The PenOpticon

It is hard to imagine what (besides alcohol) was sluicing through the brains of the clowns who urinated on the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa this past Canada Day. But the sad truth is that armies can only go to war to protect the citizens they have — not the citizens they would like to have. The id10ts who pissed on the War Memorial committed a thoughtless, terrible act that has earned them a lifetime’s worth of shame and embarrassment. The only consolation is that thanks to retired Major Michael Pilon (who obtained photographic evidence) these guys have already been caught with their pants down so it should be just a matter of time before they are physically reeled in. While the Harper government decides whether or not assign an honour guard to patrol the national Monument, an unemployed citizen, Don Dawson, has taken on the task. Wearing a red maple leaf sweater and bedecked with a vintage Canadian Legion flag, Dawson spent a full day at attention in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He told the Canadian Press “I got up this morning and asked myself what I could do about this, and I decided to come here out of respect for all the soldiers who died fighting for the freedom of Canada”. Well done, Mr Dawson.

[Too late! -- I haven't had a chance to post this and the 3 culprits have been identified by police in Ottawa. Two under 18 kids from Ottawa and a 23-year-old from "out of town".]

Glad to hear they got ‘em. I was merely going to add that all of this concern over the symbols of war and remembrance detracts from real problems faced by vets. Canadian soldiers who were subjected to Agent Orange sprayed over a New Brunswick military base have been fighting for compensation for decades (and many have already died). Now we read about American veterans of the Iraq war who have returned to face poverty and homelessness in addition to their physical and psychological wounds. It has been noted that the relatively low death rates among soldiers in modern wars means a higher number of severely wounded soldiers that have survived horrific injuries, amputations and other medical complications Still other Canadian veterans continue to fight for recognition and pensions that have been denied for bureaucratic (and racist) reasons.

So, there is little help or money for veterans, but apparently, Harper’s minority government is poised to spend more than $15 billion on new military hardware. Canada has already spent $1.5 billion in Afghanistan, only a fraction of which has been used for actual aid and reconstruction of that country. I still think John F. Kennedy’s observation should be trotted out whenever the military demands more toys: “The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution”.