The CBC’s The National has a feature documentary called Canada: At War, where an American journalist, Scott Kesterson, tagged along with the Canadian battalion, The Red Devils, in Afghanistan. Scott Kesterson’s film, At War, shows a different side of Canadian soldiers, who have shed their UN Peacekeeper image into an offensive fighting force.
Having had two cousins (brothers) in the Canadian military – one died 13 years ago after serving in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the other now in Afghanistan – I have a lot of pride in the Canadian military. After being laid off last July, I’ve have been seriously contemplating of joining the Canadian Armed Forces myself as a change in career.
(Your first link is broken by the way, it’s got a bunch of stuff before the “http://youtube.com…”)
That’s pretty intense. Shows how chaotic and brutal war is and gives a strong sense of how scary it is to be in those situations.
It’s a miserable business fighting people who don’t wear identifying clothing and rely on ambush tactics. It makes you scared, which makes you angry, which makes you hostile to the general population (who look like your enemies), which doesn’t help matters.
I very much look forward to seeing this. Most of the Youtube type footage coming out of Iraq doesn’t give a very good sense of what it’s like to be there… it’s mostly US soldiers hollering, whooping and swearing like frat boys whenever an explosion goes off.
I don’t know why it would make you want to join the Army though!
Fixed. You can also watch it uncut directly from the CBC link.
That’s pretty intense. Shows how chaotic and brutal war is and gives a strong sense of how scary it is to be in those situations.
It’s a miserable business fighting people who don’t wear identifying clothing and rely on ambush tactics. It makes you scared, which makes you angry, which makes you hostile to the general population (who look like your enemies), which doesn’t help matters.
I very much look forward to seeing this. Most of the Youtube type footage coming out of Iraq doesn’t give a very good sense of what it’s like to be there… it’s mostly US soldiers hollering, whooping and swearing like frat boys whenever an explosion goes off.
I’m actually glad that the Canadian brass allowed the American journalist to film the Canadian soldiers. War isn’t nice and clean like in the movies or on the news.
I don’t know why it would make you want to join the Army though!
I’m single with no dependents and thinking of a career change. Since I have an university degree I would apply for the officer training programme and start off as a 2nd. Lieutenant (which would mean a big pay cut to what i was making as a senior artist). Lastly, I love my country and would want to give something back like my late cousin had.
A recruiter I spoke with said there were only three reasons for joining. Perhaps two percent needed a way to pay for school and there were some who wanted to see the world but the vast majority joined out of a sense of duty or patriotism.
I’ve known a few people who’ve joined the reserve and they’ve counted it as one of their favourite/funnest jobs. Their favourite part was apparently the war games with americans.
Granted when 2 of them went to Afghanistan (voluntarily being in the reserve and all) they did move their valuation down slightly but both of them also said they felt better about what they were doing which helped balance out the images of say a group of kids playing hot potato with a live grenade…
To date 1 is still in the reserve over here, ones still regularly going to Afghanistan and well the other was kicked out for selling marijuana to soldiers.
I wasn’t being entirely serious with that comment, I can understand why people would want to. I was just commenting on the disparity between the decidedly not fun images in the video and Eric considering joining up. But again not really seriously.
This footage certainly looks very uncensored. That bit with shooting the knife-carrying man was especially disturbing. On the one hand you can see the difficult position the soldier’s were in, and it is defensible, but on the other the video commentary said a “warning shot was fired” but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. One soldier fires a burst and the man goes down. I think a real warning shot would have made that situation look a lot better than it does. There’s every possibility the man simply didn’t understand the soldiers or the interpreter.
I noticed a big difference between how Americans and Canadians is the media coverage. Every time Canadian soldiers are killed in Afghanistan, usually by roadside IEDs, their names and history is made public on the nightly news. Under President Bush, the media are not allowed to film the repatriation of fallen soldiers’ bodies, but here in Canada the media show the military ceremony of repatriation in Afghanistan and the convoy on The Highway of Heroes, where hundreds to thousands of Canadians watch and honour the dead soldiers as their remains are driven from CFB Trenton to Toronto.
I recommend grabbing the Ross Kemp in Afghanistan series as well, good look at the Brits in south Afghanistan, lots of very up-close-and-personal coverage and frank talk from the soldiers.
Hell, every time a Canadian soldier is killed, Hockey Night in Canada memorializes them. Here, our sports programs are occasionally sponsored by a branch of the military, but rarely, if ever, do you see, say, John Madden eulogizing our fallen.
I really don’t get the glorification of the armed forces or the sympathy for dead soldiers in a non-conscription based army. If you live by the sword don’t expect any sympathy if you die by the sword. The excuse of defending your countey doesn’t fly in the case of American and Caznadian soldiers fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Just signing up and putting on the uniform, you are signing up to do whatever your country asks of you. I give huge credit to any person who willingly volunteers and they’ll have my deepest gratitude and respect.
It doesn’t matter where they die - it could be in basic, or in a car accident on a base in germany, or in Iraq or Afganistan. The point is they had the cajones and the patriotism to put it on the line where so many are not willing or able to do so.
I’ll give them sympathy whereever and however they perish.
Anyway you don’t join the army because you like the current war. I’m going to assume based on your spelling that you were just drunk when you wrote this. Remember that you live in a little first-world bubble, and the difference between the outside of that bubble and you is the armed forces.
I’m very much sober (Although posting via my phone so typos do happen.) and I live very much in a third world country and no, I don’t think Jews are responsible for the WTC bombings.
If we were invaded by another country I’d seriously consider joining the armed forces in defence of my country.
I just think the whole Dulce et decorum est propatria mori mindset that goes with the glorification of war is bullshit.
Before joining the armed forces out of fanatical patriotism people do need to ask whether is is a good thing to give your life to your government to die for whatever goals a handful of slimey politicians believe is important.
Respecting soldiers is one thing (Although I see soldiering as a dangerous job.) but the level of almost hero worship you see directed at soldiers killed in conflicts is disturbing to me.
Finally, this whole patriotism argument doesn’t stand. When you join the army you fight for the whims of politicians, not for your country. There is a difference.
Anyway, I’m realising my perspective here is too alien here to have any sort of constructive discussion.
I think it’s pretty disturbing that you want to draw a line where there isn’t much of a line to be drawn. When the job means travelling to far-off places and killing people I don’t see how you go about separating the people doing the job from the job itself.
Signing up to do whatever your country asks of you is only something worth respect as long as what your country asks of you is worth respect. Following orders does not mean you abandon responsibility for your actions.
Canadians overwhelmingly support our soldiers and respect their sacrifices. At the same time opinion about the war is very much split, with the majority against it at this point. Not because people think we are OMG TEH EVIL for being in Afghanistan, but because they don’t believe the approach will succeed or is worth the cost.
So I think people can make a distinction between honouring the soldiers and glorifying war. Also I think boiling down the job to “travelling to far-off places and killing people” is pretty simplistic. If the soldiers just drove around killed and killed everyone within range of their weapons every day, then according to you their job wouldn’t have changed. It’s sort of like saying a police officer’s job is to drive around and throw people in jail and occasionally shoot them.
I also remember watching a documentary last year about a hospital station near Kandahar. It dealt not only with the kinds of cases they see and threats around them, but their attempts to reach out to nearby communities and the apprehension on both sides (soldiers having to worry about their own security and even the villagers who are willing to trust us fearing Taliban reprisals).
(Edit: Pretty sure it was this episode of The Fifth Estate.)
