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THE EVIL MILITARY INFLUENCE ON CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES-WWW.KNOWWAR.CA

pbi

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Check this site out. It seems to be under construction, but I  can hardly wait until they expose the wicked military conspiracy to take control of our universities, along with the equally wicked contractors who supply us with our devilish engines of war. Here's the letter I sent them (and journalist Ken Wiwa of the The Globe and Mail who praised them in his article today...):

Dear Tim:

I read about your website in Ken Wiwa's Globe and Mail Article of 13 March 2005 "How Canadian Campuses Resemble African Countries".As an officer in the Canadian Army, one who has served in both Arica and Afghanistan (among other places), I was naturally interested to see what connections your organization was going to draw between the Canadian Armed Forces and the instituions of Concordia and McGill. I assume that, since you feel the need to "expose" these connections, they are deemed to be implicitly bad.

I assume that there must be quite a bit of work left to be done on the site, as apart from an open-source listing of  companies that provide military supplies to various countries in the world, I couldn't find your explanation of what harmful connections exist between the Canadian Armed Forces and the two institutions. I could suggest a few, although perhaps not as nefarious as you are probably looking for:

My Regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, proudly carries in its annals the story of the "McGill Men", a body of young Canadian men, all students at McGill, who volunteered en masse to fight with the PPCLI in the First World War. This is a connection that the University can be as proud of as we in the PPCLI are;

Hundreds, if not thousands, of officers in the Regular Canadian Armed Forces have received their degrees through the two Unversities(along with most other major Canadian schools), either at their own expense before enrolling in the military, or at public expense through various in-service subsidized education programs. Along with their citizen-soldier comrades in the Reserves who have also obtained their higher education at these institutions, these officers have gone on to lead Canadian soldiers in probably every military operation we have been engaged in since the days of the McGill Men. Thus the two schools have contributed materially to making our military what is it today; and

research done either at the institutions or by the companies on your "hit list" ensures that (when our Government sees fit to spend the funds...) Canadian soldiers, sailors and air crew are equipped with the most effective equipment possible. This goes for our Allies as well. I am confident that you and your associates are happy to know that these efforts help me and other Canadian soldiers carry out the committment we have made to apply armed force in the service of Canada as required.


Sound a bit sarcastic?


Perhaps it should. The basic premise of the web site, and of Knowwar itself, seems to be that industries that supply the military are somehow evil or illegitimate. Of course, by extension, this argument extends to ther premise that military forces themselves are evil or illegitimate. This, as a flat statement, is rubbish, really.
The use of armed force is an accepted function of any legitimately constituted government in order to ensure its own security, or that of its friends and allies, or (if we follow Mr Axworthy's "Human Security" line)  the security of any section of humanity faced by violent extinction.

How a military force is to be expected to carry out its tasks without effective, modern equipment escapes me. Unless, of course, one is arguing from the premise that we should not have armed forces at all, and thus be able to do away with the nasty companies that so wickedly supply them.

What exactly is the position of your organization on the legitimacy of the Canadian Armed Forces and those companies that supply us?

Cheers

Dave Banks

 
Why waste your cyber-breath on these loons?

They actually publicized that site in a national newspaper?

Oops, just answered my own question....
 
Michael Dorosh said:
Why waste your cyber-breath on these loons?

/quote]

Well...it's a snowy Sunday afternoon here in the 'Peg, and I was sitting around the house with about an hour to go before catching a plane to Edmonton, and-well....do you see what I mean?


Cheers
 
Fantiastic letter PBI

We should all be writing them! When did you send it?

Slim
 
Hey!  What about the evil university influence on the Canadian military?

Tom ;D
 
I like how they pinned the blame for the 1988 Halabja masacre on Bell. Classy.
 
Wow, I hope Ken Wiwa was able to get his head through the door of room H-110 at Concordia the other day.
Seriously, some of these university "political activists" and political science types are really prone to small minded ideological lemming behaviour, following the loudest rodent with the most convenient right wing conspiracy theory.

Check their list of evil benefactor corporations! It only makes sense that a good university would want strong ties with high tech corporations, what with the      " real" students pursuing research and ultimately meaningful and intellectually challenging employment.

So what if there is some paper thin, tenuous link between some product the company sold and some "malignant" military. By their logic should a road paving company or Ford be forced to pay reparations because a child somewhere got ran over at some point by a Ford vehicle?

I really don't think that in a free and democratic society you force action against a public institution because some of its students went on to work for a company that manufactured a helicopter once that was purchased by Iraq in the 80's and modified after market to drop chemical agents... It sounds like these "political activists" are nothing more than small minded fascist thugs intent on spreading their ideology of " ignorance is Bliss"!

Gee, I really ought to send this rant to those pin-heads eh?
 
Just what we need, more publicly funded sh_it disturbers with theirs heads up their arses.  Oh well, I guess we can only appease them by moving all of those companies out of Quebec.  How sad......

Tom
 
I keep sayin' it: we need to cull the herd.  ::) 
Obviously a serious lack of Chlorox at this guy's end of the gene pool. ::)
 
paracowboy said:
I keep sayin' it: we need to cull the herd.  ::) 
Obviously a serious lack of Chlorox at this guy's end of the gene pool. ::)

:D Im with you...
 
The thing that bugs me about these groups is that too often their idea of "taking action" is to protest, in canada, by hacking away at the one institution in Canada that is actively trying to help people around the world the most - they want to stop war etc...  and the only real target is the CF (or, in this case, largely the US military) - Excellent, Canada's tyrannical military will not be able to threaten the world anymore...peace will break out now im sure  ::)  

 I'm finishing up reading "Ghosts of Medak Pocket" right now, and I fail to see how crimes such as ethnic cleansing can be stopped by a bunch of peaceful activists, who will probably never leave Canada in the first place.  The ethnic prejudices are just too strong.  In fact, the lack of action by the United Nations only made that particular situation more tragic.  Dealing with the occasional pacifists at school, I put a fair bit of thought into explanations for why Canada needs a military and what positive effects it has had on the world - sadly they dont often want to listen in the first place.  

More often than not, they believe if there were no militaries, there would be no war.  But humanity has shown that people will conflict with those with differing views - in Rwanda, it was everyday people who carried out a large part of the genocide, because of the traditional hatred against particular ethnic groups, certainly not an organized nation versus another in a traditional "war".  Yes, militaries have been responsible for negative acts before, but I'm sure that the Canadian military has caused more good than harm in the world, and if a pacifist comes up with a working alternative that will save the lives of innocent people, and prevent injustice around the world without the aid of the military, then I would be glad to hear it.
 
Kirkpatrick said:
........ and I fail to see how crimes such as ethnic cleansing can be stopped by a bunch of peaceful activists, who will probably never leave Canada in the first place.  . 


What ever happened to all those wonderful "Peace Activists" who went off to Iraq to become 'human shields'?  I haven't heard much from them on their views on  their reception by Saddam's Regime.

Funny thing that.
 
George Wallace said:
What ever happened to all those wonderful "Peace Activists" who went off to Iraq to become 'human shields'?   I haven't heard much from them on their views on   their reception by Saddam's Regime.

Funny thing that.

Funny HAHA or Funny like Fish?!

Is anyone really surprised that these people have not been recruited by the ranks of the "Activists"?! One look at how the outgoing Baathist regime did things and they probably thought that maybe military intervention wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Slim
 
What ever happened to all those wonderful "Peace Activists" who went off to Iraq to become 'human shields'?  I haven't heard much from them on their views on  their reception by Saddam's Regime.

Funny thing that.

Actually, I distinctly remember an article or two from right before the war started. The activists were not very pleased that THEY didn't get to choose the areas they wanted to protect, like hospitals etc, but rather were sent to protect sites of strategic interest by the ba'athists.

(side note: you've got to be pretty deluded to go be a human shield at a hospital.. like the Big Bad Americans would intentionally bomb a hospital)

I'll see if I can dig any of the articles up, but no guarantees.
 
Ah, here we go. That was easier than I thought it would be:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...02.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/03/02/ixnewstop.html

Human shield Britons quit Baghdad
By Charlotte Edwardes in Baghdad
(Filed: 02/03/2003)

Almost all of the first British "human shields" to go to Iraq were on their way home last night after deciding that their much-heralded task was now too dangerous.

Two red double-decker buses, which symbolised the hopes of anti-war activists when they arrived to a fanfare of publicity a fortnight ago, slipped quietly out of Baghdad on the long journey back to Britain.

Nine of the original 11 activists decided to pull out after being given an ultimatum by Iraqi officials to station themselves at targets likely to be bombed in a war or leave the country. Among those departing last night was 68-year-old Godfrey Meynell, a former High Sheriff of Derbyshire, who admitted that he was leaving out of "cold fear". He had been summoned, along with 200 other shields from all over the world, to a meeting at a Baghdad hotel yesterday morning.

Abdul Hashimi, the head of the Friendship, Peace and Solidarity organisation that is hosting the protesters, told the shields to choose between nine so-called "strategic sites" by today or quit the country.

The Iraqi warning follows frustration among Saddam Hussein's officials that only about 65 of the shields had so far agreed to take up positions at the oil refineries, power plants and water-purification sites selected by their hosts.

It heightened fears among some peace activists that they could be stationed at non-civilian sites. Mr Meynell and fellow protesters who moved into the power station in south Baghdad last weekend were dismayed to find it stood immediately next to an army base and the strategically crucial main road south to Basra. Iraqi officials said there was little point in guarding what they considered to be low-risk targets.

Iraq's decision to force the pace was welcomed by some of the 20 Britons remaining in Baghdad. "It's only fair," said Uzma Bashir, 32, a college lecturer who is one of the team leaders.

"We've come here as shields to defend sites and now the Iraqis are asking us to make our choice."
 
Actually, I still believe the whole "Human shield" idea - as practiced in Iraq - is one of the most racist "white man's burden" type of ideas I can remember.

Why didn't these folks just write to Saddam and say "Hi, I am much more important than any of your people, so the US will not attack any area where I am located. Let me act as your saviour, because it is my duty as a more important person to protect the little people. I will reason with them as only white men can do with each other."

Hmmm..... is it just me who sees it this way?
 
"Bell Helicopters were deployed in Irak, and have been used numerous times in previous American war efforts, such as:

in 1988 for the chemical attack ordered by Baghdad against the Kurdish village of Halabaja, which caused more than 5'000 casualties, among them a large number of women and children."

Well thats interesting... these people are obviously not doing their research.

from a liberal source...
"Iraqi warplanes dropped three clusters each of four bombs on the village of Birjinni on August 25, 1988. "
http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/chemiraqgas2.html


 
I just read through that website.

They don't seem to be so much against the CF, but war itself.  The only Militarty mentioned by name was the US.  It seems to me they oppose the University Corporate relation with companies that sell to the US.  They don't seem to want students taking internships with companies that deal with the US.

read aims 1-3

1. Exposing the connection between University Board of Governors and the US military.
2. Informing students of the relationship between the US military, corporations, and post-secondary education in Canada.
3. Ceasing Canada's participation in the US-proposed Ballistic Missile Defense System.

They just seem to be another student protest against the US military.

At school I have not had a single student yet criticize my choice in joining the Army.  I would say a huge precentage are against the US in Iraq but support the CF on a whole, maybe my College is different.  Almost everyone I have talked to thought my Job was pretty cool and actually supported what I do.  I am willing to bet this kind of attitude is spreading to Universities as well.

I am not saying that this group of students are pro CF, but it needs to be pointed out that we cannot be 100% certain they are against the CF.  The only way to find this out is to email them and ask them what they think of the CF and it's ties with Universities in Canada are.




 
I have to say that I'm not surprised whatsoever. When I decided in my last year of college to join the army the reaction of my fellow students and the teachers was pretty bad.
Most showed visible disaspointment, but in a restrained way, however one proffessor looked at me in disgust and accused me of becoming a murderer.  ??? This from a man I had  greatly respected! At least most of the students just shunned me. That was easier to swallow.
Since then I've had the finger given to me in the street while in uniform, had people call me a fascist, baby killer, one guy had the arrogance to stop me and try to 'talk' me out of it..
It's nice that we risk our necks so that these people can remain ignorant, and never have to know first hand why we need a military.
:cdn: :salute:

Later
Kile

All that evil needs to flourish is for a few good people to wave protest signs and do nothing.
 
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