Support Our Troops!

"JTF2 domestic and international operations have reduced threats to Canadians, improved national security and saved Canadian lives. The members of JTF2 have performed their duties in a manner that has earned international acclaim for its perseverance and professionalism." Chief of Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk, presenting a Canadian Forces Unit Commendation to members of JTF2 for "exceptional contributions to domestic and international operations since its inception in 1993".

Don't we appreciate the personal sacrifices our Canadian Armed Forces, a truly professional group dedicated to the security and protection of this great country of ours? Don't we owe them gratitude for peace of mind knowing how fully we can depend upon the Forces' hierarchy for decision-making and the ordinary foot soldier to do his/her utmost to fulfill the difficult tasks assigned them? We most surely do.

Don't we?

Well, most of us subscribe, in this uncertain world, to the bumper-sticker homilies of troop-appreciation. A fairly thin line, not always well equipped, but certainly well trained, between us and severe problems, even existential in nature, though we've never yet hosted a conflict on our shores. Overseas, they've been deployed, and brought acclaim to their actions on behalf of the free world. And overseas they are at the present time, fulfilling their professional obligations to the best of their considerable abilities.

So, remind ourselves, why is it that their actions in a theatre of war, are being constantly questioned by the opposition parties in Parliament? Hugely concerned over the well-being of foreign fighters whose interests lie in destroying the lives of Canadian troops? Holding the current government's feet to the fire, as it were, condemning it for not being adequately concerned over the 'plight' of Afghan-Taliban prisoners in the hands of Afghan troops - whom Canadian troops have handed over to them.

Now yet another issue, that of Joint Task Force-2, that secretive arm of the forces whose training in the art of ultra warfare now being practised reminiscent of guerrilla-manoeuvres which no conventional army is capable of countering is itself under continual attack for potential malfeasance. The charges: human-rights violations. Against an enemy fairly unconcerned itself with such liberal niceties, more intrigued with the possibility of killing as many Western troops as possible by implanting IED devices.

Critics and human rights groups stand to rigid attention any time there is a hint of a whisper of detainee mistreatment. And then the charges of rough handling belch forth. Special forces members have it brought home to them how vulnerable their reputations are with each charge brought against them. Even though all of the charges have been proven to be without basis in fact. They're doubly-charged; with dangerous missions in which they excel due to intensive training and commitment, and then afterward charged with misdemeanors of abuse.

JTF2 personnel, unlike conventional troops, engage enemy combatants at close range. They are tasked to apprehend certain individuals whose detention can be useful in defanging the enemy, and whose extracted information may be useful to the armed forces battling the religion-fanatical insurgents whose own lack of delicacy in attacking, brutalizing and killing schoolteachers, women and girl students leaves them doubtless puzzled about kid-glove handling.

Because of the close-proximity exchanges that take place mostly under cover of darkness, when JTF2 troops round up targeted insurgents and the occasional target who violently resists, physical harm can come to the resister. Giving ample outrage to those who charge the troops with physical excess in the obvious dedication to protecting themselves from unnecessary personal damage.

"If our job is to pull him off the objective, so he doesn't carry on killing Canadians, then you have to physically touch these people. Ninety of them don't do anything. A couple of them will decide they're going to struggle. Bad call on their part. They're going to struggle and they're going to get hurt in that struggle because our guys are going to protect themselves. That is a better solution than killing them."

Really!