The Western World was shocked on the infamous day on September 11, 2001 when the twin towers of the World Trade Building and the Pentagon building in New York were attacked. Canadians stood in horror watching the footage on Television broadcasts all over public malls, radios and home television sets. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. The United States was attached. It was totally unthinkable, our land, yes our land, our North American soil was attached by a terrorist group called Al-Qaeda. We were angry, and we were in deep sorrow for our American brothers and sisters.
If you had come to the streets of any Canadian city you would have seen people crying or visibly shaken. New York City is next door to Montrealers especially. They may as well have bombed Canada; it was the same thing to us. There are no man made borders in a time like this. They bombed our home, and our people. America, Canada, so what we are the same people -descendants of Britain, we are brothers after all.
Canada’s involvement went beyond crying in the streets. Our military as small as it is, moved quickly into Afghanistan. Normally Canada is a peacekeeping country but we went to the aid of the Americans and fought under NATO. We were fighting along side our American brothers and happy to contribute to preserving our land and our way of life.
Canada’s commitment ends in 2011, we have faced many hardships and fighting almost alone in the most dangerous area in Afghanistan, Kandahar Province. Yes NATO countries were present but none of those countries helped out the Canadians in the most dangerous of regions. It made our Prime Minister rethink our military position in the country. There was much debate of whether we should pull out our troops due to lack of support from other nations, until President Hamid Karzai pleads with us to stay. He praised the Canadian military and reinforced how our presence is needed. It was then that we agreed to stay until 2011 and the USA promised more support in Kandahar as well. The USA did not want us to leave either.
Could that be because our military was doing a good job or a bad one? I think the answer is obvious, that is to everyone except a late night show called the “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld" carried on the Fox News Channel. Gutfeld decided to crack jokes about The Canadian Military. Gutfeld and his panelists make derogatory remarks such as Canadian soldiers need time off for "manicures and pedicures."
Why was that said, it probably came as a reaction to the comment that Canadian Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie said about our military needed to take a year off from the fighting when our mission in 2011, ten years after the beginning of this war took place.
Did the panelists stop there, of course not, they went on to say, "The Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants." Gutfeld also added: "Isn't this the perfect time to invade this ridiculous country? They have no army."
One guy, Doug Benson said he didn’t even know Canada had a military. I ask is the way to talk about soldiers that are helping your country? This is the view of many Canadians as well who are shocked and disgusted at the statements put forth on this show. Many question why? We were glad to come to your aid and help out as we did. We are not a big country in terms of population and so we don’t have a big military but we have a damn good military and we are doing a damn good job there too.
Our Defense Minister Peter MacKay made a statement to CTV News, "It is crass. It is insensitive and it is in fact disgusting given the timing where Canada is just receiving back four fallen heroes." So far 116 soldiers have died in the most treacherous zone in Afghanistan, Kandahar and I repeat where other NATO countries fear to go.
The Government of Canada demanded an apology for this show that was obviously done in poor taste to say the least.
Gutfeld apologized saying that the program was meant to be a satire it, “may have been misunderstood" and in no way were meant to disrespect "the brave men, women and families of the Canadian military."
Sources:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/23/america/NA-Canada-Fox-News.php
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Comments: 85
here is the dictionary defintion of satire
1.
a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
b. The branch of literature constituting such works. See Synonyms at caricature.
2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.
I did not hear about this, but that was horrible for them to have said this.
I had heard about this on the Net...but saw it yesterday in one of my classes, as my students were watching it and talking about it during the break.
The Canadians have been doing our dirty work and slaughtering of civilians in Afghanistan along with Nato countries. We build up the reputation of our' military like it's really ever been some sort of force...it hasn't. We came in at the tail end of World War II when the war was pretty much decided already; little Korea fought us to a stalemate; the Vietnamese defeated us outright; and now, Afghanistan and Iraq have stalemated us again. We do, however, have one feather in our' cap...Granada.
Until we have a military of true renown we should stop poking fun at other countries. This is not about Fox...Americans do this all the time. The Canadian military is as good at ganging up on small third world nations as any other.
the americans have a great military as miltary goes so do the canadian ,but we have crappy tanks, and artillery and that has come under public disapproval over the years.
we are fighting the talaban now to make life better for afghani people.
you make me laugh about grenada,
but you know my best friend is a man from grenada, and he was there at the time and he said grenadians were not afraid of the americans, they americans were nice, they were just there patrol the airfield and the americans used to wave at them and they would wave back.
I am troubled however by this thought from Felix "We came in at the tail end of World War II when the war was pretty much decided already" um, this would be the war where Germany was pissing over everybody until you Yanks turned up, yes? the war where Britain, brave and fearless and uncompromising, was about to be turned into an off-shore sausage factory for Berlin? the war where even the mighty Ruskies were taking a hiding and didnt know where their army's next bowl of borscht was coming from? Felix, it was the bombing of Japanese cities that is an historic controversy about which people still debate the relative necessity. It is not the intercession of USA troops in Europe and south Asia that is under a cloud from anything I've ever read anywhere. And a student of history like yourself doesn't need to be reminded that FDR was constantly fighting his isolationist congress, not to mention his Ambassador to the Court of St James, to get in there sooner. Lend lease was as good as he could get until 12/7/41. I totally agree that US foreign policy is a matter of great concern, and also one of great shame in many respects, but to suggest that US entry into World War II was unnecessary or in some way an act of posture and not substance is simply inaccurate.
How could those comments have been "misunderstood"? I think their meaning was quite clear, and its shameful.
People can be so nasty. For what? Ratings? A laugh? We should all be above this sort of thing. Civilized? Not really.
for your page today!
Sorry for the non comment. I have so much to catch up on.
"[The issue of prisoner transfers in Afghanistan has gripped Ottawa all week. On Monday the Globe and Mail published a series of interviews with prisoners who had been captured by Canadians before being turned over to the Afghan authorities. The 30 prisoners told stories of savage beatings and gross mistreatment.
Yesterday, two international legal scholars, Prof. Michael Byers from the University of British Columbia and Prof. William A. Schabas from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, sent a letter to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The letter, a copy of which is posted below, asks the Prosecutor to investigate whether Canada's two most senior military officials committed war crimes by allowing the transfers to take place and by not stopping them when credible reports of torture surfaced.
Prof. Byers spoke at a special Tyee forum on Canada and Afghanistan last night in Vancouver."
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/04/27/WarCrime/
The war was decided at Stalingrad...the Wehrmacht was in retreat ever since...it was just a matter of time before the Russian took Berlin. The French, Belgian and British had fought bravely and with grest human sacrifice on the Western Front. What turned the tide and halted the German juggernaut was the Russian winter and the Russian people. Following Stalingrad the Germans were done. Now it was the race to Berlin to devide the spoils of victory. Had the U.S. never entered the war in Europe it would have made no difference one way or the other.
"The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. The battle at Stalingrad bled the German army dry in Russia and after this defeat, the Germany Army was in full retreat.
Why was this battle so important?
The failure of the German Army was nothing short of a disaster. A complete army group was lost at Stalingrad and 91,000 Germans were taken prisoner. With such a massive loss of manpower and equipment, the Germans simply did not have enough manpower to cope with the Russian advance to Germany when it came.
Despite resistance in parts – such as a Kursk – they were in retreat on the Eastern Front from February 1943 on. "
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm
"The results of these operations are often cited as a turning point of World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in modern history, with combined casualties estimated to be nearly 2 million. The battle was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties by both sides.
The Battle of Stalingrad claimed almost two million casualties, more than any other battle in human history, and was also one of the longest: it raged for 199 days."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
Of course, the U.S. wanted to get to Berlin for the dividing up of the spoils ahead of Russia.
glitter-graphics.com
This isn't an apology, this is a cop out. They got busted for being loudmouthed dumbasses and are "apologizing".
I don't understand where "we" got the idea that as long as you're being loud, and nasty, and acting like an over-entitled frat boy you can say anything to and about anyone.
I did not see it, but it makes me feel ashamed. I am sorry.
Many countries lost people in the world trade towers that day, even Muslim countries.
But Bush and Rudy pounded the war gong and all was forgotten.
Incredible scene, citizens who entered the fray, and carried on the battle in their own streets.
There were many heroic battles fought on the Western Front and the sacrifices were immense, particularly, those of the French, British and Belgian, but, no battle was of the sheer dimensions and ultimately more decisive in the final outcome of the war than Stalingrad.
"Battle of Stalingrad
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, the German Army poured across the borders of the Soviet Union, initiating nearly 4 years of the most savage and brutal warfare humanity ever experienced. Three Army Groups penetrated Russia on a front extending from the Baltic coast to the Black Sea. One and a half million soldiers of the Wehrmacht obeyed the Fuehrer's directive to destroy the Red Army and the Soviet Union. "The World will hold it's breath!", Adolf Hitler told his Generals. And as the world watched in amazement, the Wehrmacht rolled triumphantly across the Russian steppe, seemingly invincible. Caught by surprise, the bulk of the Russian Air Forces were destroyed on the ground. Under orders not to provoke the Germans, the Russian frontier armies were not given coherent directions to mount a defense of their borders. The Red Army fell back in disorder, surrendered in wholesale numbers, or died in a futile effort to halt the German advance.
Western military experts gave the Russians 6 weeks, perhaps 8 at the most, before suffering total military disaster at the hands of the Germans. Battered by one defeat after another, the poor performance of the Red Army gave no one reason to believe otherwise. With their officer corps decimated by Stalin's purges, the badly equipped , poorly trained and demoralized Red Army sustained losses and gave ground which would have defeated any other country in a matter of days."
www.mazalien.com/battle-of-stalingrad.html
...On Russian military maps it is simply Hill 103. Mamaev Kurgan, or the Tatar Mound, commands a view of central Stalingrad and the surrounding steppe. At it's summit today is the largest free-standing statue in the world. Rodina - Mother Russia - nearly 150 meters high and brandishing a sword weighing 14 tons, faces West and exhorts her sons to follow. But in 1942, the tide of battle rolled across this hill so many times that defenders and attackers alike lost count of the number of times that it changed hands. Mamaev Kurgan was subjected to so much shell - fire that the shrapnel and scrap metal churned into the soil prevented grass from growing there after the war. The entire hill has been turned into a park and massive monuments bear witness to the tragedy that befell the city on the Volga.
From it's humble origins as the town of Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad had benefited from the decision of Soviet planners to develop the region. By 1942, it was the third largest city in the Soviet Union, sprawling in a narrow band for nearly 20 miles along the Volga river-front. Under successive 5 Year Plans, the Russians had erected the Krasny Oktyaber Tractor factory, the Barrikady Metal Works, and the Lazur Chemical Plant. As a gathering point for Volga river barge traffic, it shipped grain, oil, farm machinery, chemicals and other products to the interior of the Soviet Union. Converted to war-time production, the factories of Stalingrad now produced tanks, guns, and other vital war materiel for the Red Army.
At the opening of Barbarossa, the war seemed a long ways off, and of little immediate concern to the citizens of Stalingrad. Although most young men were away serving with the military, life continued as it always had. But by the middle of August,1942, the Stalingrad City Soviet began giving consideration to evacuating children and non-essential civilians. However, the bulk of the population was still in the city in late August when the battle got underway. The Luftwaffe sent Luftflotte 4 to commence air raids on the city, and the first of these set downtown Stalingrad aflame, reducing much of it to rubble. With central Stalingrad in flames, the editors of the local paper put together an improvised edition of Stalingrad Pravda. On a hand-cranked press, without power, they printed out a one page edition with a banner headline proclaiming, "We Will Smash the Enemy at the Gates of Stalingrad!" Over 40,000 civilians were killed in these first raids, and an evacuation began in earnest.
...As the attempt at resupply by air gradually faded away, the proud army that Paulus had marched to the edge of the Volga was disintegrating. The elite men of the German 6th Army were now a tattered collection of emaciated walking skeletons. Although the famous discipline of the Wehrmacht still remained largely intact, it too was starting to fade away as starvation, disease and despair stalked the German soldiers. Desertions, unauthorized surrenders and even an occasional mutiny further diminished their capacity for organized resistance as the Red Army relentlessly closed the ring around the city.
...With a sense of urgency spurred on by the knowledge that each departing aircraft from Gumrak or Pitomnik might be the last, desperate soldiers overwhelmed the guards and clung to the outside of transports making their take-off run. Many still clung to the wings as the planes gained speed and became airborne, but all eventually lost their grip and fell onto the snowy steppe. Among those departing these final flights were a number of men with self-inflicted wounds who had managed to deceive the triage doctors who were determined to bar such men from evacuation. They had managed to hide the tell-tale marks of gunpowder burns by shooting themselves through thick blankets. Rather than inflicting an obvious wound such as shooting themselves in the hand or foot, many of them shot themselves in the chest or abdomen. Such acts were indicative of the level of desperation that drove many to try and escape the frozen Hell of Stalingrad at any cost.
In an attempt at dissuading Hitler from his insistence upon fighting to the bitter end, Paulus dispatched an aide, Major Coelestine von Witzewitz, to speak directly to Hitler and give him a first hand account of the dire situation of the men in the pocket. Although von Witzewitz was warmly welcomed by the Fuehrer, his attempt at recounting the horrors facing the soldiers of 6th Army was met with attempts to change the subject. Hitler spluttered nonsense about how the soldiers should hang on until relief arrived...
...The very next day, Soviet forces closed in on his last command post, a cellar in the bombed out ruins of the Univermag Department Store in downtown Stalingrad. Unshaven, dirty and close to a state of collapse, Friedrich Paulus offered his surrender to an obscure Russian Lieutenant named Fyodor Yelchenko, who promptly marched the new Field Marshal and his staff off to his superiors. Of the nearly 350,000 men who had followed him to Stalingrad, only 90,000 survived to surrender to the Soviets.
... From the Soviet perspective, the significance of the struggle for Stalingrad carried implications far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. It defined the major turning point of World War II in Europe. By halting the advance of one of Germany's elite armies and ultimately defeating it, the Russians proved that the Wehrmacht was not invincible. It gave the Soviet armed forces the confidence they would need and the skills required to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany. From beyond the horizons of European Russia, the road to the Soviet Union's claim as a legitimate Superpower began at the banks of the Volga.
...The monumental scale of the battle lived on in the ruins of the shattered city for years. A panel of the Supreme Soviet assessed the damage and determined that it would be far easier to abandon the city and build a new one someplace else. Only the ego and determination of Stalin brought about the ultimate reconstruction of the city. But buried among the ruins was the truth of the horrendous price the Russians paid for their victory.
How many people ultimately died at Stalingrad? Nobody really knows. Right up until its final collapse the Soviet Government never did release accurate casualty figures from the war.
...When you tally the figures for the German 6th Army and its allied auxiliaries which supported the march to the Volga, the numbers are both impressive and distressing. The Germans lost about 350,000 men, the Italians, Hungarians and Romanians about 100,000 men apiece. The Red Army also must have lost at least 500,000 men in Stalingrad and the surrounding areas which were adjunct to the battle. But the most horrendous toll must have been on the innocent civilians who formerly lived in the city. Stalingrad was estimated to have had 850,000 residents in 1940. It isn't known how many of them may have escaped the carnage and vanished into the interior of Russia. But after 1945, a census showed only 1500 of these people remained in the pile of rubble that had once been Stalingrad."
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/stalingrad/default.aspx
For those of us who served a few years ago until Canadians went to Afghanistan, the opinion of the Canadian military was pretty low. Even the liaison officers/NCOs we worked with from there told of such problems. Poorly equipped and not well trained (by our standards) little was expected of them. It has been a pleasant surprise to see their actual performance to be much better than expected.
It is appreciated that Canada has gone into harm's way with us into Afghanistan when most of the world sends non combatants at best to help out. Many of those above busting on Fox for instance don't have a clue about the Canadian military and are just glad to jump in when their enemy makes a mistake. They never are quite so eager thought when its the ones they claim to be the real media get it wrong, even when its blatant.
Felix, The US can't hold a candle to the French military? Yeah, their last 170 years has been pretty impressive as a fighting force, what is it now...2 wins 15 losses? One of the wins needing half the world to help them (WW1)
Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 400 BC to 50 BC, with the Romans emerging victorious in the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. The "land of Francia," from which France gets its name, had high points of expansion under kings Clovis I and Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, rivalries with England and the Holy Roman Empire prompted major conflicts such as the Norman Conquest and the Hundred Years' War. With an increasingly centralized monarchy and the first standing army since Roman times, France came out of the Middle Ages as the most powerful nation in Europe, only to lose that status to Spain following defeat in the Italian Wars. The Wars of Religion crippled France in the late sixteenth century, but a major victory over Spain in the Thirty Years' War, with help from Sweden, made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. The wars of Louis XIV in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries left France territorially larger but bankrupt.
In the eighteenth century, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings, but consolation came in the form of preeminence in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the nineteenth century witnessed the growth of the French colonial empire and wars with Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself. Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German rivalry reasserted itself again in World War I, this time France, with British and to a lesser extent, American aid, emerged as the winner. Social, political and economic upheaval in the wake of the conflict led to the Second World War, where it was defeated in the Battle of France. French forces then assisted the Axis Powers, in many cases fighting against allied forces. The Allies, including Free French Forces, and later France as a liberated and restored nation, eventually emerged victorious over the Germans. As a result, France was given an occupation zone in Germany."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_France
Clovis, Charles Martel, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Philip II Augustus, Turenne, the Great Conde, Vauban, Maurice de Saxe, Latouche Treville, Andre Massena, Moreau, Napoleon Bonaparte, Davout, Ferdinand Foch, Joffre, d'Esperey, Marechal Leclerc, etc.
dropping by from Points Nation
When apologies are issued, the individual(s) who uttered the insults must be the one(s) to speak the words or it's not a sincere apology. The president did so. Let's hope these people learn to think carefully before speaking.
He did his best, but his liver failed about Ottowa.
the usa did come in at the end after european nations were tired out, historians do feel it made a difference, fresh blood so to speak, but regardless with the help of the americans the war was won
interesting de villager lol
So do I, Carol, so do I. Unless, they are mano-a-mano and without weapons...it which case...you can sign me up.
War is hell. I've noticed that most war presidents never stepped onto a battlefield. I like Ike. Ike knew war...
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
Remember when Chirac was the only statesman opposing Dubya and the neocons criminal invasion and war on Mesopatamia...the Cradle of Civilization:
"VIVE LA FRANCE!
The spirit of Lafayette lives on in the refusal of France to go along with the War Party
Two-hundred and twenty-five years ago, the French were instrumental in aiding the American revolutionaries in their fight against the British Empire. Today, they are once again playing a key role in aiding American fighters against another sort of Empire – this time, one based in Washington, D.C.
As Dominique de Villepin, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, put it:
"The idea of regime change [in Iraq] introduces into international relations an instability whose consequences we have to assess. Whose job would it be to decide that a regime is good or that a regime is bad? What would be the first factor denoting an unacceptable regime? What would stop a regime being acceptable?"
As America crosses the Rubicon, and abandons the legacy of the Founders for a new age of Caesarism, the French, threatening to use their UN veto, stand in the way – and the fury of the War Party has been unleashed, to often comical effect. Do you want to see hate? Take a gander at the cover of the [UK] Sun, a newspaper, nasty even by Murdochian standards, of the sort that gives tabloids a bad name. Chirac is depicted as a worm, and the editorial screeches at him:
"You were only too happy to welcome the Americans when France was crushed under Hitler's boot. But today you look down on the American people and their president, and you forget how many American and British soldiers, sailors and pilots gave their lives... for the freedom of this country."
But if the French are obligated to kowtow to the Americans – and Tony Blair – on account of a debt that can never be repaid, then what about the debt Americans owe to the French, whose aid during the Revolution secured our victory over King George III? The Brits don't want to bring that up, of course, but without the French we'd all be singing "God save the Queen" and suffering the ill effects of London's latest socialist scheme.
You have to hand it to the War Party, however: their hate campaign is not so much coordinated as it is choreographed, with radio "shock jocks" and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal dancing to the same tune of "Hate the Frogs." In Texas, a radio screamer stages a public bulldozing of French products, and, in Congress, the cry is heard to impose tariff penalties on our recalcitrant allies. Why, those effete French know-it-alls, they yelp, how dare they mock our rootin' tootin' cow-Boy Emperor.
John Fund, writing in the War Street Journal, approvingly notes that some dive in North Carolina has stopped selling french fries: "We now serve freedom fries," announces owner Neal Rowland, who also confides that
"The switch from french fries to freedom fries came to mind after a conversation about World War I days when anti-German sentiment prompted Americans to rename familiar German foods like sauerkraut and frankfurter to liberty cabbage and hot dog."
One wonders if that conversation touched on some of the other charming effects of World War I on the country: the lynchings of German-Americans, the closing down of German language and socialist newspapers, and the jailing of antiwar activists for "sedition." The teaching of German in the schools was banned, and the works of Goethe were burnt in the public square, while Wagner was banished from the opera houses. Yes, it was a great time for "freedom" in America – and if you don't believe that, then you'd best shut up and eat your greasy "freedom fries."
Speaking of shutting up, that's exactly what the heroic Jacques Chirac told the so-called "Vilnius Group" of "ex"-Communist East European nations, when they issued their pro-war communique. "They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet," he quipped,..."
more at: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022103.html
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what was the motivation for that war duh,
what about his strategy of if you are not with us you are against us,
excuse me but that is the thinking of a 5 year old,
many allies were against the idea of war in Iraq but not against the united states, all that did was to further alienated the american people and keep them under bush's control, worked for the hitler too,
My trust did not lie with Bush and my trust does not lie with Obama...both were bad choices, both, incorrigible liars and manipulators of the dumbed-down masses...electing guys like this gives democracy a bad name.
You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control Your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be Mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."