Credit, where credit is due!

What is it with our Dept of Defence and the Federal Government? We send troops into various trouble spots, but never actually take any credit when we do something right, or good for that matter. If something goes wrong on a mission, we hold a bunch of royal commissions, public hearings and such, as should be the case. But if things are positive, we do the right thing, it's like we're the Shadow, we're there, but we're not really there. The latest baffling comments out of Ottawa, come regarding our "mission" to Haiti.

From what we think we know at the moment, we had seven or eight JTF 2 soldiers on the ground Saturday. JTF 2 is our version of special forces. According to reports from Radio France and Australian media, they took control of the Port-au-Prince Airport, so as to allow a larger force to arrive to secure the city from the wanton violence, that preceded the ouster of President Aristide. Now I'm not much on military planning but eight or nine guys wandering around in a very hostile environment, setting up a perimeter and putting snipers in place sounds like a pretty good movie of the week, if not at least warranting an article in Macleans.

On Saturday our government and military officials were tripping over each other saying, no we hadn't done anything of the sort, yet the reports coming out seem to point to a different scenario, one which indeed had the Canadian group at the point of the bid to secure that airport. A rather worthwhile endeavor considering it's the one way to get innocent people out and reinforcements in. The above mentioned radio report mentioned our group, this report from New Zealand mentions our group, yet from what we're led to believe from "our" reporters on the ground, we basically babysat the Ambassador and drove a truck to the airport, which doesn't sound right.

It would appear that we were a tad more involved in things from the get go, and there's nothing wrong with that. This is purely a humanitarian issue for our troops, we're not an invading army, we're providing a sense of security and expertise in a trouble part of our own backyard. This should be why we have a military and how it should be used. Why we don't trumpet our involvement, rebuilding our influence is beyond me. Operational security is one thing, but when everyone and their dog knows your there, you may as well explain what it is your doing.

Of course, the bureaucracy of the military is sometimes more convoluted than that of the public service. We have far too many generals and admirals and not near enough on the ground, working troops, airmen and sailors. We fund them to a point of irrelevance and then expect them to take on tasks that are put together on a shoe string budget, and yet they willingly march off following orders, getting the job done and providing a sense of pride to the nation. The least we could do is acknowledge their exploits instead of pretending we're just wandering around, stumbling across things.

We will somehow cobble together a force to assist the troops presently there, stretching an already thin group thinner. They'll be sent into a dangerous situation and be expected to provide a sense of calm and security to a part of the world that sadly could use it. Yet they'll do it for the most part out of our public eye, the public unaware of the risks they take on our behalf. What we should be doing for them, is to provide them with the equipment and manpower to do the job properly, quit using them for PR points in the world body, yet deny they do the job we send them to do.

I'm not any kind of warmonger, by any stretch. But when you send your military off to do your nation's bidding, the least you can do is acknowledge the fact that they're making a difference. Not hide the fact, lest somebody worry about your militaristic intentions. Our military history is one to be proud of, our current endeavors should be hailed as great achievements, not to be hidden away as they have been by successive federal governments.

We may have to look further (New Zealand, Australia, England) than our own media to find the story, but out there someplace is the tale of our hard work, too bad we aren't telling it for ourselves. Less than two dozen troops taking over an airport, in a city going up in flames. I don't know, in most other countries, that movie would be in production right now.