124 Canadian soldiers have been murdered by our politicians
Eight years in a foreign war with no end in sight for some amorphous reason and the ego of Stephen Harper
With story from AFP
The 123rd and 124th Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan on Monday in a Griffon helicopter crash.
Prime Minister Harper and Defense Minister Peter MacKay will utter those empty words “Our hearts go out the families. They have our condolences.”
Defence Minister Peter MacKay, right, shakes Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hand after they vote in the House of Commons on March 13, 2008, in favour of extending the Canadian mission in Afghanistan to 2011. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)
Those are cheap words for cowards who sit safe in Ottawa ordering young men and women to fight in a far away country for vague reasons.
Looks like these two brave Canadians died because the military brass wanted to use Griffon helicopters.
Retired General Hilliard wouldn’t deploy the Griffin helicopters to Afghanistan. They were not safe. Now he is gone, the military brass take a lower value on Canadian lives.
We’ve been in Afghanistan for almost eight years. We have no hope of winning. Actually, winning is not even on the agenda.
We are there to support war-lords and opium sales. We are there to support repressive sharia law because how they run their county is none of our business.
The cost to Canada is an impressive $22 billion. That is $22 billion dollars, 124 lives, and how many disabled Canadian soldiers. The costs continue to mount.
Disability from combat
More than 18,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan.
While deaths are published, statistics on the injured and disabled are not available. A parliamentary report pegged the cost of disability payments at $2 billion. Cost estimates are expected to overrun by up to 300%.
Up to 25% or 4,500 of the soldiers returning from Afghanistan are expected to suffer mental disabilities. They will not be properly compensated as we learned. Veterans will lose benefits with reforms while politicians send more young to their fate
Stephen Harper and other right wing, jingoistic politicians are quick to send young Canadians to war. It pumps them up with pride in our country.
The cost for their folly is starting to hit home. In both the recent Harris and Decima polls, more than half of Canadians want the troops home.
How many more young Canadians will Stephen Harper need to kill before he stops it?
bill mac leod
i am a vetern of 30 yrs served i was never happy about how our politicians look after our vets .
our pension is lousy ,their pension is terrific . they are always at the trough
I had a concert for wounded warriors and i would like to start concerts for the veterns .
Please send me an e-mail with info on how i can help
WE mac Leod cd
retired canadian armed forces
1957-1986
Rick Ferguson
Canadian politicians were advocating the death or removal of Canadian Forces soldiers long before Afghanistan.
During the summer of 1977, a young female Private by the name of Darlene Barkley was killed at CFB Dundurn, Saskatchewan (27 July 1977). Barkley had only turned seventeen the previous week, and without any training whatsoever, this young Private died while being ordered to drive a military vehicle on a duty beyond her capability, while under “undue pressure” from a senior member. The DND recently advised Jean-Pierre Blackburn that “no member of the CF was killed at CFB Dundurn in 1977,” in an effort to erase the memory of Private Darlene Barkley, and ensure that the 7th Book of Remembrance is in no way “tainted” by Barkley’s memory.
In 1983, a Corporal in the Canadian Forces Reserve in Alberta was so disgusted with the lack of training hours available to his troops (courtesy, the government of Canada), that he took it upon himself to give extra-curricular training to his troops on his own time, at his family’s ranch. The federal government intervened, advising the Corporal’s C.O. that the Corporal was “mentally ill” and should be released; the Corporal’s civilian employer was also approached with the same fabricated information, with predictable result in both cases. The “criminal treatment” of this Corporal was upheld by Veterans Affairs Canada.
Is Canada a ridiculous, disgusting country to serve in the military forces of?
Too right!