at the Second Battle of Ypres, in the first major battle fought by Canadian troops in World War One. Having lied about his age, my grandfather spent two years in the Canadian Forestry Corps in the Somme Valley in 1917-18, before being transferred into the infantry for the last offensive against the Germans in October 1918. Having discovered what I could, it was time to turn my attention to Second World War.
- Monday, August 12, 2013

Spirit over Steel:  A Chronology of the Second World War

December 21, 1941: The Japanese start landing in force at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon, and their 48th Division soon establishes a secure beach-head. The bombardment of Wake Island is joined by carrier aircraft.
- Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Spirit over Steel:  A Chronology of the Second World War

December 20, 1939: Another Soviet division (122nd) is cut off and isolated by the Finns, and attacks on the Mannerheim line are running out of steam. It’s an ugly aircraft, but will seem like an avenging angel to hard-pressed Soviet troops in the coming years: The first Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik takes to the air. In time, over 36,000 of this tough ground attack aircraft will be in service and Stalin – in a very threatening letter to a tardy manufacturer – will describe it as being as necessary to the Red Army as air and bread.
- Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Spirit over Steel:  A Chronology of the Second World War

From Spirit over Steel: December 17, 1939: British deception operations about a massive buildup outside the River Platte fool the Captain of the Graf Spee – who is required by law to leave Montevideo but scuttles his damaged ship rather than getting his crew killed in a hopeless battle. Later, when Captain Langsdorf learns he was fooled, he takes his own life. Finnish troops cut off the 44th and 163rd Soviet rifle divisions; starving them of supply and leaving them strung out along several roads.
- Saturday, December 17, 2011

A Meditation on Remembrance Day

Not many people realize it, but the observations some of us maintain every November 11th have a powerful resonance with some of the deepest questions humanity wrestles with.  Our annual ritual involves a highly symbolic set of gestures and customs – some of which are thousands of years old.  At its essence, the simple Remembrance Day ceremony is a highly charged event.  Knowing this should make it even more important.
- Friday, November 11, 2011

Guilty Cat

Editor's Note: CFP Columnist John Thompson has recently acquired a new member of the household. He has written the Felicity File: Encounters with my kitten Guilty Cat: So who disturbed my model tanks, their turrets all askew? I’ve not touched them, except to dust – Felicity, was it you?
- Friday, April 15, 2011

A Meditation on Remembrance Day

imageNot many people realize it, but the observations some of us maintain every November 11th have a powerful resonance with some of the deepest questions humanity wrestles with. Our annual ritual involves a highly symbolic set of gestures and customs – some of which are thousands of years old. At its essence, the simple Remembrance Day ceremony is a highly charged event. Knowing this should make it even more important.
- Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Legions of the Nanny State

imageOn October 5th, Captain Robert Semrau was sentenced by a Canadian Court Martial for shooting a dying Taliban in combat in 2008. He was reduced in rank two grades and expelled from the service--a punishment which is a very harsh one to an officer in Military Law. The Court Martial never should have taken place and will have a direct and dire impact on the conduct of all Canadian soldiers who go into battle in future. For the good of the Service, and for the defence of Canada, the verdict and sentence need to be overturned.
- Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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