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An American journalist's views on our contribution (and others)

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Let me see now. He was a fridge Docter which makes him an expert in world military affairs. Then logically, when i had my hernia in Germany and had it fixed at Landstuhl hospital this was of course a battle wound. I got it storming a hill in Gereral electricland. Gee, thanks for the story matt! Now I to am an inter-net hero.
 
Mattsanchez

              I was insulted by your comments on Canadian Military Valor .  I  am hoping that you will chat with some of the members of this Web site ,  some of them have been to Afghanistan and some have even lost friends.  You should form your opinions about the Canadian Military through them not the Media.  Please remember that Canadains are helping in your countries war effort yes that's right  YOUR COUNTRIES WAR EFFORT   .      SIXTY SIX  Canadains have been killed in Afghanistan and you have by your post insulted there families and there Sacrifice .  As far as I am concerned the Men and Woman  that wear  the uniform of this country are some of  the best this country has to offer and they deserve better than what your giving them .
 
If had ever done his service as a soldier to completion, he would understand that the brotherhood of arms does not contain borders.

His Ire then would be towards those that oppose soldiers here in Canada.  His jibes are no different than those offered to him when he was called a "Baby Killer" in school.  Funny how he took offense and successfully sued them, however he feels fine in questioning our Military Valour. 

Maybe your fellow students were disgusted that the Refrigerators you worked on for the Marine Corps might still have contained Freon.  A deadly chemical for children, don't you know.

And he is the voice of the soldier in Iraq  ::)


dileas

tess

 
Mr. Sanchez certainly has an interesting history, and a unique world-view.  His views, however, do not represent any legitimate group's except those that contain only him as a member, and have no credence outside that small circle.  The fact that he is a citizen of the USA does make him any more twisted or bizarre than our home grown bizarre bloggers - nor should that fact lend his blog any more credence than that afforded Canadian bloggers of similar ilk (they exist).

His views certainly don't "insult" me in any way - to be capable of insulting me requires that the person offering the insult has credibility of some kind - Mr. Sanchez has none (at least in my opinion).  His writings affect me much less than a mosquito's buzzing in my ear - and I give those writings the appropriate attention.

I don't think personal attacks on Mr. Sanchez accomplish anything except perhaps titillating him in some way - and they only serve to bring the tone of the thread to a level he understands - not much of an accomplishment.

Roy

 
+1 Roy

All:  this is a trolling effort by an Ann Coulter wannabe (perhaps in more ways than one) and his only goal - in common with the Rush Limbaughs and Coulters of the world - is to get a reaction.  By posting here, where the vast majority of members - despite some internal differences - are dedicated to defending Canada's honour and security, he is certain to get the reaction he craves.  Indeed, I initially caved in to temptation and posted on his website, so offensive were his comments.

To Mr. Sanchez:  If your comments are more than a drive-by trolling effort, I suggest you check out the rest of this site to help you understand what the Canadian military is all about and what efforts we're making on your behalf.  You might start with the fallen comrades frame on the main page - the one that lists members of this site who have given their lives in defence of freedom as part of the effort you so cavalierly belittle.
 
Agreed Teddy and Roy.

All,

Don't bait the troll or allow yourself to be baited by him. If such characterization of him is wrong then his subsequent posts shall prove such.

Scott
Army.ca Staff
 
Scott said:
Agreed Teddy and Roy.

All,

Don't bait the troll or allow yourself to be baited by him. If such characterization of him is wrong then his subsequent posts shall prove such.

Scott
Army.ca Staff

Comon', to be 'fair-and-balanced' Mr. Sanchez didn't exactly start the thread here, did he?  Who's trolling who?  The responses to Matt's later invective comments are certainly justified indeed.  I make no apologies for mine.  I hate having to take the 'high road' all the time in the name of civility here.  Sheesh! 
 
Mattsanchez

Matt I will fight and lay my life on the line for you right to speak you mind ie your freedom of speech. My family has done so for years, for both sides of the border

Please get you facts correct before posting them, incorrect facts is a sign of a lazy writer.

Here is one for you to look up Why is the White House is White?
 
CWilson said:
Here's a fun fact to know and tell about Matt Sanchez. He enlisted in the USMC reserve -- the reserves during wartime, what bravery! -- in the spring of 2003. He enlistment was for eight years, but he told the Marine Corps Times that he was transferred to inactive status only two years later, on account of a "medical problem". When he became a media star in 2006 on Fox News, he never mentioned his medical inactivation, even when announcers praised him for his military service.

I've asked Mr. Sanchez any number of times to disclose the nature of the "medical problem" that got him inactivated. It has occurred to me that it might be related to his career as a prostitute, which last for at least four years and likely much longer. Oddly enough, he has never said what that condition is. Imagine that!

Marine Corps Times article:http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/mcsanchez070314/

MattSanchez,

Mind responding to the allegations....or are you going to ignore them...thus painting yourself as a troll.

The Milnet.ca Staff
 
Punisher_6D said:
Comon', to be 'fair-and-balanced' Mr. Sanchez didn't exactly start the thread here, did he?  Who's trolling who?  The responses to Matt's later invective comments are certainly justified indeed.  I make no apologies for mine.  I hate having to take the 'high road' all the time in the name of civility here.  Sheesh! 

I didn't ask you to make any apologies. I asked that posters to this thread consider their comments before posting them on a go forward basis. This will both keep the thread on track and keep from providing fodder for further bunfights.

No he wasn't here when this started. I imagine some quick "vanity googling" is what brought him here and he chose to participate in the thread. I fail to see your point...

Bottom line is that if we want to keep this on track and get any point across we'll avoid any form of trolling or petty insults.
 
Recce By Death said:
MattSanchez,

Mind responding to the allegations....or are you going to ignore them...thus painting yourself as a troll.

The Milnet.ca Staff

As the creator of cplsanchez.info, which while it doesn't shy away from having opinions is nonetheless the definitive repository of all things Matt Sanchez, I am committed to the accuracy of all assertions of fact published there. My view is that everyone gets to have an opinion but that there's only one set of facts. Or, to put it differently, someone who doesn't argue from the facts is blowing smoke.

That can be a harsh view, and runs the risk of self-righteousness, but there's no reward without risk so I'll accept the risk. In this case, the reward isn't financial. The reward is to tell the truth about someone to whom the truth is a foreign concept. Call it a character flaw, but I really like to tell the truth in cases like this one.

I have repeatedly asked and challenged Sanchez to dispute any factual inaccuracies on cplsanchez.info. He has offered little but personal attacks in response. This is probably because the site itself -- as opposed to some of the material on the discussion board there, which is a bit freer swinging -- is very thoroughly researched. I am a former journalist whose work was nationally recognized for its high quality. I know the difference between fact and opinion, and I can quote the law of libel in great detail. I figured that, if I was going to create the site, that if nothing else I'd make sure that the facts are bulletproof. Trust me, Mr. Sanchez has met his match, and he knows it.

Thus, when I assert that he's appeared in 39 porn videos, that's not something I dreamed up. It's been reported elsewhere. When I assert that he was a male prostitute between 1999 and 2002, and almost certainly throughout 2004, that's not something I invented. The specific evidence is linked on the site. When I tell you he left the USMCR because of a "medical problem," I didn't pluck it out of thin air. It was reported in the Marine Corps Times. And so on. I'm telling you this not to extend the argument here, but to let you and your readers know that, if Sanchez responds here, he'll almost certainly do it in the form of personal attacks devoid of factual content.

That's all he can do, because he really doesn't have any facts on his side, to speak of. In what passes for political discourse among the American right wing these days, facts are regarded with suspicion and often outright hostility. It's much easier to attack your opponent than it is to rebut his assertions of fact. In today's media, opinions are cheap and facts are expensive, so we're served a lot of opinions and not a lot of facts.

Here's an example of Sanchez's response to a challenge for factual criticisms of the material on my site: http://forum.cplsanchez.info/user/Discussion.aspx?id=45939

Let me try putting this a different way: Generally speaking, I find Canadians to be pretty reasonable people who try to give a fair hearing to just about everyone and then seek a way to split the difference. It's something I admire about Canadian society. But there are people who abuse that good faith. Sanchez is one of them. I'm not going to arrogate to myself the right to tell anyone here what to think. Rather, I'll offer a general suggestion that occasionally "splitting the difference" entails awarding 99.9% of the argument to one view, and 0.1% of it to the other view.
 
I'm not a member of the CF, everyone here knows that, so I'll stay out of how "pathetic" the Canadian military is, suffice to say that my mates from the RCD's who were killed were in no way "pathetic" men and were certainly doing a lot more then finding out what makes a fridge sick.

What i can comment on is your statement that during your "wide" travels you've never met an American pretending to be Canadian. To say this is ridiculous, I've been all over Asia and for every Yank you meet you'll meet a 2 "Canadians" who cant tell you which province Ottawa is in. Come to Australia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka and India and you'll see a massive amount of little Canadian flags stitched onto rucksacks everywhere. And the majority of those rucksack owners wont be owners of Canadian passports.
I'm not slagging off Yanks, but your argument that Canadians don't know who they are is null and void when you compare it to the massive number of Americans that the average Australian traveller bumps into who pretend to be Canadian.
Canadian are proud of what they are, they're proud to be Canadians, they're usually proud to be part of the Commonwealth and they're proud of what they're doing overseas. They don't pretend to be American and they don't like being bagged by someone with the credibility of a dirty dishrag.
 
Hale said:
I've been all over Asia and for every Yank you meet you'll meet a 2 "Canadians" who cant tell you which province Ottawa is in. Come to Australia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka and India and you'll see a massive amount of little Canadian flags stitched onto rucksacks everywhere. And the majority of those rucksack owners wont be owners of Canadian passports.

I'll comment on this because, in addition to the other stuff I mentioned above, I am very widely traveled: every European country (many of them several times) and a bunch of Asian ones, plus several of your provinces four or five times and Mexico a few times. The Americans sporting Canadian flags are backpackers. They're young wanderers who are doing that as a symbolic statement of their disagreement with U.S. foreign policy.

There is a considerable fashion element at play, too. Notice that most of them are male, and I suspect the "gentler" image of Canadians will help 'em score with the women on the trail. Obviously none of them have been to Regina on Saturday night.  :blotto:

It's foolish and harmless stuff, not to be taken seriously. Except when it includes bongo drums played in the middle of the night, or bad renditions of Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot. 8) In my case, I did almost all of my non-U.S. traveling after the age of 30, and can tell you that I didn't meet any Americans who were trying to "pass" for Canadian. I never felt any need to do something like that myself, because on the one or two occasions when I've encountered vigorous criticisms of Bush, it's been easy to deal with. I just say, "Please take pity on me. I have to go back there in three weeks."  8)

By the way, I thought Ottawa was a nice town. Hell of a bunch of parliament buildings. I remember thinking that if Quebec ever does secede and Canada falls apart and we pick up the good parts (along with another 10 or 15 Democratic senators), the place would instantly be the classiest state capital in the country. (Oops.  :P)
 
CWilson said:
There is a considerable fashion element at play, too. Notice that most of them are male, and I suspect the "gentler" image of Canadians will help 'em score with the women on the trail. Obviously none of them have been to Regina on Saturday night.  :blotto:

You make a good point actually! Most the chaps doing it do tend to be blokes and i'm guessing most of them would be hoping to pull with the help of avoiding anti-Americanism. Still, i think old mate Sanchez argument that Canadians dont know if their Canadian or Ontarian or "Insert Province here" is a stupid and ignorant crack. It can be easily countered by reminding him of those people who do avoid having people find out they're American by wearing a Canadian flag. And i have seen plenty of them around the traps in the last few years (mostly long haired, Neil Young loving, bongo players but thats beside the point  :P)
 
Hale said:
i think old mate Sanchez argument that Canadians dont know if their Canadian or Ontarian or "Insert Province here" is a stupid and ignorant crack. It can be easily countered by reminding him of those people who do avoid having people find out they're American by wearing a Canadian flag. And i have seen plenty of them around the traps in the last few years (mostly long haired, Neil Young loving, bongo players but thats beside the point  :P)

Oh, don't get me wrong. I completely agree with you about Sanchez's comment. I could pretty much be the Canadian chamber of commerce. I love the place so much, warts and all, and have loved it since the first time I visited more than 40 years ago. (Canada is the exception to my prior statement about my international travel being almost entirely since the age of 30.) Fantastic country, great people. If the U.S. was more like Canada and less like Texas the entire world would be better off for it. I'll joke about Canada with the rest of them, but when anyone seriously takes off on Canada I don't like it.

Last weekend I went to a Diana Krall show (jazz singer from British Columbia), and I'm a Neil Young fan from way back. I only object to bad Neil Young imitators.  8) You folks have a real good thing going up there, and I don't meet too many Canadians with a lack of national identity. I think most of those comments come from people who are inflicting their own neuroses and preconceptions onto others.  ::)
 
Some interesting stats about the percentage of Coalition Regular Army troops in Afghanistan:

http://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/spotlight/2007/08/13/table.html
 
Personally I think you are wasting time trying to get Mr Sanchez to change his "editorial" about Canadians. He is one of those Americans like Bill and Anne, that Canada was a conduit for the 9/11 terrorists. They don't try and get their facts straight on Canada why should he?
 
Beyond public opinion on the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan, I'm going to add a criticism of the Canadian public school system and the literacy rate.  Are the respondents on this board English-speakers?

According to critics in the media and the politicians pretending to care for the welfare of the troops, support for the Afghan Mission is failing around the globe. Canada has lost 66 soldiers in five years and they're already crying uncle. Jean Chretien, the former Prime Minister, initially refused to leave the urban stronghold of Kabul, where International forces have set up a beer garden and a nice wooden replica of the Roman Coliseum. Chretien probably wanted to resort to that time-proven French Canadian tactic of surrendering without a fight and then insurging against the enemy using the deadly tactic of endless provincial referendums. The recent loss of five soldiers in a single attack sent the Canadian, especially Quebec public into white-flag therapy. Three centuries and some people just can't kick the surrendering habit.

1. Support for the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan IS falling, especially in Quebec. 
Affrontant une impopularité croissante -- un sondage récent a révélé que 70 % des Québécois s'opposent à cette opération -
Le Devoir http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/07/16/150519.html

Here is another comment from the LaPresse regarding the lack of support from the public and the frustration for Canadian troops.

La participation du Canada à la mission de reconstruction de l'Afghanistan ne jouit pas d'un fort appui populaire au Canada, mais c'est au Québec que l'opposition à l'engagement militaire canadien trouve son expression la plus forte. Sondage après sondage, les Québécois expriment une désapprobation manifeste envers toute intervention des Forces armées canadiennes à l'étranger, à moins que le rôle des soldats ne soit limité à celui du «maintien de la paix».[http://www2.canoe.com/infos/international/archives/2007/08/20070803-125406.html/quote] http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=6edb6eb8-a80f-4854-83f5-df620d20bb64&k=43096

2. Jean Chretien was reluctant to send the troops beyond Kabul. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/10/mil-031018-24e657f5.htm

3. The French barely resisted British occupation of Quebec, then called Canada, and have had several referendums since. 

It is also notable that the original stock  of English-speaking Canadians (roughly 50,000) were the loser (aka Loyalists) of the American War for Independence.

I have no problem with the capabilities of the Canadian military.  Most of your equipment comes from the US and the British have left the legacy of a military tradition that has reflected well on Canadians in several major conflicts.  It's the Canadian public that currently has lost its nerve. 


Matt Sanchez www.matt-sanchez.com
Baghdad, Iraq
 
Matt WHat do referendums have to do with anything?

Chretien probably wanted to resort to that time-proven French Canadian tactic of surrendering without a fight and then insurging against the enemy using the deadly tactic of endless provincial referendums.

And the french did resist...France lost to the british and no longer supported the French over here.
But did support the americans when they wanted to boot out the brits.

Matt tu sais tres bien que tu cherche la chicane...
 
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