While protesters were blindly smashing windows, torching police cars, and causing unnecessary destruction in Toronto, a far more noteworthy story tragically slipped past the raging mobs of havoc-wreakers, and past many Canadians.
Two more Canadian soldiers were killed fighting in Afghanistan this weekend. Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht, 34, and Pte. Andrew Miller, 21, were killed Saturday when their armoured vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan’s Panjwaii District, about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City.
As protesters complained of having their “rights” deprived after being briefly “detained” by police, likely with good reason or as a precautionary measure, two Canadian soldiers paid the ultimate price while serving their country overseas.
The contrast could not be more stark between the whiny, sickly teenagers and university students “fighting” against the “new world order,” and the brave medics who were literally fighting radical Islamic terrorists on the other side of the planet in one of the most backward, violent nations on earth.
Receiving a baton to the head or being shoved by riot police in order to preserve security and then complaining about it, inarguably pales in comparison to the Canadian soldiers who daily carry 40 kilograms of gear while truly marching in 40-degree Celsius heat, constantly on the lookout for an enemy that literally wants to kill them.
The “dramatic” pictures of mildly bloodied, pale and thin protesters are pathetic examples of an entirely purposeless generation of youth with nothing better to do than organize group temper tantrums in front of Canada’s finest police forces. The protesters’ chants and breathless declarations of solidarity against an invisible “corporate enemy” are disturbing indicators of people who know absolutely nothing of what it means to fight for a real cause.
With no deaths, no real injuries, and nothing to show for their protests, the Black-Bloc and other pseudo-anarchist groups are nonetheless claiming victory against the Canadian “police state” and all its alleged evils. But as the bodies of the two medics return home to Canadian soil today, the anarchists in Toronto this weekend are seen as merely representing the shameful and disgusting ignorance pervasive among the radical Left fringe.
For the anarchists, theirs’ is a world consumed with selfish (and hypocritical) counter-culture behavior, and a produce-nothing rabble-rousing infatuation with long-buried Marxist ideologies. Wearing Converse sneakers and black Levis jeans with iPod’s in the pockets, their chants against the capitalist world order and other darling causes of the Left, are as repulsive and moronic as they come.
For the soldiers, theirs’ is a life embodied by selfless and courageous action in the defense and promotion of the very freedoms and liberties that the idiotic protesters blithely claimed were stripped away. Wearing army boots and cargo pants, carrying C7 rifles in their hands, Canadian soldiers walk into the most dangerous situations on earth to help bring peace and security to a land and a people that have known nothing but war for generations.
Aside from the ubiquitous “Bring the Troops Home” signs, the absence of any acknowledgment of the sacrifice wrought in Afghanistan speaks to the selective ignorance of the protest crowd. Yes, there were many legitimate causes represented at the protests, many peaceful protesters and indeed protesting is entirely legal and can even be effective. This is not the issue.
The disconcerting reality is the fact that so many young men and women were entirely willing to publicly and violently resist a Summit whose very purpose is to address the myriad economic and social problems plaguing the world today. Without coordinating financial policy among the world powers, the global recession could very well get much worse, with devastating consequences for us all.
Thus the very tax-payer funded health-care and social services enjoyed by the protesters here in Canada would be endangered if not for progressive actions by world governments to stabilize and grow the global economy. Protesting international dialogue is akin to demanding a return to uncooperative self-interested nationalist policies, a dangerous and damning position.
Smashing the windows of legitimate businesses, armed with full stomachs and bloated egos, all while screaming nonsense about some secretive global agenda, is a far cry from the Canadian medics in a far away land helping Afghanis with little to eat and a nearly non-existent government, let alone basic health-care.
These same Afghanis could care less about the dubious anti-globalist claims of anarchists in Toronto, when their lives are daily threatened by a very real enemy in the Taliban, led by men who do not hesitate to murder fellow citizens for the most ludicrous of “offenses.”
Our globalized world requires — surprise — global coordination. In the same way, threats to our way of life from Islamic extremists demand international cooperation to defeat them. Quite unlike the protesters’ cowardly anonymous black garb, the grave multitude of problems facing the world today demand action by real men and women in uniform, whether police, fire or military.
Brave Canadians soldiers lost their lives helping revive an utterly desperate nation in Afghanistan while protesters recklessly and ignorantly made a mockery of the rights and freedoms that so many around the world are denied every day. For shame.
I'm re-posting this from the digital journal page, with some value-added spite and rancor.
ReplyDelete"This entire article reeks of hypocrisy. "... people who know absolutely nothing of what it means to fight for a real cause." You'd better be speaking from personal experience here, otherwise this written blowjob to the CF comes off as trite, hyperbolic and just plain ignorant.
Regardless if you support or approve of the actions of the "Black Bloc", this entire article overlooks the MANY DOCUMENTED INCIDENTS of Police excess (including threats of rape to reporter Amy Miller who was incarcerated for oh, no good reason), or that many of us as citizens resent a secretive cabal of global elites fencing themselves away from the people who elected them whilst deciding our collective fates.
Oh, and quit talking about Afghanistan as if it were some righteous crusade, or the Afghan's as if you understand for one second their thoughts and feelings toward the Taliban, or us. As a citizen, I for one am ashamed and horrified by our countrymen's complicity in the rape of children: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/553770
The whole situation is a little more grey than the black and white shades you have painted here."
To which I add, with scorn and derision - clarity and incisiveness? Are you fucking kidding me? You're completely delusional if you think this kind of fairy tale analysis is clear OR insightful. I wouldn't expect much more than this from a class traitor such as yourself, but this article has roughly the intellectual depth of a Star Wars movie. CF = Good Guys; Protester (peaceful or otherwise) = Bad Guys.
It's a little disappointing to see that education going to waste with your words.
Thanks for your thoughts, Jeremy Owen.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'd love to delete your unnecessarily rude comment, I won't, because that would be stifling free speech, now wouldn't it? Then again, maybe that would fit within the construct that you've painted me, as some sort of CF PR rep, and therefore an "agent of the state." Ooooh, scary stuff right? Remind me where I pick up my paycheque from the "secretive cabal of global elites."
Perhaps if you had read the article more carefully you would have noted that I intentionally did not address the alleged abuses by police forces. Instead I focused entirely on the fact that some of the protesters chose to engage in reckless violence in the name of a variety of moronic, conspiracy-theorist causes, all of which I put in the context of real men and women who died actually fighting for a real cause in Afghanistan.
I even acknowledged that there were many peaceful protesters with legitimate causes. Too bad you missed that too.
Your snap-judgment response is a typical comment to an internet article. Instead of addressing the issues raised in the article, you attack the writer for – in your opinion – what was left out or ignored. As if I, the writer, "should have" written a 3000+ word article addressing every single possible angle, so to as to "properly" cover the story for you, the objecting reader.
If you interpret my support for CF as casting the Afghan war as a “righteous crusade”, well that’s your assessment. I never once make a statement either way in support of the war, nor do I discuss the withdrawal date or any of those issues.
The point of the article was to highlight how the deaths of two more Canadian soldiers were effectively lost amid the idiocy of protesters in downtown Toronto. I compared the “causes” and the rabid nature of their actions with the tragic deaths of Canadian soldiers, regardless of your views on the war.
And thanks for picking apart my tagline, really creative.
I actually fucked it up, and I'm glad you didn't pick up on that. I confused "incisive" with "insightful", the sort of rookie mistake that would never pass at the University of Windsor, I'm sure. I remain but a filthy prole to whom formal education remains a pipe dream. The comfort I derive from this is that despite our educational disparity I seem to have the better grasp of the real world, whilst you remain safely ensconced in the la-la land of delusional entitlement.
ReplyDeleteAs for picking apart your tagline, maybe you can accuse me of going for the low-hanging fruit, but then again, your the guy claiming it. It's like expecting people not to rib on Fox's 'Fair & Balanced' tagline. C'mon.
Rob, liked the article big guy, whatever is going on in Afghanistan, right or wrong, that's not the issue. The issue is rightfully highlighted in your article: two more Canadian citizens have passed in the name of their country and it is nice to see this recognition come to light here.
ReplyDeleteIf the protesters reaaaaalllly wanted to make a point they would have simply stayed home and given no justification for all the money spent on the security measures and expeditures the government took. Now, with the stupidity of a few, the govt and planners of this summit can justify all the money they spent on their forces and the like. Just a thought, besides, World Cup was on stay home and watch that instead.
Jeremy (aka Gypsy Crow),
ReplyDeleteAppreciate your comments. Like you, I am entitled to write whatever I want as my tagline, and likewise in my work. Glad that by the power of the internet you happened to stumble across my article today.
I never went after you on any sort of "educational-superiority" basis, so I'm truly sorry that you brought that up.
If a lack of education is what allows someone to remain in the "real world" (as you state), then I guess ignorance truly is bliss.
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Microfinancyeur, thank you. Glad you too understand the sacrifices of our fellow citizens.