In that a Commenter asks…

When am I going to join the war in Iraq?

This comment is the usual leftist crap about the war in Iraq and uses the usual “if you like it so much, why don’t you join”. I purposefully ignored this portion of the statement, as I felt it was a bit childish. However, now I feel like addressing it, so I am going to. It’s my blog and I will do whatever the hell I want.

So, when am I going to join the war in Iraq? Nothing is for certain, but probably never.

Firstly, my country is not involved. I am not a mercenary. I joined the military to protect and defend my country. I definitely believe we should have got involved and have said so to anyone in discussions about the subject and on this blog. If Canada was involved, would I have gone? Certainly. Most young people who join the military have visions of adventure in their eyes. I had that, but I was also fully aware of the risk I was taking. I knew could be sent to any conflict my country got involved in. There were no wars going on when I joined but the job is never safe. Over 100 soldiers have lost their lives in the past 20 plus years on peacekeeping missions. This does not include the guys in Afghanistan. I feel the posters insinuation that I am not willing to risk my life for something is false.

So, when am I going to join the war in Iraq?

Why should I? Should I go and risk my life for a bunch of ungrateful people like the poster? Part of the contract between members of the military and civilians is that soldiers risk their lives and civilians give them respect (monuments, etc) when they pay that price. Does anyone else sense that that contract has gone by the wayside? Why would I want to risk my life for these people when they just slag me for risking my life, what I consider to be the ultimate sacrifice. You don’t have to agree with the war or reasons for it to respect the risk that the person is taking for their beliefs.

Besides, in my old age I am becoming more Canadian. We have been riding the coattails of other countries since confederation, why change now? Does anyone remember the Cold War where we shaded ourselves under the safety of the American nuclear umbrella? I had a professor of Canadian Defence history who used to describe in detail how cheap Canadians are when it comes to Defence. My favorite story is how, just after confederation, the Canadian government hired a bunch of retired British generals to come up with a plan for the defence of Canada. As good military officers, they came up with 3 options. The first option was what they recommended; it provided a good plan at a reasonable cost. Option 2 was a bit on the cheap, but if you did not want to spend that much, it provided some defence which would likely serve us well. Option 3 was not recommended, but it was the absolute minimum that had to be spent. Guess what the politicians chose?

Wrong. They chose option 4, which was to take option 3 and spend about half that. We can't defend ourselves, but no one hates us.

With even Ontario now saying that it is not getting enough back for what it puts in, soon Alberta will be the only one putting in more than it gets back. Welfare, free child care, cushy government jobs. It seems the Canadian way to freeload. It can’t last forever, so we might as well enjoy the ride. In a pyramid scheme, it doesn’t pay to be the last guy to jump aboard.

If this is the way we are with money, why not the same with defence?

Perhaps the only way to save the country is to let everything go to hell in a hadbasket. Maybe then everyone will realize how sick the system is and agree it needs to be changed.

Discuss amongst yourselves.