Salute to a brave and modest nation

[Zef]

Fun to read....!


British Newspaper Salutes Canadian Forces

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Salute to a brave and modest nation
Kevin Myers
The Sunday Telegraph
LONDON

Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.

Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped Glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.

Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British."

The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British.

It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.

It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.

[legion]

Good article...and I'm not Canadian.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Canadian Bacon, that's all I am going to say. Now stop your complaining before we make you the 51st state.

I kid, I kid. It's a shame we don't have a similar neighbor to the S, North America would be much better off. Also, on the upside for you, Canada doesn't catch any of the crap America does. This stuff goes both ways.

[MRM]

My wife manages a business for a large company that sells products to the US military, among other customers. Once she got the bright idea of trying to sell her product to the Canadian Air Force. She actually got their chief procurment officer on the phone and pitched him.

He explained to her that Canada didn't need her product because they didn't really have all that many airplanes. When she found out how few planes they had she asked the natural question of how Canada protected itself. The US Air Force was the prompt response.

[1967 R50/2]

It seems that the people who most often poke fun at Canada, are.... Canadians!! That goes along with the "modest" part I suppose. A little self-deprecating humor never hurt anyone. However, in the US, that might get you called un-patriotic, or some such nonsense.

[Jim Richards]

Canada's alright, eh.

[Tobra]

I knew Canadian troops were over there.

Tim Horton's, un ami sur la route, mmm, donuts.

Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think I ever met a Canadian that I did not like.

[berettafan]

i guess some iraqi must've littered on Canadian soil; what a knob eh!

[Gogar]

Originally posted by onewhippedpuppy

It's a shame we don't have a similar neighbor to the S, North America would be much better off.

HAHA that's probably what they say, too.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally posted by Gogar
HAHA that's probably what they say, too.

What, you think they want the Mexicans? Somehow I doubt that.

[The Gaijin]

Originally posted by Zef


The Second World War provided a re-run.... The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack.

Friend's dad was sunk off Canada five (yes 5) times!

[Porsche_monkey]

Originally posted by Tobra

Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think I ever met a Canadian that I did not like.

I could probably change that.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Tobra
Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think I ever met a Canadian that I did not like.

My last girlfriend was from the GWN and going out with someone in Vancouver right now. Some if them are very nice and sure know how to stay warm during the winters!

[Gogar]

Originally posted by onewhippedpuppy
What, you think they want the Mexicans? Somehow I doubt that.

No, No, the Canadians look directly south, and . . . .

Oh just forget it, eh. It wasn't a very good joke anyway!

[M.D. Holloway]

Quit your beef'n, ya gots mo oil, minerals and fresh water than anyone else on the planet. Ya lucky we don't march on up and have at ya!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally posted by Gogar
No, No, the Canadians look directly south, and . . . .

Oh just forget it, eh. It wasn't a very good joke anyway!

No, no, no. I got it. Damn internet. I just meant it could be worse.

[Zef]

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
Quit your beef'n, ya gots mo oil, minerals and fresh water than anyone else on the planet. Ya lucky we don't march on up and have at ya!

Lucky heeee....!