Waters said:What I had in mind is really how we mostly hear about wounded or dead soldiers from the CF and not enough on the positive things we are doing in Afghanistan for its population.
Waters said:What I had in mind is really how we mostly hear about wounded or dead soldiers from the CF and not enough on the positive things we are doing in Afghanistan for its population.
John Tescione said:dunno, I have this itching feeling I know you from somewhere.....
mainerjohnthomas said:The Canadian public has been brainwashed since Lester Pearson that our soldiers are Peacekeepers. The myth that for the last 30+ years our soldiers have been creating world peace by wearing blue berets and smiling at opposing armies to make them stop fighting. Our peacekeepers have fought before, and many of them have died or been seriously wounded, but because this was under the UN it was ignored. Now the Canadian public is having to deal with the twin thoughts; first-our soldiers kill people (good at it, too) and secondly people are trying (hard) to kill our soldiers.
Peace is the result of the creation and maintenance of order. Provincial reconstruction teams are helping the Afghan people create the structures to provide that order. The Taliban and the drug lords have no place in this order, and are willing to kill to stop it. Our troops are their to pound them flat if they try. There will be peace, and when we are done making it, the Afghans will be able to keep it themselves.
Bruce Monkhouse said:The poll suggests public support not only for stationing Canadian troops abroad as international peacekeepers but, as is the case in Afghanistan, in the more dangerous role of peace makers.
Almost three-quarters of voters polled in this province - 73 per cent - strongly or somewhat supported a peacekeeping role for Canadian troops, to restore order and help countries rebuild.
Meanwhile, 67 per cent felt the same about sending troops on missions to enforce peace and supervise truces among hostile or warring communities.
IN HOC SIGNO said:I think the media is finally getting the picture...they don't seem to be harping about "peacekeeping" as much now....mainly because the embedded reporters are getting a taste of what's really going on.
The practice of embedding civilians.... so far has lead to three daughters. So proceed with caution (he says ducking socks thrown by domestic 9'er) ;DJourneyman said:Maybe we should start embedding civilians. In the media sense, they could actually see soldiers making a positive difference. In the other meaning of the term, it might at least broaden the gene pool.
Sorry, couldn't help it ;D
Journeyman said:Maybe we should start embedding civilians. In the media sense, they could actually see soldiers making a positive difference.
camochick said:Why dont they do a poll and see who actually has a clue about the forces and the mission in Afghanistan?
MarkOttawa said:Mr Gregg goes on: "'For good or ill, we continue to see ourselves as kind of the Baden-Powell of the world community, doing good deeds, not getting killed or killing others.'
The boy scouts of the world indeed.
Mark
Ottawa
paracowboy said:I have no faith in the media’s “polls”.
Who were asked?
Where do they live?
What demographics were approached?
What questions were asked?
How were the questions phrased?
Were they leading questions?
Was Occam’s Razor employed?
Is it an on-line poll where-in people can make several replies?
And on, and on…
(Bear with me, it rambles a bit, but gets pertinent.) As for the public’s perceptions of what we’re doing in A-stan, people should spend more time focusing on who the real asshats are and how we can keep them from hurting all the non-asshats. Reporters, now. They seem to generally fall into the asshat category. I’ve found that most reporters haven’t done their research or are merely looking to promote their own agenda using the cloak of a reporter to do so. The reporters put everything into a broad stroke not giving us enough credit for knowing an asshat from an non-asshat. We’re smarter than they give us credit for. It’s about time we asserted that intelligence. We can do so by writing into the asshats that call themselves journalists and let THEM know that WE know they’re asshats.
We should also stop playing the politically correct card, and speak the plain, unvarnished truth. And demand that our media and especially our politicians learn to do likewise. Or we should start demanding more Statesmen, and less Politicians. The term, no the Myth of the Peacekeeper is the ultimate politically correct distortion. It attempts to portray soldiers as something fuzzy and cuddly. I am not fuzzy and cuddly. I am hairy and irritable.We should spend more time working on the asshat factor and less on the politically correct. Being politically correct is like whiskey. If you don’t have enough it’s bad. If you have too much it’s bad. A medium ground must be found for it to be of any use.
Every country on this planet has had asshats at one point in their history. I guess the best thing is to figure out who are the biggest asshats, today. Right now, the biggest asshats I can think of are the Taliban. They are truly excelling at asshatism.
So, in conclusion I have two points:
1. the media are never to be trusted, believed, or fed.
2. we are doing Good work in A-stan, and killing asshats is part of that.
Who were asked?
Where do they live?
What demographics were approached?
What questions were asked?
How were the questions phrased?
Were they leading questions?
Was Occam’s Razor employed?
Is it an on-line poll where-in people can make several replies?
nope. I wasn't speaking about that particular poll, my fine feathered friend, but rather all media polls in general.Britney Spears said:It's not hard to find, if you actually looked.
Maybe you should heed your own advice before casting any stones about "doing one's research", eh?