article that preaches negative perspective about the youth of the CF

[dynamictension]

This my 5th month in the CF, and just recently at moss park armoury located in toronto ontario, we had a columnist from a magazine come down to write an article on what the military co-op program is up to, and what we are accomplishing. after reviewing this article, i can see that it is very biased, and once again, it's another article that bashes the CF. honestly im sick of people trying to send negative information to the community, we have enough citizens who dislike what the military beholds (thanks to losers who feed them garbage and their opinions that are really useless), nevermind adding to that number by creating an article which makes the youth of the CF look like we were pressured into this, when it was all our own choice, and no one elses.  http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-05-25/news.php         

this article is disturbing in some aspects i suggest everyone read it       

 

[Five-to-One]

I had a look through that website and it seemed to be one of those liberal heartbleed places, people who go there are probably looking for that kinda sh*t material, I doubt it will change many opinions but hey soldiers actually doing their jobs is still a shock to many Canadians so just bear with it till they come around

 

[HDE]

NOW isn't exactly known for Pulitzer Prize quality journalism, folks!  Basically it's a Toronto-centric current events/arts/escort agency listings in the classifieds sort of deal.  I'd imagine NOW readers have already pretty much decided that the Conservatives/America/nuclear families/militaries, etc are really bad.  By all means check it out but take it for what it is

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

I suppose "right out of highschool" is a bad time to consider your future employment. Perhaps a few years of petty crime and drug experimentation are more in order.

 

[GAP]

The article is nothing but bias anti-American crap. The people involved in the co-op  program (or somebody connected) needs to counter this article with the values of the program, etc. Considering where it is written, I don't have much hope.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Fast times at Machine Gun High
Stretched armed forces quietly lure high-schoolers with promise of credits and cash
By ANDREW CASH

"Quietly lure"? Our recruiting isn't exactly a secret, and I thought you can't go overseas until you're 18 years of age, so what is the harm?

After MPs narrowly voted last week to extend our military mission in Afghanistan for another two years, most Canadians are still wondering how we morphed from UN-supporting peacekeepers into counter-insurgency killers of "scumbags" to borrow General Rick Hillier's delicate phrase.

We've always been trained for war - Cash doesn't get it though he may be correct in that "most Canadians" don't understand that either.

Just before the debate and vote in the House, we learned, sadly, of the death of Captain Nichola Goddard. Watching the news, I was jarred by a small biographical detail: she had joined the army right out of high school. That made me think of the large military recruitment poster I'd seen recently in the guidance office at my son's high school.

She knew what she wanted to do and did it. Better she should piss away government loans at University "finding herself" with a useless arts degree?

It bothered me, that poster. It seemed so terribly out of sync with the confusion Canadians are experiencing over this sudden redefinition of our mission in the world. Do we really all agree that the Toronto District School Board should be allowing the military to freshen its far from robust ranks by infiltrating our places of learning?

Infiltrating? Just as lilely they were invited by the school's guidance counsellor.

But it isn't just a few posters on guidance office walls. In a drive to expand the forces to fulfill its new, and unexplained, mandate, the Canadian military has partnered with the board to offer a military co-op program.

Again, they were likely invited to do so.

In both Toronto's public and Catho-lic boards, the plan pays kids to join the reserves, gives them four high school credits and trains them in, among other soldiering arts, machine gun shooting and grenade throwing. For bored and impressionable teenagers, how cool is that? For the 18 kids in the Toronto program, I came to realize dishearteningly, the answer is very cool.

"Dishearteningly"? Is this an opinion piece or a factual article?

Can't read the rest of the crap.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I suppose "right out of highschool" is a bad time to consider your future employment. Perhaps a few years of petty crime and drug experimentation are more in order.

Or using government loans while you go "find yourself" at college skipping classes on Underwater Basket Weaving and spending the cash on ski trips.  :

 

[pte. Massecar]

Better she should piss away government loans at University "finding herself" with a useless arts degree?

I feel the same was as you Michael, being in the CF for 3 years, joined while in highschool. But, no need for the comments about getting a university arts degree. You can do alot with one. Including being  amilitary historian and supporter of the CF. SO, frankly this comment is unwarranted. If you meant SHE wasted a good arts degree, then I concurr.

 

[Shec]

Don't sweat it kid, it goes with the territory.   The detractors, the critics, the peaceniks whose freedom you are defending have always been there and always will be there.   When i was in during the early '70's at the tail end of the Viet Nam war we got the same disgusted intolerance.  They are the not so silent minority who are only able to voice their opinion because you are willing to pay the price of that freedom of opinion. On the upside there are more out there, albeit silent ones, that indeed respect you - the bus driver who lets you on for free when you are in uniform and on your way to the armoury,  the immigrant from a war torn land who was liberated by your brothers in arms who stops to give you a lift  to that bus stop, the growing 1000's of ordinary  and anonymous citizens who lay poppies on the grave of the Unknown Soldier every November 11.   Do yourself a favour, think of them the next time some pacifist candyass assaults the uniform you wear. 

 

[Brad Sallows]

>the fact that a soldier is trained to kill and die on command.

Holy sh!t.  We're not training soldiers; we're training samurai.

 

[FredDaHead]

I think the author would rather have kids join the leftist conspiracy theorists at Civvie U for three/four years and do a bunch of "civil disobedience" on a regular basis, and be completely brainwashed, before they can make choices on their own.

Something that bugged me: "army fatigues and polished boots". Am I part of the only IAP class that was told not to spit-shine our combat boots? Or maybe the propagandist journalist has never seen anyone wearing something other than sneakers?

I am hearing anecdotally that there's a stepped-up presence by the military generally in schools, and I think this is alarming.

Oh my god, the evil fascist military people are going to take over the schools and take away any student that shows independent thought! Let's all whine and bitch until they go away!

new U.S.-inspired war aims

So... wanting to actually do our job is US-inspired? ...I guess the cops' job is "US-inspired oppression"?

Non-violence trainer and writer Len Desroches says all the talk about school boards merely offering career options just doesn't wash, because young people aren't being allowed to make fully informed choices.

And removing the military possibility is going to allow kids to make fully informed choices, how?



As for the last bit, about some Catholic high school wanting to remove the military presence and all that, while bitching that the military preys on "economically vulnerable" kids... Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it's a "Catholic" school, it's private, right? And if it's a private school, then rich kids go, right? Then where's the problem?

I agree with the solution that was proposed (adopted?) in the US (though in their case it applies to universities): if the military can't advertise in the school, the school loses it's government funding.

 

[hayterowensound]

Does the media have nothing else to do? I am getting so tired of the military getting bashed all the time. :rage: I cannot see anything wrong with some students/soldiers getting some self discipline while going to school. I think that is the biggest thing lacking in our schools!

Any co-op students/soldiers  reading this, Canada needs more people like you guys .  Hold your head up high and soldier on.

 

[Cloud Cover]

As for the last bit, about some Catholic high school wanting to remove the military presence and all that, while bitching that the military preys on "economically vulnerable" kids... Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it's a "Catholic" school, it's private, right? And if it's a private school, then rich kids go, right? Then where's the problem?

Depends on where you live. In Ontario, where this article is written, they are both publicly funded. You also have to consider this article was written by a journalist of magazine known to be on the extreme left of the political spectrum. As for the Christian Peacemakers et. al coming into highschools, there is a big difference between the armed forces of the country operating a co-op program vs. unorganized fringe/anarchy/ groups (and in at least one of the alternative examples listed by the journalist, an certain organization that is both anti-Christian and terrorist friendly.)

 

[Jarnhamar]

I think if someone ordered me to go die I'd tell them to fuck their hat.


So yoga flying nutbars targeting schools is OK. Military which gives EVERYONE the oppertunity to choose what they believe in what silly god they follow and what crook they vote for is bad.

Got it.

 

[boots]

I sometimes wish I had thought about this when I was just getting out of high school. I might have, if we had had recruiters on campus. At that time in my life, I could have used the focus and discipline. And I'd have made Captain by now

 

[Trinity]

Actually I like the article.

Sure, its dribble.  But I bet any 17 or 18 year old who reads it will want to join.
Even the guy writing the article says the military is physically and mentally challenging
and he got excited about what he saw. 

Lots of flagrant and stupid things, but Die on Command.. right.  Show me in your
notes pal where you got that information.  Oh right, liberal propaganda.  I wish we
could hold these people accountable for comments like this.

 

[The_Falcon]

There is a reason you can get NOW magazine for free on most street corners in Toronto, you would have to be off your nut to pay read that crap.  To me it seems this "author" is a little uncomfortable with the idea that there can actually be discipline and order in a classroom, and that people actually seek out activites that are both physically and mentally challenging.  The big thing that I noticed (not that it was really suprising either) was the fact that they never knew this program existed, that they think this is a recent program and that it was one big secret. Talk about dropping the ball.  The author could have (but obviously choose not to, lest they give up thier anti-us stand) at least researched the history of this program in Toronto, and discovered that this program has been going on long before the conflicts in A-stan and Iraq.  We were looking at this article in the mess on friday, had our laughs and then promptly threw this tripe in the GARBAGE were it belonged.

 

[couchcommander]

"Are they being sold a benevolent Captain Canada only to find that they are being shot at and shooting people?"

Oh yes... very sneaky, the military is definately surgar coating everything TO LURE THEM IN!...

"Careful," yells the instructor as one kid gets up on his hands and knees to fix a jammed gun. "You do that on the battlefield and you're dead."

Oh, ooppps, nvm (from the same article, just nearer the beginning).

 

[career_radio-checker]

I for one can't wait to go back to school. Luckily the University of Ottawa is a moderate thinking institution, very little propaganda from either side. I was actually reruited at my university and yes I was an 'economically vulnerable' student who was looking for a job. Best job I ever took... Then they suckered me into comming to Wainwright for 5 months *shakes fist*.  just 30 more days, 30 more days!

 

[pbi]

Isn't it amazing how, when these people decide to make a point, they immediately distort and telescope history so that events occured in the order that they need them to? Like Co-op being invented to meet our recruiting needs for Afghanistan?

Once again, we are eating the fallout of that very ill-considered and dishonest decision to paint the CF (and especially the Army...) as the Happy Blue Peacekeeper guys. We did tijs for so long, so successfully (even though we knew damn well it was not what we were about) that now we are having difficulty shaking it. Never again.

Cheers