Master Corporal Byron Greff was a member of
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment .
Not American . Not a merc "contractor".
Learn some facts , and show some respect .
The PPCLI has a history - Korea for instance .
Presidential Unit Citations are rarely awarded to foreigners .
Australian and Canadian soldiers covered the flanks when the US retreated from Frozen Chosen .
Canadian Forces will provide cover for the retreat from Afghanistan ,
of course , so please , declare victory before the USA looses all respect from its friends .
M.Cpl Greff will be honoured in Canada - his repatriation will be seen on TV , if his family gives the OK .
Every highway overpass between Trenton and Toronto will have people standing in the cold .
This Canadian is not happy with the American propaganda machine which hides casualties and ignores the existence of others' sacrifice .
I agree that Terry jones is a crazed American , but he is not a pastor .
He leads a cult which is not affiliated with any Christian denomination .
Indeed , he has condemned " the church " for not sharing his beliefs ,
The right to freedom of speech and expression does not include conspiracy to provoke riots .
He knew he was engaged in a deliberate provocation , and now people have died .
I think charges are called for , and a judge should decide if his secure custody should be in a prison or a mental hospital .
The Egyptian police state is ending .
It will be followed by a military dictatorship .
This will be called progress by western leaders
and their talking head "experts" on TV .
There will be no pink slips for anyone employed by
the Interior Ministry .
A new election will be performed .
It will be as fair and honest and open and transparent
etc. etc. as Afghan elections .
I don't think that Rep. Shimkus believes a word he says .
There is a saying - " who pays the piper calls the tune ".
The failure of the USA to do something about the ridiculous and exorbitant
cost of political campaigns has led to serious ( and worsening ) problems .
A nation with the best government money can buy is not a democracy .
It's an oligarchy .
The only good puns are bad puns , so let's spell that
oiligarchy .
" In a two party system and a corporate-dominated society, what else can one expect but a continual see-saw? "
Sorry Professor, but the money from corporate interests has yielded a one party state .
There's the right wing , and the extremely right wing .
The ridiculous costs which "elections" now incur
have given the USA the best government that money can buy .
It was fun while it lasted ,
but the USA is now alarming friends
and encouraging enemies .
A pity really - much of the world hoped for better .
Dear Professor :
I think that the present malaise in American politics
has a simple explanation .
The USA has become a one party state .
Democrat or Republican voters have no real choice .
The best government money can buy -
that's a problem .
The big problem is that too few American citizens have realized it .
Dear Don -
"in what could be considered modern warfare they practically wrote the book."
May I suggest that you visit a library ?
The Waffen SS were not the Wehrmacht .
The SS were separate - they had different uniforms , rations , everything .
The SS were NAZI party volunteers - the army was not .
The Afrika Corps was led by a general who learned the trade by reading
a paper written by the leader of the Free French ... said he .
His name was Rommel .
Please , go ask a librarian , before your library gets sold off to the library corporation .
My father fought the SS .
Both the First ( liebestandarte ) and Twelfth ( Hitlerjugend ) Divisions .
He said that they were not real soldiers .
They murdered prisoners .
They killed German soldiers who tried to retreat ,
rather than be captured
when they ran out of food water and ammunition .
Jerry - the Germans - were good soldiers .
The SS were something else .
Today , we'd call them international terrorists .
anan - thanks for the clarifications .
No offense taken - I was only asking that readers' ignorance be thought of .
Having to Google acronyms is like reading a paper where the footnotes are in a different book - it's tedious .
Also , I followed your suggestion , and tried to learn about the IMU .
( a random pick )
Google wants me to learn about Inertial Measurement Unit , or some Marketing University .
All I ask is that authors consider their audience .
Anan - please , not every reader is as informed about details as you are .
Spare us the alphabet soup . Use full names , not acronyms .
Otherwise , your comment is incomprehensible , and flaunting one's knowledge is a bit rude . Thank you .
Hussein Derakhshan is a Canadian citizen .
I think that the Iranian regime is worried about the ideas people learn when they live in a free country .
Also , I suspect they are still p.o.'ed about the Canadian caper, when diplomats who were not caught in the US embassy hostage "incident" (outrage?) were smuggled out of the country using Canadian passports .
This complicates things .
I think there may be a problem with how democracies operate .
Israel has a democratic system which elects many parties to the Knesset -
if 10 % of the votes are for the Monster Raving Looney Party , they will have 10 % of the votes in parliament .
This almost guarantees a minority government , dependent on votes from the fringe .
The USA is almost a mirror image .
Ridiculously expensive election campaigns deliver the best government that money can buy . The USA is now a one-party state .
Foreign relations are controlled by the military industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned about .
Domestic policies - from endless warrantless spying on citizens to crimes like Gitmo do not change with a change in parties .
Private businesses - the various Tea Parties- do not even register as political parties.
I won't presume to suggest solutions - that's up to citizens of other countries .
All I'm saying is that democracies have more problems than the bankruptcy of our economic system .
I agree that John Spear's column deserves an award for ignorant propaganda .
I live in Toronto , and the facts are both worse and more complex than your story shows .
Politics - the (imported) "Common Sense Revolution" did harm which has not yet been fixed . Ontario Hydro was broken into four different agencies , with a plan to sell off the pieces . The sell-off didn't happen , but now we pay for four different bureaucracies instead of one .
Nukes - half of Ontario's electricity comes from CANDU reactors .
The "stranded debt" from the nuke fantasy is being paid off with a surcharge on every electric bill ... for decades to come .
The largest coal fired generator has been shut down , so there is some improvement .
Located upwind from Canada's largest city , that's a bit of progress .
Demographics / economics / sociology - I'm not sure which .
Until fairly recently , Toronto was a manufacturing center -
shifts worked around the clock .
Now , with a knowledge based economy , a larger fraction of the people
arrives home in time for supper .
This causes a surge in demand - we turn on lights , watch the news at six on TV ,
cook supper , etc .
Nukes cannot change output fast enough ; the way water powered and gas fired generators can . So, we're stuck .
Just like every big city on the planet .
Until we learn to use less , and spread out our time , that is .
9 to 5 workers may prefer 8 to 4 ,or 7 to 3 , or 10 to 5 - it's only organizing the work .
And many workers would like to see the kids at breakfast , or see them after school !
Thanks for the link to Prof. Schama's interview .
My favorite is at the end , when asked what do we do , he says
" If you're British , we'd give them lots of cups of tea ,
and hope they calm down ."
I love that Brit sense of humour .
Those Tea Party followers could benefit from a nice cuppa - it's therapy !
( But , please , use good tea - tea bags are floor sweepings .
And start with boiling water - not hot - boiling . )
I'm Canadian .
How dare you call the National Post a right wing newspaper !
Newspapers are in the news business , and (sometimes) turn a profit .
The thing has lost money on every copy since it began .
The National Post was created by a right wing extremist named Conrad Black .
A convicted felon in the USA , he recently made the news when he was granted bail pending an appeal and/or re-trial .
In my neighbourhood , when the National Post lowered its' price to 10 cents , it still didn't sell many copies .
If the National Socialist Post is a newspaper ,
Fox News is fair and balanced .
Dear Professor Cole :
Thank you for your blog - I read it every day .
I want to clarify something .
Kandahar is a NATO base .
For far too long , it was Canadian forces who patrolled " beyond the wire ".
In Canada , we see Kandahar airfield every time a soldier ( or diplomat or reporter)
is sent home in a coffin .
There is a " ramp ceremony " which is televised ;
as is the arrival home .
( Our fallen are not hidden , unlike some of our allies .)
This alleged / confessed terrorist is not you average immigrant .
He is a privileged elite rich kid .
I remember the Bader Meinhof Gang - aka the Red Brigade .
Same story there .
Police work brought them to justice , but in the USA ?
Wars in Oilraq and Pipelineistan are expensive , so police are facing layoffs .
I think that rich kids " going rogue " are more of a clear and present danger than any peasant farmer - anywhere .
The idea of a transpolar route is not new .
The problem is that shorter is not cheaper .
It's the cost of fuel that makes a difference .
If I want to move a ton of anything , a ship uses less fuel per mile
than any alternative .
A train is second most efficient .
A truck , less so .
If the US abandons the Pakistani route -
i.e. west coast to Karachi port , rail and trucks to Peshawar ,
and trucks up the Khyber , the cost will not increase .
It will multiply .
I think that is what is meant by spending blood and treasure ...
or wasting ... on a mission impossible .
Master Corporal Byron Greff was a member of
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment .
Not American . Not a merc "contractor".
Learn some facts , and show some respect .
The PPCLI has a history - Korea for instance .
Presidential Unit Citations are rarely awarded to foreigners .
Australian and Canadian soldiers covered the flanks when the US retreated from Frozen Chosen .
Canadian Forces will provide cover for the retreat from Afghanistan ,
of course , so please , declare victory before the USA looses all respect from its friends .
M.Cpl Greff will be honoured in Canada - his repatriation will be seen on TV , if his family gives the OK .
Every highway overpass between Trenton and Toronto will have people standing in the cold .
This Canadian is not happy with the American propaganda machine which hides casualties and ignores the existence of others' sacrifice .
I agree that Terry jones is a crazed American , but he is not a pastor .
He leads a cult which is not affiliated with any Christian denomination .
Indeed , he has condemned " the church " for not sharing his beliefs ,
The right to freedom of speech and expression does not include conspiracy to provoke riots .
He knew he was engaged in a deliberate provocation , and now people have died .
I think charges are called for , and a judge should decide if his secure custody should be in a prison or a mental hospital .
The Egyptian police state is ending .
It will be followed by a military dictatorship .
This will be called progress by western leaders
and their talking head "experts" on TV .
There will be no pink slips for anyone employed by
the Interior Ministry .
A new election will be performed .
It will be as fair and honest and open and transparent
etc. etc. as Afghan elections .
I don't think that Rep. Shimkus believes a word he says .
There is a saying - " who pays the piper calls the tune ".
The failure of the USA to do something about the ridiculous and exorbitant
cost of political campaigns has led to serious ( and worsening ) problems .
A nation with the best government money can buy is not a democracy .
It's an oligarchy .
The only good puns are bad puns , so let's spell that
oiligarchy .
" In a two party system and a corporate-dominated society, what else can one expect but a continual see-saw? "
Sorry Professor, but the money from corporate interests has yielded a one party state .
There's the right wing , and the extremely right wing .
The ridiculous costs which "elections" now incur
have given the USA the best government that money can buy .
It was fun while it lasted ,
but the USA is now alarming friends
and encouraging enemies .
A pity really - much of the world hoped for better .
Dear Professor :
I think that the present malaise in American politics
has a simple explanation .
The USA has become a one party state .
Democrat or Republican voters have no real choice .
The best government money can buy -
that's a problem .
The big problem is that too few American citizens have realized it .
Dear Don -
"in what could be considered modern warfare they practically wrote the book."
May I suggest that you visit a library ?
The Waffen SS were not the Wehrmacht .
The SS were separate - they had different uniforms , rations , everything .
The SS were NAZI party volunteers - the army was not .
The Afrika Corps was led by a general who learned the trade by reading
a paper written by the leader of the Free French ... said he .
His name was Rommel .
Please , go ask a librarian , before your library gets sold off to the library corporation .
My father fought the SS .
Both the First ( liebestandarte ) and Twelfth ( Hitlerjugend ) Divisions .
He said that they were not real soldiers .
They murdered prisoners .
They killed German soldiers who tried to retreat ,
rather than be captured
when they ran out of food water and ammunition .
Jerry - the Germans - were good soldiers .
The SS were something else .
Today , we'd call them international terrorists .
anan - thanks for the clarifications .
No offense taken - I was only asking that readers' ignorance be thought of .
Having to Google acronyms is like reading a paper where the footnotes are in a different book - it's tedious .
Also , I followed your suggestion , and tried to learn about the IMU .
( a random pick )
Google wants me to learn about Inertial Measurement Unit , or some Marketing University .
All I ask is that authors consider their audience .
Anan - please , not every reader is as informed about details as you are .
Spare us the alphabet soup . Use full names , not acronyms .
Otherwise , your comment is incomprehensible , and flaunting one's knowledge is a bit rude . Thank you .
Hussein Derakhshan is a Canadian citizen .
I think that the Iranian regime is worried about the ideas people learn when they live in a free country .
Also , I suspect they are still p.o.'ed about the Canadian caper, when diplomats who were not caught in the US embassy hostage "incident" (outrage?) were smuggled out of the country using Canadian passports .
This complicates things .
I think there may be a problem with how democracies operate .
Israel has a democratic system which elects many parties to the Knesset -
if 10 % of the votes are for the Monster Raving Looney Party , they will have 10 % of the votes in parliament .
This almost guarantees a minority government , dependent on votes from the fringe .
The USA is almost a mirror image .
Ridiculously expensive election campaigns deliver the best government that money can buy . The USA is now a one-party state .
Foreign relations are controlled by the military industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned about .
Domestic policies - from endless warrantless spying on citizens to crimes like Gitmo do not change with a change in parties .
Private businesses - the various Tea Parties- do not even register as political parties.
I won't presume to suggest solutions - that's up to citizens of other countries .
All I'm saying is that democracies have more problems than the bankruptcy of our economic system .
I agree that John Spear's column deserves an award for ignorant propaganda .
I live in Toronto , and the facts are both worse and more complex than your story shows .
Politics - the (imported) "Common Sense Revolution" did harm which has not yet been fixed . Ontario Hydro was broken into four different agencies , with a plan to sell off the pieces . The sell-off didn't happen , but now we pay for four different bureaucracies instead of one .
Nukes - half of Ontario's electricity comes from CANDU reactors .
The "stranded debt" from the nuke fantasy is being paid off with a surcharge on every electric bill ... for decades to come .
The largest coal fired generator has been shut down , so there is some improvement .
Located upwind from Canada's largest city , that's a bit of progress .
Demographics / economics / sociology - I'm not sure which .
Until fairly recently , Toronto was a manufacturing center -
shifts worked around the clock .
Now , with a knowledge based economy , a larger fraction of the people
arrives home in time for supper .
This causes a surge in demand - we turn on lights , watch the news at six on TV ,
cook supper , etc .
Nukes cannot change output fast enough ; the way water powered and gas fired generators can . So, we're stuck .
Just like every big city on the planet .
Until we learn to use less , and spread out our time , that is .
9 to 5 workers may prefer 8 to 4 ,or 7 to 3 , or 10 to 5 - it's only organizing the work .
And many workers would like to see the kids at breakfast , or see them after school !
Why do so many of the settlers I see on TV
speak perfect English , with American accents ?
Thanks for the link to Prof. Schama's interview .
My favorite is at the end , when asked what do we do , he says
" If you're British , we'd give them lots of cups of tea ,
and hope they calm down ."
I love that Brit sense of humour .
Those Tea Party followers could benefit from a nice cuppa - it's therapy !
( But , please , use good tea - tea bags are floor sweepings .
And start with boiling water - not hot - boiling . )
I'm Canadian .
How dare you call the National Post a right wing newspaper !
Newspapers are in the news business , and (sometimes) turn a profit .
The thing has lost money on every copy since it began .
The National Post was created by a right wing extremist named Conrad Black .
A convicted felon in the USA , he recently made the news when he was granted bail pending an appeal and/or re-trial .
In my neighbourhood , when the National Post lowered its' price to 10 cents , it still didn't sell many copies .
If the National Socialist Post is a newspaper ,
Fox News is fair and balanced .
It’s Neither/Nor, Not Either/Or
Dear Professor Cole :
I think the following url may be of interest
to you and your readers .
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/837190--riding-with-ghosts
I have no idea what "winning" in Afghanistan means ;
this is a story about helping .
Dear Professor Cole :
Thank you for your blog - I read it every day .
I want to clarify something .
Kandahar is a NATO base .
For far too long , it was Canadian forces who patrolled " beyond the wire ".
In Canada , we see Kandahar airfield every time a soldier ( or diplomat or reporter)
is sent home in a coffin .
There is a " ramp ceremony " which is televised ;
as is the arrival home .
( Our fallen are not hidden , unlike some of our allies .)
Dear Professor :
This alleged / confessed terrorist is not you average immigrant .
He is a privileged elite rich kid .
I remember the Bader Meinhof Gang - aka the Red Brigade .
Same story there .
Police work brought them to justice , but in the USA ?
Wars in Oilraq and Pipelineistan are expensive , so police are facing layoffs .
I think that rich kids " going rogue " are more of a clear and present danger than any peasant farmer - anywhere .
The idea of a transpolar route is not new .
The problem is that shorter is not cheaper .
It's the cost of fuel that makes a difference .
If I want to move a ton of anything , a ship uses less fuel per mile
than any alternative .
A train is second most efficient .
A truck , less so .
If the US abandons the Pakistani route -
i.e. west coast to Karachi port , rail and trucks to Peshawar ,
and trucks up the Khyber , the cost will not increase .
It will multiply .
I think that is what is meant by spending blood and treasure ...
or wasting ... on a mission impossible .