The world we live in

I know I may get some heat for this post. But this my blog and I will support what I wish without being censored by others. That is my right as a citizen of the United States of America. As you read this please think back to the days after 9/11 and what we as a country called on our president to do...what did we demand those days? Why have we change our mind?

For the Soldiers

I would beg your indulgence on behalf of the soldiers
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A study of people during World War 2, who had
undergone 60 days of continuous combat, showed that
98% of people became mentally unstable and suffered
from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). From these
results, researchers were most intrigued by the
remaining 2%. For a number of reasons these people
didn't suffer the same stress that the majority did.
They were classified into 2 groups. They determined 1%
of people were sociopath to begin with, and were
essentially insane when they got there. The other 1%
had something different.

To put it into perspective, 98% of people are defined
as sheep. These are the normal everyday people of the
world. Productive and peaceful. Then there is the 1%
of sociopath people who equivocate to wolves (think
wile e. coyote here) and prey upon the sheep. These
are the bad people of society. Then the last 1% are
sheepdogs. Those with teeth enough to stand up to the
wolves and protect the sheep.

The sheepdog is often misunderstood by the sheep
because by nature the sheepdog is a predator as well,
and in the absence of wolves this makes the sheep
nervous. They shun the sheepdog. But they always go
back to it when the wolves strike.

The soldiers employed in our countries, not just
Canada, but all allied nations, are representative of
the sheepdog. although we, like the wolves, are
trained and proficient to kill, we are bred to be
loyal to the sheep, and trained with the safeguard of
discipline built into us, so that when the time comes,
we will be precise in our application of those skills,
so as not to harm the sheep, and be a deadly deterrent
to any wolf stalking the flock.

The sheepdog would place itself into harms way
willfully and without second thought to protect those
sheep, and to that dog, failure is not the loss of its
own life, but the loss of one of its flock.

We as soldiers were asked this simple question in a
briefing before being deployed to Afghanistan;

"Are you prepared for the worst?"

Of course as the sheepdogs we were, we all nodded our
heads at the thought of dying in combat against our
enemy, but we were posed this scenario.

"What if they came and killed your children? Wouldn’t
that be the worst thing to happen to you? Are you
prepared for that?"

There was not one among us that could say we would
accept such a scenario to occur. The common target of
terrorism, with every country they have struck, they
have struck at schools. In 1974, a school in Israel
was attacked and held hostage by a group of
terrorists. The aftermath left 26 dead. 21 of which
were students of the school. Since then, the whole
Israeli school system changed. Schools were shut down
and rebuilt like fortresses. Teachers came to school
armed. Busses had armored plates added to them. It is
regulation there to have 1 armed soldier per 10
students on field trips, so frightening the attack
was. Since that time, no attack has succeeded, but at
what price? The country lives in fear of its children,
and the government spends millions a year sustaining
the guards and up keeping schools. The terrorism
succeeded.

Another more recent attack was on a school in Russia.
In Russia it is traditional to have a grand first day
of school. Parents show up with their children and
gather outside to welcome the next year. Beslan was a
small town where nothing exciting happens. During this
first day of school, the school was suddenly and
violently attacked by a large group of armed
terrorists. They took close to 1300 hostages and held
them in the school gymnasium. The older boys and
fathers were taken away as work details to fortify the
school. When they became exhausted they were shot and
the bodies tossed out of a 2nd story window. In the
gymnasium, mothers and little girls were raped
continuously for 3 days. The group was given no food,
no water, everyone defecated where they sat.
Eventually the screaming babies had gotten so bad, the
terrorists gave their mothers the choice to leave with
the baby or give it to the terrorists to take care of.
Many young children watched as their mothers left them
in captivity.

On the third day one of the explosive devices the
terrorists had set up detonated accidentally. The
Russian spetsnaz (Special Forces) attempted an ad hoc
offensive, losing 21 of their own. The terrorist
casualties counted at 49. 344 civilians dead, 186 of
them children. Countless others are scarred for the
rest of their lives, emotionally and physically.

The most horrifying discovery was made sometime later
after the terrorist ties were investigated. It turned
out that Al Qaeda had primarily financed and planned
the operation. According to Osama Bin Laden himself,
that incident was a trial run for what he promises
will happen to every crusader country.

Now, Bin Laden tries his best never to lie. So why
aren't we pulling our children out of school? Building
fortresses like Israel? Posting armed soldiers at
every street corner? Because of the two wars occurring
in Iraq and Afghanistan. They realize that to attack
now, would invite the wrath of the largest nations
armies into full play against them.

Coming back to World War 2, the allied nations sent
millions of soldiers to attack the axis powers, and
even though the casualties counted in the millions, we
pressed forward with the support of our nations people
and we finished the enemy. We put their backs to the
wall until they said "no more!" and surrendered. And
in the case of Japan, a constant guerrilla war was put
to an end by using nuclear weapons on its nation’s
city centers. So far were we willing to go to protect
our homeland.

Since then, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war. The world
has watched as our nations fight, lose several hundred
of our own and the people of our country rose up and
demanded we pull our troops out of those wars and come
home. We did it time and again. Even the cold war we
backed down thousands of troops, dismantled thousands
of weapons. The largest, most powerful nations in the
world, backed down.

And again, they see the wars occurring in their
countries, and they look to our homes and see the
support for the troops wavering, As a handful of our
own come home killed in action. they can sense that we
will give up the fight soon, pack up and go home,
because our countries cannot bear to lose a few brave
and dedicated men and women for a war they believe
does not involve them. For once we leave these wars we
prove once again we have the weaker resolve to fight
them, and this is when they will strike us at our
homes.

Military intelligences have seen this is the common
reason why there hasn't been another 9/11 incident.
they need to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
it is easiest to win at this stage in the game where
our forces are relatively minimal. They will bide
their time and wait for us to cut and run again.

The news stations report our casualties as front line
news. to date, there have been 42 Canadian soldiers
killed in Afghanistan. there is rarely a mention of a
successful operation, killing 163 Taliban fighters. no
details on the 42 Taliban prisoners, their leadership
shattered by yet another successful raid into enemy
territory. these are examples of the numbers coming
out of single missions we partake in.

The conventional forces we deploy in theater are the
most humane weapon we are using to fight the enemy.
the common soldier can target specific threats on
ground. distinguish between friend, foe and civilian.
The soldier on the ground can make a positive
difference to a citizens life in that foreign country.
However, we are but plan A.

The allied nations also have at their disposal,
weapons of mass destruction. from conventional
thousand pound bombs, to a whole intercontinental
nuclear arsenal. weapons without mercy to the citizens
of foreign nations, but completely effective at
eliminating the imbedded threat. to defend your
children, and the children of a nation, what would you
resort to? The internment of every middle eastern
ethic group within the allied nations, and the
indifferent bombings of terrorist states? would their
deaths even be upon the conscience of our leaders?
would it not be the acts of the terrorist
organizations, which warranted such a response?

This is not the most likely scenario to occur from
this. however, it is something to think about. how far
would we go to protect our children? Of course, we as
the allied nations like to play the good guys on the
world stage. we would much rather stay with plan A.
use a scalpel to remove the disease, rather than a
hack saw, but plan A will only carry on so long as
there is support to keep our troops fighting.

Our troops will fight. We will fight because we can
understand better than the sheep, the dangers the wolf
presents. We as the troops entered into our line of
work knowing we could die. we entered our work knowing
we were willing to put the lives of the people we
protect above our own. We are willing to make that
sacrifice so other may not have to lose their lives,
and although the sheep may not understand the
sheepdog's reasoning for doing this, the sheepdog will
continue to protect the flock. We are willing to do
our jobs and serve our country. It's time the country
stepped aside, and let us do our job.

-Private Jeremy Hill 2nd Royal Canadian Regiment

Forwarding Instructions:

If you truly believe in the message here, I would ask
you individually send this letter to those who would
listen. for it is far too often we ignore the FW:
attached to anything. please change the subject to
catch the recipients attention and make sure this
message gets out and support for the troops remains
firm in our countries.

Authors Notes:

the inspiration for this came from a seminar given to
the Canadian troops of Task Force 1-07 by Lt. Col.
Dave Grossman of the United States Army. His speech
was by far the most inspiring words and reasoning
behind what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
included in this email are the wikipedia links to the
two school massacres where you can find additional
links to more information, as well as the site
killology.com where you can find Grossman's books "On
Combat" and "On Killing", both are exceptional reads
for those wishing to understand the soldier and what
he does.

I'd also like to personally thank the soldiers and
supporters of all of the nations involved in this
fight against terrorism. Given enough time, we will
win this war. let us hope our sacrifice is never made
in vain.

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Ma'alot_massacre

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Beslan_school_ hostage_crisis

http://www.killolog y.com/

Sincerely,

The Mama