Our Fallen Soldiers

[Truth]

> > >A British news paper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is
> > >funny how it took someone in England to put it into words...
> > >Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and
> > >modest nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON -
> > >
> > >Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably
> > >almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian
> > >troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead,
> >>just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it
> > >always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
> > >
> > >It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid
> >>both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is
> >>over to be well and truly ignored.
> > >
> > >Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall,
> > >waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out,
> >>she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious
> > >injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there
> >>is Canada , the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously
> > > cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.
> > >
> > >That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent
> > >with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two
> >>global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two
> >>different directions:
> > >It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one,
> >>and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.
> > >Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars
> > > was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
> > >
> > >Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served
> >>in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The
> > >great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops,
> >>perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
> > >
> > >Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's
> > >unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as
> > >somehow or other the work of the 'British.'
> > >
> > >The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war
> > >with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic
> > >against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in
> >the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on
> > >D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and
> > >the fourth-largest air force in the world.
> > >
> > >The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the
> > >previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in
> > >film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign
> > >in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching
> > >scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has
> > >any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
> > >
> > >So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood
> > >keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary
> > >Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William
> > >Shatner, Raymand Massey, Pamela Anderson, Barbara Perkins, Norman Jewison, David
> > >Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, and Dan Aykroyd to name a few,
> > >some have even, in the popular perception become American, and Christopher
> > >Plummer, became British.
> > >
> > >It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be
> > >Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as
>> >a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find
>> >any takers.
> > >
> > >Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of
> > >it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of
> > >them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone
> > >else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's
> > >peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have
> > >been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates,
> >> and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor , from
>> >Sinai to Bosnia .
> > >
> > >Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian
> > >imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control
> > >paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then
> > >disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for
> >>which naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
> > >
> > >So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless
> > >friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather
>>>like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for
> >>honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains
> >> something of a figure of fun.
> > >
> > >It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such
> >>honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families
> >knew that cost all too tragically well.