Somebody help this poor goober

Some news makes me happy, some helps me understand a complex subject and occaisionally I hear an item that puts me into a silent rage. Last night there was an item on that made me feel like going to the Ottawa Department of National Defence with a big ugly stick and straighten some bureaucrats, senior advisors etc up with a damn good pounding, thats how pissed off it made me.

Barbara Bud was interviewing an MP (Cheryl?) about a constituent of hers who was a member of JTF2 (Joint Task Force 2) a military unit which replaced The Airborne Division. Remember the disgraced Airborne Division, They had been in Somalia on a peacekeeping stint when a thief coming into their camp had been captured and killed. That incident kind of annoyed me, not with the guys who caught the thief, but with the nutcase commander who decided to send an elite combat unit into the middle of the desert to babysit a pile of relief supplies, about the most inappropriate deployment you could ever dream up.

I met a guy who had spent 6 months in Somailia and when he told me his experiences, it resulted in my having thoughts about taking that stick to Ottawa. He told me that after being there for a while you couldn't help but start to hate the men, and that all the Canadian troops felt the same. The reason, because of the way they treated women and children. I guess that in that culture men don't work, they expect women to do everything for them, grow food, gather wood, look after children and service the men. If there is food available the men take it, if they want something, they send a women or child to get it for them. He told me the men actually only did three things, laying around in the shade with their friends, looking to take or steal something and keeping every woman in the village pregnant.

Now please somebody tell me that the brass in Ottawa must have known these were the conditions, because if they didn't know there is something dreadfully wrong with the military's communication system.

So into this environment somebody decides, let us send in our shock troops to guard a pile of wheat. As I recall it "The Airborne Regiment" was kind of Canada's equivalent of the US Navy Seals or Britains SAS. Most countries with a sophisticated military have a unit like this. I think its the result of military commanders playing one to many games of "roguespear" and they get to feel game scenarios actually happen. I can see the grim faced men sitting around the big army board discussing "what do we do when terrorists come in and take over the headquarters of CCRA in an attempt to steal the content from their training manuals". The answer, we need a group of highly trained motherfucker killers to send in guns blazing so get them ready.

So The Airborne Division was developed, now even a fool like me can figure out that when a bunch of guys hear that a fighting unit is going to put together thats based on an army video game the volunteers jumping up are going to bring a new element to the definition of "macho man".

If there is a need for brute force and commando style tactics these are the guys you are going to send. Remember the TV images of the unit, shaved heads, bulging muscles from all the iron they pumped, tatoos, sloping forheads, raw meat on the mess table and a porn video playing in the background, get the picture.

So here are these guys sitting around for months in the sweltering heat being eating alive by sand fleas and building up a hate for these useless lumps of crap they see sitting around abusing their women and children, what the hell did headquarters think was going to happen if one of these guys breaks into their camp in the middle of the night and tries to steal their stuff. I can tell you he won't be threatened that if he doesn't shape up they'll write a letter home to his mother. What happened was wrong, but this unit should never have been placed in that situation. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have sent in some bean counter, yes sir, no sir regimented followers. Surely there is plenty of them in the military and they would have fit in fine.

But back to JTF2, Canada decided aftre the airborne was disbanded they needed an elite fighting unit so this was it. Now it seems that this group and what it does falls under the umbrella of National Security (whatever that is) after all this is Canada. The story as reported was about a JTF2 member who was injured while on an assignment (Afghanistan probably) and suffered an injury serious enough to affect his ability to work at things he was trained for so he left the service. Being disabled and a Veteran he applied for a military disability pension.

Here is where a cloud of steam begins to rise.

In order to receive a military disability pension the request goes to the Department of Veterans Affairs who review the circumstances and determine eligibility. To review the circumstances they get a copy of the incident reports in a persons file from National Defence, sounds pretty straightforward doesn't it, well here is where the gooney birds attempt flight.

Because the activities of JTF2 is considered to be a National Security issue they don't keep records or reports on their activities, it seems everything they do is considered clandestine. So we arrive at this situation, Veterans Affairs can't proceed because there is nothing to base a claim on because JTF2 officially doesn't do anything. The soldiers he served have been told that if they comment on the case to verify what happened they will be prosecuted for spilling the beans on a National Security issue. I say unless he fell out of heliocopter on some hairbrained scheme that failed like storming the KFC headquarters to get the list of secret ingredients, fess up. If it was Afghanistan and Osama Bin Ladens cronies,what the hell they probably already know we sent some guys over to shoot them.

Its getting pretty easy to see why this guy probably is feeling like visiting Ottawa himself with the big ugly stick I was talking about, that is if he is physically able to still swing it.
Now there is nothing I hate more than mindless bureaucracy and the inability of people in charge to make decisions. When you combine those elements within government you create incredible frustration for people and establish a case for completely eliminating the job of the bureacrat who can't get past not doing anything.

This guy doesn't stand a chance unless somebody goes to bat for him so might I suggest a solution. The Minister of National Defence calls the Minister of Veterans Affairs and says it looks one of our good guys is experiencing a problem the system can't handle so why don't we fix it up for him this morning and put his first cheque in the mail this afternoon. All it takes is a pea brain and some balls, Case closed