The Ruxted Group

Interesting perspective, you have made a number points that I feel compelled to address.

You see conspiracy in the media against your political perspective. Indeed you also blame me for those errors, as if I am responsible for the unfamiliarity that journalists have with the Armed Forces and the profession of arms. The Left also has its perspective on the media, being that it is corporatist and right of centre for the most part. So who is correct? Perhaps both.

Certainly, however, I have not for a moment misrepresented myself or the CF while speaking to the media. I have made it a point to discuss the difference between reservist and regular forces and the methods of deployment. Your groups stated purpose of bringing attention to the mistakes in the media in how it reports issues related to the profession of arms and the defense arena is a commendable one. I myself have witnessed and been frustrated by the lack of understanding displayed by many journalists, and have made many attempts to ensure correct reporting on this issue. Your job of increasing this awareness and working for understanding should continue in force.

The Ruxted Group should, however, not fall into the trap of taking that poor reporting and perpetuating it in order to discredit an individual such as myself. You have made a tactical error by blaming me for misrepresenting the truth while failing to do so yourself. Your statement that there should have been rudimentary fact checking also extends to you, and your errors could have been avoided by simply contacting me.

Your Group claims to be apolitical, fair, and just. Free to criticize ideas and actions…not people. Yet you have clearly sought to discredit me for political purposes. Your work in increasing the public knowledge of defense related issues and the profession of arms is vital to the national debate, however, you do your purpose a disservice by failing to meet your own professional goals.

Labeling me as irresponsible and without honour is a cheap shot not conducive to a sober and well-informed dialogue, and it lowers the standards of your Group. Not one moment of the service I dedicated to my country can be taken away by anyone. I was honoured to work with many during my time in the Navy and Army…men and women who continue to serve their country even while the Conservatives use them in a poorly planned mission out of step with our country’s place in the world community.

There are indeed some larger issues that all segments of the political spectrum need to debate in relation to the external use of our Armed Forces. How does Canada as a nation want to respond in areas of conflict in Afghanistan and beyond? We must acknowledge the roots of that conflict and not fall into strategic responses with limited analysis of the theatre of operations. By ignoring the history and will of the indigenous population of the conflict area and subjugating to the Western strategic considerations, we are doomed to failure in the region. The use of military force only turns the population against our involvement and augments the power of the warlords involved in the opium trade as they attempt to finance their end of the conflict. The world community is holding its breath collectively for the change in leadership in the United States. NATO partners are indeed unwilling to continue the military campaign because the global consensus is that the Bush administration has failed in its overall strategy in the War on Terror. Recognition is widespread amongst our NATO partners that we need a new plan that does not augment the power of the Taliban or warlords. As proud as we are to send our troops to assist our strategic partners we must remember the most important part of the equation…the Afghan people.

But that raises the question of whether you admit to irresponsible or dishourable behaviour. Do you suppose all of your public conduct in this matter to have been responsible and honourable, or not?

For someone who set out to be an officer, you have a curious sense of what is irresponsible and dishonourable, and what is not. I've personally known plenty of people who quit the CF (mostly reservists) on good or bad terms, a few of whom may have had legitimate grievances. I can't recall offhand any that permitted themselves to be poster boys - whether as willing associates or as indifferent or unwilling pawns - for political parties and media. I suppose you could look across the entire set of people released from the CF over decades and find a handful. Of how many people do you know who made a Return To Unit (RTU) from course or a release - voluntary or otherwise - a public affair?

This isn't about Canadian foreign and defence policy. This is about you, and whether you deliberately or ignorantly misrepresented conditions of service or circumstances of your release, or whether you permitted media to do so, and when or whether you objected to any misrepresentations that were not your own.

Fortunately, you have the power to lay all such questions to rest. Since Big Media don't control Ruxted, you can lay out all the facts as you know them right here and settle all the questions of what you said and what you meant, what you did and what was done, and what the media interpreted wrongly.

I respect you for making the choice to no longer serve based on your own personal opinions of government policy. However to allow or actively suggest you are a subject matter expert from a military perspective on the mission in Afghanistan is a HUGE stretch. It`s been pointed out, and clearly so, the chance that you would have been deployed is zero - unless you volunteered. You mention in a youtube blog that many are suckered into the armed forces - Is it possible you felt suckered because you were not informed and chose to remain ignorant, or you felt that you could take without having to commit to anything. On the same token I can`t imagine how you are able to suggest many others are as immature in their decision making. It seems now you are getting a lot of play as a self stylized martyr without ever having put yourself out there. Also it appears you maintained an air of ignorance when you decided to join the infantry after serving in the Navy. Now you speak about things that may have been, after many many ifs like if you had followed through your training and if you were successful in completing the rigours of becoming an Infantry Officer, if you volunteered, if you found yourself in a comd role, - from this basis you imply you have some real experience based on what may have been, but never came to pass as you chose a differnet path. You don`t know anything about the real mission on the ground, you have your personal perspective only and some notion that this is an unjust and ill considered mission. I can only say your entitled to you opion but you don`t have any clue what the senior commanders, political leadership and even what a junior infantry officer does and to what lengths they go to plan and support all aspect of the greater mission. As an Infantry Officer who has completed all training, lived in battalion and deployed to Afghanistan I have to say your idea of what your job may have been is a load of self grandeurized crap. I particularly find it unsavory that you try to gain personal empathy by an idea that you may have had to ask people to do difficult tasks. It didn`t happen, you never lived it so please stop milking the sentiment, its delusional.

You question what it is that we are doing but never had the conviction to find out the answers first hand. Fair enough this isn`t for everyone.

Certainly this mission can be debated has been debated and should be reviewed against goals social, cultural and political. But be honest about your very very limited understanding of the mission on the ground, take the catch phases and most common arguments and ear catching statistics and regurgitate them for whatever audiance wished to listen but don`t think for a minute you have any basis to contextualize this with your `military experience`

Why is the blame on Stephen Harper? It was Jean Chretien that initially sent the Canadian Forces to Afghanistan. Then it was Paul Martin that extended the mission. Stephen Harper extended it further.