Personally, I believe extreme governments who ignore the wills and wishes of the people they are supposed to serve is a much bigger threat
Muslim Extremists Number One Terror Threat, Canada Warns
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
If there is one place a soldier should be safe, it is in his own country. Cpl. Cirillo and Warrant Officer Vincent .
represented no threat to any demented jehadist twit. The only good thing about this is that both the
terrorist dolts were shot and killed.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/condolences-for-cpl-cirillo-and-warrant-officer-vincent-1.2809652
represented no threat to any demented jehadist twit. The only good thing about this is that both the
terrorist dolts were shot and killed.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/condolences-for-cpl-cirillo-and-warrant-officer-vincent-1.2809652
While I appreciate the sentiment, at least in the U.S., the place where a soldier is LEAST safe is in his own country. The #1 killer of soldiers is traffic accidents. During the First Iraq War, total deaths in the Army actually went down, because 500,000 of them were in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and not driving in the U.S.
They were obviously driving too close to ladders.
Intersting stat though. Not an obvious one.
You should qualify that as being soldier who have returned home after serving in combat. You version says something completely different.
Point taken. Canada probably has the same problems but to a lesser degree because of the smaller population and the larger size of the country........Hey, there might be people in Canada who don't yet know about this :roll:
Suicide Rate In Canadian Military Expected To Rise Next Decade
OTTAWA - Despite the suicides of three Afghan war veterans this week, a military psychiatrist says there has not been a recent increase in suicide rates among Canadian Forces members.
But those numbers are expected to rise within the next decade as the stress of combat takes hold in soldiers who have returned from the fighting in Afghanistan, Col. Rakesh Jetly said Friday.
That is a troubling prospect as the military grapples with the latest rash of suicides, which are shining a spotlight on the programs the military has available for dealing with cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Critics have also questioned how the Canadian Forces tracks suicides among its members, and whether the numbers paint an accurate picture.
The military doesn't include suicides among reservists in the data, even though it keeps tabs on them, leading to speculation that the actual rates may be much higher.
OTTAWA - Despite the suicides of three Afghan war veterans this week, a military psychiatrist says there has not been a recent increase in suicide rates among Canadian Forces members.
But those numbers are expected to rise within the next decade as the stress of combat takes hold in soldiers who have returned from the fighting in Afghanistan, Col. Rakesh Jetly said Friday.
That is a troubling prospect as the military grapples with the latest rash of suicides, which are shining a spotlight on the programs the military has available for dealing with cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Critics have also questioned how the Canadian Forces tracks suicides among its members, and whether the numbers paint an accurate picture.
The military doesn't include suicides among reservists in the data, even though it keeps tabs on them, leading to speculation that the actual rates may be much higher.
There are many factors that lead to the suicide of a soldier and it was brought closer to home for me on a tour of Bosnia in 00 when the ISO (tiny C/Can like room) bunk I stayed in upon arrival before deploying further had just finished being cleaned up from a Christmas suicide.
I no longer wear the uniform but not a single day goes by (Hell, I don't think more than 4 waking hours go by) that I don't think of the places I've been, things I've done, things I've seen or think about the people I knew who are gone. Every soldier/vet I know feels the same way.
And PTSD affects people in different ways. One of my best friends, a couple good ole Alberta boys who came up through basic together. He was wounded in a suicide attack on an armoured personnel carrier in Afghanistan and carries pieces of a Toyota in him to this day. Several people died but aside from residual shrapnel limiting his dexterity and the loss of hearing in one ear he is alright.........or at least I thought he was until handed a hunting rifle and he couldn't pull the trigger and started crying.
The talibannies like to mock the fact that more combat veterans die at their own hands then the enemy's and there is no simple solution but don't worry (or too bad as the case may be) I'd never give them the satisfaction by offing myself. They'd have to come and get me. However, you have no idea how alien normal life in Canada becomes when you return home from a high tempo operation. Hell, I still can't walk on anything other than hard pack without my body feeling uneasy that it could be mined even though it is a park or the unbelievable stress of watching a movie like Blackhawk Down and then guilt for not being there to help.....It's just a goddamned movie andd not even about your countrymen......it's hard stuff to explain.
PTSD that leads to suicide tends to adhere to most of the items on the below list. For ****s and giggles I've highlighted in red the ones I am more familiar with:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Problems with memory. Persistent, intrusive, and vivid memories concerning the traumatic situation. Events of daily life may trigger distressing memories related to the trauma. Memory lapses for parts of the traumatic situation. Many suicidal people are troubled by strong images, such as the feeling that they have bombs inside their bodies or a knife over their heads, and in recovery continue to be bothered by the memory of having had these images.
Avoidance of things associated with the traumatic experience.
Denial on the seriousness of the experience.
Persistent anxiety.
Fear that the traumatic situation will recur. The trauma is often an event that shatters the survivors sense of invulnerability to harm.
Disturbed by the intrusiveness of violent impulses and thoughts.
Engagement in risk-taking behavior to produce adrenaline.
A feeling of being powerless over the traumatic event. Anger and frustration over being powerless.
A feeling of being helpless about ones current condition.
Being dramatically and permanently changed by the experience.
A sense of unfairness. Why did this happen to me?
Holding oneself responsible for what happened. Feeling guilty.
The use of self-blame to provide an illusion of control.
An inability to experience the joys of life.
Feelings of being alienated from the other people and society in general. I am different. I am shameful. If they knew what I was like, they would reject me. I dont belong in this world. Im a freak, an outcast.
When people with PTSD try to return to normal life, they are plagued by readjustment problems in the basic elements of life. They have difficulties in relationships, in employment, and in having families.
A lack of caring attachments. A sense of a lack of purpose and meaning.
Some chronically traumatized people lose the sense that they have a self at all.
Veterans report the feeling that they never really made it back from the war.
One Viet Nam veteran with PTSD said, I dont have any friends and I am pretty particular about who I want as a friend.
PTSD was aggravated for Viet Nam veterans because they returned to a country that had negative attitudes toward them.
When Viet Nam veterans returned home people were angry at them. They had shamed the country, they had done something wrong, they were potentially harmful to others, it was dangerous to be with them. Suicide attempters often experience great anger from family and care providers.
A deep distrust of co-workers, employers, authorities.
Left with unexpressed rage against those who were indifferent to their situation and who failed to help them.
In personal relationships there are problems of dependency and trust. A fear of being abandoned, betrayed, let down. A belief that people will be hurtful if given a chance. Feelings of self-hatred and humiliation for being needy, weak, and vulnerable. Alternating between isolation and anxious clinging.
Trauma often causes the victim to view the world as malevolent, rather than benign.
No sense of having a future, or, the belief that ones future will be very limited.
Feel that they belong more to the dead than to the living.
The feeling of having a negative Midas touch--everything I get involved with goes bad.
Loss of self-confidence, and loss of feelings of mastery and competence.
A resistance to efforts to change a maladaptive world view that results from the trauma.
A mistrust of counselors ability to listen.
People who suffered traumatic experiences as children, teenagers, or young adults may simultaneously become prematurely aged and developmentally arrested. A part of them feels old. Another part feels stuck at the age they had when the trauma occurred.
PTSD can be worse if the sufferer experiences the trauma as an individual rather than as a member of a group of people who are suffering the same situation. Unlike earlier wars in which units went overseas together and returned together, in Viet Nam each soldier had an individual DEROS (Date of Expected Return from Overseas). This reduced unit cohesiveness; each soldier experienced the war from an individual point of view. Suicidal people experience their near-death situation with extreme isolation. They see their conditions as being completely unique - terminal uniqueness. They have no sense of identification with others.
The severity of PTSD symptoms tends to increase with the severity and duration of the trauma.
The use of alcohol or drugs to cope with the PTSD symptoms.
Attempts to do things to gain a feeling of mastery over the traumatic situation, e.g., become a volunteer on a hotline
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/ptsd.htm[/FONT]
I appreciate you taking it with good will. Didn't mean to detract from your point at all. I hope the Canadian forces increase training on the threat presented by a$$holes to Canadian soldiers in garrison and just going about their lives.
Cheers.
During the UNPROFOR mission in the early 90s before laptops and video cameras and each soldier making his own this was one of the unofficial tour videos and I think it is worth the couple of minutes to watch to get a sense of things. Of everywhere I been Bosnia had the greatest impact. Maybe because the people were most like Canadians than anywhere else or maybe because of the astounding amount of mass graves we had to dig up I don't know.
Road to hell (Sarajevo / Bosnia in war) - YouTube
At the 1:00 minute mark: "She said son, what are you doing here?"
I can't tell you how many times I've replayed that line in my head over the years.
This one is six years later and more fun. If you watch the video you'll see a plane landing that was the pope.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFu6xIAt0aM
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thanks again
I'm just glad someone watches it. If you get a chance to watch other video it doesn't get going until the 1:00 mark. In that video you'll see a guy in our old style uniform without helmet or weapon. That is one of our interpreters but you should have seen mine. Smokin' hot blond no BS. You will see a town at the bottom of a huge valley. That is Drvar. There is a cave there that is famous because Tito fought the Nazi's from it and in WWI, WWII and the Bosnia war each time they would fill a depression up with murdered ethnically cleansed bodies. Right near the cave there is a creek some school kids found a box of hand grenades and were playing with them and we had to clean that up too. OK, I'm taking the fun away. Anywho, fairly accurate look at life there for us at the time.
Just a suggestion. Many here read some, saw tv reports, documentaries as such, but 1st hand accounts from a soldiers perspective is posted in bit and pieces.
Perhaps a thread?
This is a pic/vid montage of 3 PPCLI (Canada's toughest most kick *** BN based in Edmonton) in the stan. The maroon berets on the coffins are worn by the para platoon. The reason you see mixed green (packs) and tan (boots uniform) kit is because this country can't seem to afford both even though we've been fighting in the desert for the past 10 years.
3 PPCLI in Afghanistan 2007-2010 - YouTube
This is pretty much all from around Kandahar but doesn't do the goddamned dust on everything justice. Kandahar province is ground zero for the pashtuns and what people like to call "radical or extremist" Islam but to them it is everyday way of life. One day I'll throw together my own video and I'll use this song.
Matt Minglewood - Keep Your Head Down You're in Kandahar - YouTube
The terrorist attacks in Canada are reasonable reaction to its foreign policy; Canada should espouse a neutral policy towards ISIS: Canadian Imam Sheharyar Shaikh
Sheharyar Shaikh is the former President of North American Muslim Foundation and currently serves as the Imam of Masjid Qurtabah (4140 Finch Avenue East, Scarborough, ON).
Sheharyar Shaikh, Youtube In an article bearing the title “Why Canada Attacks Are Not Surprising” (October 24, 2014), Imam Sheharyar argues that the terrorist attacks south of Montreal (October 20, 2014) and in Ottawa (October 22, 2014) are reasonable reaction of Muslims to Canada's foreign policy since 2001, its military mission in Afghanistan and its support of the US war in Iraq.
Implicitly dismissing the argument made by Canadian Muslim leaders who described the terrorists as “mentally ill,” Imam Sheharyar suggested that the war Canada declared on ISIS (or ISIL) is one of the understandable factors that motivated Martin Ahmad Couture-Rouleau and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau to kill Canadian soldiers. In this regard he called the Canadian government to espouse neutral position towards ISIS.
Imam Sheharyar also mocked Canadian Muslim 'leaders' who try hard to prove their patriotism by “offering condolences” and “presenting colorful wreaths” following the killing of the Canadian soldiers challenging them to make the right and bold move and urge the government to review it foreign policy in order to save Canada from future attacks.
The following are excerpts of Imam Sheharyar's article:
“Both Martin and Michael were Quebecers, Caucasians and converts to Islam who allegedly identified with ISIS.
“I am highly saddened, but not highly shocked. Let’s face it, folks. Canada has hardly been a neutral country in the world in the last thirteen years.
"Despite its peaceful and innocent self-image, it has poodled right into a US-led war that has cost millions of innocent lives and turned tens of millions into permanent refugees in the another part of the world.
“For the last thirteen years, we Canadians have participated in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan – a military fiasco costing Canadians blood and treasure...
“The question is: What did we achieve fighting a US war except lose precious lives, waste taxpayer wealth and incur humiliation for over a decade?
“We are making the same blunder fighting ISIS today. What do we gain by consciously handing innocent people to proxy torture countries while knowing that they would be bound and inhumanely tortured?
“Now by declaring war on ISIS by sending special forces and CF-18 fighter jets for a six-month bombing campaign we are blindly being led to another fiasco. Should there be surprise if there was a blowback, however amateurish, against two soldiers by ‘Lone Wolves’ using a speeding car and shotgun?...
“I am sure the mainstream propaganda machinery will go on a full swing, feeding the ‘terrorist ideology’ and ‘hatred towards our freedoms’ spiel for the violence, without giving the slightest cause for real introspection. I am also sure that I (and anyone) who wants to see Canada as a global moral leader, which refrains from all US wars with a ten-foot pole, will instead be labelled a terrorist-sympathizer. Its sick...
“If a country bordering ISIS such as Turkey, a NATO member and ally, can remain neutral toward ISIS, why can’t we?...
“While the Muslim ‘leaders’ race each other in holding memorial services, offering condolences, presenting colorful wreaths, and making sympathetic gestures for the tragic death of Cpl Nathan Cirillo and obsequiously reassuring the Harper government of their undying patriotism, we expect that a few will have the gall to suggest a review of Canada’s 13-year old war policy under a US mandate.
“If we are truly patriotic, let us protect our country from harm’s way. And if we are a true friend of the US, we would prevent the Americans from harm as well.”
I BET HE IS VOTING LIBERAL.
Sheharyar Shaikh is the former President of North American Muslim Foundation and currently serves as the Imam of Masjid Qurtabah (4140 Finch Avenue East, Scarborough, ON).
Sheharyar Shaikh, Youtube In an article bearing the title “Why Canada Attacks Are Not Surprising” (October 24, 2014), Imam Sheharyar argues that the terrorist attacks south of Montreal (October 20, 2014) and in Ottawa (October 22, 2014) are reasonable reaction of Muslims to Canada's foreign policy since 2001, its military mission in Afghanistan and its support of the US war in Iraq.Implicitly dismissing the argument made by Canadian Muslim leaders who described the terrorists as “mentally ill,” Imam Sheharyar suggested that the war Canada declared on ISIS (or ISIL) is one of the understandable factors that motivated Martin Ahmad Couture-Rouleau and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau to kill Canadian soldiers. In this regard he called the Canadian government to espouse neutral position towards ISIS.
Imam Sheharyar also mocked Canadian Muslim 'leaders' who try hard to prove their patriotism by “offering condolences” and “presenting colorful wreaths” following the killing of the Canadian soldiers challenging them to make the right and bold move and urge the government to review it foreign policy in order to save Canada from future attacks.
The following are excerpts of Imam Sheharyar's article:
“Both Martin and Michael were Quebecers, Caucasians and converts to Islam who allegedly identified with ISIS.
“I am highly saddened, but not highly shocked. Let’s face it, folks. Canada has hardly been a neutral country in the world in the last thirteen years.
"Despite its peaceful and innocent self-image, it has poodled right into a US-led war that has cost millions of innocent lives and turned tens of millions into permanent refugees in the another part of the world.
“For the last thirteen years, we Canadians have participated in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan – a military fiasco costing Canadians blood and treasure...
“The question is: What did we achieve fighting a US war except lose precious lives, waste taxpayer wealth and incur humiliation for over a decade?
“We are making the same blunder fighting ISIS today. What do we gain by consciously handing innocent people to proxy torture countries while knowing that they would be bound and inhumanely tortured?
“Now by declaring war on ISIS by sending special forces and CF-18 fighter jets for a six-month bombing campaign we are blindly being led to another fiasco. Should there be surprise if there was a blowback, however amateurish, against two soldiers by ‘Lone Wolves’ using a speeding car and shotgun?...
“I am sure the mainstream propaganda machinery will go on a full swing, feeding the ‘terrorist ideology’ and ‘hatred towards our freedoms’ spiel for the violence, without giving the slightest cause for real introspection. I am also sure that I (and anyone) who wants to see Canada as a global moral leader, which refrains from all US wars with a ten-foot pole, will instead be labelled a terrorist-sympathizer. Its sick...
“If a country bordering ISIS such as Turkey, a NATO member and ally, can remain neutral toward ISIS, why can’t we?...
“While the Muslim ‘leaders’ race each other in holding memorial services, offering condolences, presenting colorful wreaths, and making sympathetic gestures for the tragic death of Cpl Nathan Cirillo and obsequiously reassuring the Harper government of their undying patriotism, we expect that a few will have the gall to suggest a review of Canada’s 13-year old war policy under a US mandate.
“If we are truly patriotic, let us protect our country from harm’s way. And if we are a true friend of the US, we would prevent the Americans from harm as well.”
I BET HE IS VOTING LIBERAL.
