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Senator Dallaire retiring from Senate

blackberet17

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/romeo-dallaire-senate-liberal-retiring-from-parliament-1.2656795

Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire says he's retiring from the Senate.

CBC News Network's Evan Solomon reports Dallaire is retiring because of a combination of issues: His desire to spend more time on post-traumatic stress disorder research and public speaking on international causes, ongoing struggles with PTSD, and frustration with the continuing Senate scandals.

Dallaire came to prominence after leading Canadian troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

His repeated warnings to the UN and to Canada went seemingly unheeded as Rwanda went through 100 days of killings.

Dallaire has also spoken publicly about his struggles since 1994 with PTSD. He has publicly revealed his four suicide attempts and battles with alcoholism, all brought on from not only what he saw in Rwanda but by the sense of futility and powerlessness he felt after trying to bring world attention to the massacre.

In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire tells a horrific story of having to walk over a bridge held aloft by bloated human bodies.

"On the far bank, soldiers were trying to pry them loose for fear that their weight would pull the bridge apart ... My stomach heaved and I struggled for composure. I couldn't bear the movement of the bridge, up and down on the slaughtered hundreds," he wrote.

Prominently displayed on his personal website are the words he wrote to describe the effect of the Rwanda experience on his psyche:

“Rwanda will never ever leave me. It’s in the pores of my body. My soul is in those hills, my spirit is with the spirits of all those people who were slaughtered and killed.”

Just before Christmas he fell asleep at the wheel of his car on Parliament Hill, jumping a curb and hitting a lamppost. Unhurt, he later explained to the Senate that he was unable to sleep as the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda crisis drew near.

At the time, he also said the suicides of three Canadian soldiers were reviving memories of his own hopelessness and despair after he left Rwanda.

Dallaire was named to the Senate by Paul Martin in 2005. He wasn't set to retire until 2021.

During his time in the Senate, he worked on his Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative, as well as being a voice for veterans. He is also an inspiring public speaker in huge demand, and his workload was becoming intolerable, he said.

He told Solomon he will retire on June 17, a significant date, he explained, as it is the day he learned the French intended to send in a force to stop the genocide in Rwanda.


 
I suspect anyone who can watch thousands slaughtered, helplessly and still has an issue with personal firearms ownership.
 
cudmore said:
Why's that?

Some people like him, some don't.

I'm also not sorry to see his ass end.

But that's just me. We all have opinions. :dunno:
 
So......he lost his soapbox.......geee  ::)
 
:salute:Lots of criticism regarding LGen (ret'd) Dallaire from members of this forum. In all fairness to the man, please substantiate your remarks (if you dare). Unless you walked in his shoes, or were in theater with him, or ever worked with him, you have no right to bash him. Additionally, you may be causing legal implications for Mr. Bobbitt (remember that guy of the unspecified newspaper). In a nut shell, please maintain a level of professionalism.  :salute:

Edited by moderator to comply with forum policy- Brihard
 
Walt said:
:salute:Lots of criticism regarding LGen (ret'd) Dallaire from members of this forum. In all fairness to the man, please substantiate your remarks (if you dare). Unless you walked in his shoes, or were in theater with him, or ever worked with him, you have no right to bash him. Additionally, you may be causing legal implications for Mr. Bobbitt (remember that guy of the unspecified newspaper). In a nut shell, please maintain a level of professionalism.  :salute:

I don't need to substantiate anything. It doesn't have to do with his deployment, walking in his shoes or otherwise. I just dislike the guy. That's my prerogative and there's nothing slanderous or libelous about it. So don't get your panties in a bunch.

And you're not to use that other guy's name on this forum. Please remove it.
 
I first met then Major Dallaire in 1979 when as a new Lt arriving at my first unit. He was to be my first Battery Commander. H e had then and continues to this day to be a prominent voice for worthy causes.

In his current role, Dallaire is one of the very few Senators who on a daily basis displays honour and integrity. His passion for championing the causes of the underdog oftentimes brings these causes into the daylight and out of the dark places that most politicians will never dare to venture into. Child soldiers and Veterans in general are well served by his work.

For those on this site, he is a valuable voice speaking out for those Veterans dealing with PTSD at a time when our National government turns a blind eye on them.

He is to be saluted. :salute: :salute:



 
 
blackberet17 said:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/romeo-dallaire-senate-liberal-retiring-from-parliament-1.2656795

Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire says he's retiring from the Senate.

I thought there were no more Liberal Senators. I can't say I agree with everything he's done while in the Senate, but he's been better than many. In any event, I wish him well in the future.
 
I met then-MGen Dallaire in Nairobi having flown him out of Kigali at the end of his tour in Aug 94. I would not want to have walked 5 ft in his shoes knowing full well what he and his staff experienced during their time in UNAMIR.

I truly wish him well.
 
Love him or hate him, it's a personal preference, however, I don't see the need to make rude comments either.  Just don't post.  It's that simple.


That said, I wish him luck.
 
It is impossible to consider Sen (LGen (Ret'd) Dallaire without considering the events of 1994. He was, prior to that, a rather ordinary BGen - a good, maybe even gifted trainer of troops, but not likely to advance much father up the chain. The decision to send a Canadian contingent to Rwanda was made by Prime Minister Kim Campbell; it's not clear, exactly, why then BGen Dallaire was selected - his language skills were, almost certainly a factor. My sense, at the time, was that Rwanada, at a political level, was very much though to be a "feel good" baby blue beret mission. Then came 1994 ... and everything had changed.

I have no idea how Kim Campbell or Adm John Anderson, the CDS in 1993, might have responded to the crisis in Rwanda and it doesn't matter because they were gone: Campbell had presided over the most stunning political disaster in Canadian history and John Anderson had been summarily fired, albeit with a very soft landing into an ambassadorial level job in Brussels, for daring to criticize newly elected Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's helicopter decision.

Prime Minister Chrétien was a profoundly conservative man, risk aversion was his middle name - he, especially, didn't like military operations because they are inherently risky. The new CDS was, in fact, recycled: Gen John De Chastelain; he had been CDS in the early 1990s and had retired to a lovely ambassadorial appointment in New York, at the UN. He was recalled, by Chrétien to clean up and enforce political power.

In New York we had one of the weakest Secretary generals in UN history: Boutros Boutros-Ghali and, standing firmly in between BGen Dallaire and any decision maker in New York was another Canadian: Col (later Gen) Maurire Baril.

Another key player was the Clerk of the privy Council in Ottawa, hand picked by Prime Minister Chrétien, Jocelyne Bourgon, another profoundly conservative individual.

So, standing in between Dallaire, who was facing a disaster that is still hard to imagine were:

Baril-JMG-Gen.jpg
 
clerk_former_bourgon.jpg
 
VjChastelain.jpg

Key "gatekeepers:" Maurice Baril, in UNNY, and Jocelyne Bourgon and Gen John De Chastelain in Ottawa

And

220px-Naelachohanboutrosghali-2.jpg
 
chretien.GIF

Key, top level, political decision makers: Boutros Boutros-Ghali in UNNY and
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in Ottawa


I guess we might call it a "perfect storm," all the leaders and "gatekeepers" were new to their jobs, most were conservative, risk averse and ill-informed about the situation on the ground. I have seen some of the messages from then BGen Dallaire to NY and to Ottawa - I saw only a couple of the replies but every indication is that he was told to not rock the boat. The boat was well beyond, "rocking," it, and he, was in a HUGE storm - that perfect storm, again. I talked to BGen Dallaire, briefly, after he returned - we weren't friends but we had worked together now and again. It was clear, then, that he was deeply troubled by what had happened and, perhaps, even more by what had not happened. He was deeply disappointed, I think, by everyone pictured above.

In 2005 then LGen (Ret'd) Dallaire was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Paul Martin. Subsequent events would suggest that he was still suffering from the events of 1994.

Just some context for members' consideration.
 
tomahawk6 said:
and all were French-Canadian ?


No.

They two keys, in my opinion, were:

    1. They were all quite new to their jobs; and

    2. Many were either weak or very risk averse.


 
tomahawk6 said:
and all were French-Canadian ?

General de Chastelain is a Scottish immigrant who came to Canada as a child and still has a slight accent.
 
I have no quarrel whatsoever with his military career. Nor him being a champion of PTSD. It is simply his politics as a liberal senator that I disagree with and hence, my dislike. I never said I hated the man. Just disliked him for the reason stated.
 
He has my sympathy for what happened in Rwanda, however once you become a politician, expect people to hold you to task for current events.
 
recceguy said:
I have no quarrel whatsoever with his military career. Nor him being a champion of PTSD. It is simply his politics as a liberal senator that I disagree with and hence, my dislike. I never said I hated the man. Just disliked him for the reason stated.

That duplicates my sentiments.

It's his antics outside of the realm of Rawanda, PTSD. I especially disliked him using his experiences to try and give credence to his other agenda's....
 
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