The Sad Truth

The Sad Truth

By Jack Profijt

The other morning my wife and were enjoying our customary cup of Joe while watching CTV news, just like we do every morning. We watched a segment of there morning program that waS spot lighting Canada's Special Operations Regiment or CSOR. The news broad casters were highlighting an upcoming segment of W5. In this particular segment the interviewing reporter was speaking with a US General about a training operation that CSOR is involved in Nigeria.  The General had made a comment that Canada's Special Forces personnel are some of the best in the world and that the Canadian public should be made more aware of what they do. My wife made the immediate comment that "No they shouldn't !"

Don't get us wrong, she supports the military 100%, but her rational is quit sound. The general population doesn't, appear to want to know about anything beyond "peace keeping". Peace keeping, is a nice term and make Canadians feel good about what there soldiers do. Anyone who has served in any kind of overseas force knows Peace Keeping is relative term, especially if there is no peace to keep. 

To me the sad truth is that Canadians don't want to know what there soldiers do or why they do what they  do. Many Canadians are quick to say that we are loved in Europe and the World over. However they are not so quick to acknowledge that the love they feel or the good will they experience while traveling was won off the backs of soldiers and their blood. There have been times where I have made that connection for many modern Canadian Citizens, the shocked expression that I receive implies that have irreparably insulted them, and have some how suggested something that is somehow un-canadian. The very thought of Canadians committing violence in the name of Canada by order of the Canadian Government, by Canadians appears to be repulsive to the average Joe on the street.