Wagging the Dog

The media is at it again.

Twisting things to make it look like Canadian soldiers are the bad guys.

The policy in Afghanistan is that prisoners or suspected terrorists caught by the Canadian Forces’ patrols be turned over to local authorities to allow their rules and justice system deal with.

The Afghan authorities apparently still employ the use of torture and physical punishment on prisoners or suspects. And wonder of wonders it leaked to the media. And – big shock – the bleeding hearts are all over it.

The whole NATO involvement in Afghanistan is not to run the country. They have their own laws they have their own values. Where do Canadians get off interfering in their judicial system?

Now I’m not saying I agree with torturing another human being. But if that’s the law in a foreign country – who am I to change it – it’s not my country. This is.

I listened to a commentary on the local radio station today that actually compared turning over prisoners to the Afghan national to the incident in Somalia where a teen-aged boy was killed. Wow! Talk about comparing apples to oranges!

Nowhere in the report out of Afghanistan does it say that Canadian soldiers tortured prisoners. The Canadian soldiers merely follow orders and bring the terrorists - or suspected terrorists, if you prefer, to the local authorities.

The soldiers may be aware of local ‘practices’ and may not agree with them. But seriously folks, should it be up to a 20-year-old private from small town Canada to change the judicial practices of a foreign nation?

If you answered anything other than ‘no’ please have the person nearest to you kick you in the shin.

Render onto Caesar what is Caesar’s - the politicians made the rules – lay it at their feet – don’t vilify the military.

The politicians, not the soldiers, make the policies. And in this case it’s NATO. A little bigger than Cpl. Canada don’t you think?

These bleeding hearts are the first ones to jump on the bandwagon and say that Canada shouldn’t interfere in Afghanistan and yet here they are practically screaming for judicial reform of a foreign nation and somehow it’s been turned around to be the soldiers’ fault.

So B.H.s of the world, what would you have the soldiers do?

You’re bitching about the cost of the war – so I’m guessing paying for a prison up to the standards of North America is out of the question. Maybe you’d prefer the soldiers to bring them home – maybe they can live with you!

Better yet – let’s let them go – let them keep blowing people up and shooting at us.

Let’s disband the army and all wear robes and dance around the Maypole holding hands and singing We Are The World – I bet the terrorists would like that.

Here in the real world I’m thanking God for the courage of the Canadian soldier and hoping that the B.H. reporters can get their heads out of their arses before John Q Public begins to believe the ‘wag the dog’ reporting I heard and read today.

Clowns and Monsters

I started this blog to write about things that I feel strongly about. This is a departure from my normal entries but it is something that has affected me profoundly over the last few weeks. It contains graphic images and may not be suitable for everyone.

Clowns and monsters.

The two most common fears of small children.

I suppose you could include Santa in that mix, come holiday time – if Liam’s reaction was typical of the average kid’s.

I always imagined the monsters to have fangs and talons and to come after you in the dark. My poor mother had to lay down with me to go to sleep for years and that was even with my Kermit the Frog nightlight.

It’s been a long time since the image of Frankenstein or Dracula invaded my R.E.M. sleep. But last night I woke up nearly screaming - twice.

It wasn’t the monsters of my childhood that were out to get me. It was something more sinister. Something that disturbed me more than I could imagine.

You see, yesterday was the beginning of the 1st degree murder trial of a man named Rodney Miller. He pleaded guilty to stabbing his infant son through the heart when his girlfriend threatened to commit suicide if he didn’t kill the baby.

The local radio stations carried synopses of his confession where he described how he killed the baby. He said he “stabbed the baby’s heart and felt him go limp in his arms and that’s how he knew he was dead.”

Just like that.

And just like that something inside me screamed. Something from my nightmares reached out and wrapped it’s cold hands around my spine. And I instinctively reached for my own infant.

I smelled her baby smell. I felt her warm weight in my arms. I felt her body next to my chest and I cried.

If these two didn’t want a baby why not just drop it off at a hospital? Why not call Social Services? Heck, why not just put it in a gym bag and leave it in the mall where someone would find it?

There are thousands of families in this country that would have taken that baby and loved him and raised him and adored him for their entire lives – so pretending there was no other option is ridiculous.

He should have handed his girlfriend a rope and told her to have a ball. Instead he did something that, I hope, haunts his dreams every night like it haunted mine tonight.

They were his parents! They were supposed to love him unconditionally! And if they couldn’t provide for him – they should have loved him at least enough to give him to someone who would.

I hope they rot! I hope they rot in the darkest, dankest part of the deepest dungeon that Corrections Canada can find until everyone that ever cared about them forgets them. Because that’s what they deserve.

That’s what all monsters deserve.