Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford

Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford is a book on Task Force Orion that served in Afghanistan in 2006. Blatchford a journalist for the Globe and Mail has here basically done one long newspaper piece. She pulled out 15 days that she considers significant and writes about them providing back story. Now I'm treating this like a piece of military history because that's my background. That being said it can be rather frustrating and places. Most of the stories involve death or serious injury to Canadians. There's no real sense that what we're being told about is at all. typical of operations. In places the book almost comes off like a series of obituaries. That being said the stories of combat are riveting I only wish there could have been a little more.

This is up for a Governor General’s Literary Award should it win? Honestly I have no idea but if you're interested in the Afghanistan mission this is part of the first crop of books that deal with the combat experience for the CF.

Mildly recommended!

Note: this book was provided through Mini Book Expo.

Natynczyk wakes up

From CTV

"You have a worsening security situation, especially localized in three areas -- the Kabul area, in the Regional Command East, where the Americans are, and in the south where we are with the British forces and the Dutch,"

So how is this different than one week ago when he gave such a rosy analysis?

Wrong language Prime Minister

"We are using the ancient language employed by our English and French ancestors to express the universal ideal that they shared," Harper said.

So shouldn't it be in a Germanic language not Latin? Or at least Vulgar Latin?

I know they're trying to wrap this in the flag but I'm a little sad. If you're going to redesign the Victoria Cross and change what it's made out of why not change the name also.

Chief of Defence Staff Military Families Fund: Money for tanks but apparently not for personnel

For some context hears the original press release and some commentary from bloggers here and here.

So we have enough money for tanks in the budget. Which I think we need but apparently not for personnel. Instead they have to set up a charity to deal with some of the things that the government should be doing and quite frankly as a taxpayer I'd be happy to pay for.

How we treat the families [remember the stories about substandard housing? ] of those that we send into harm's way says quite a bit about us. It strikes me we are being found wanting at least are elected representatives are.

Support Canadian Forces bloggroll

No matter where people stand on the issue on the mission in Afghanistan I believe or anyway hope that most support our troops. This and my feeling that there hasn't been much blog activity on this has led me to create this bloggroll.

The rules for inclusion are pretty easy. You must be willing to add the code to your blog's sidebar and do a posting on why you support the troops. Your page doesn't have to specifically talk about the mission in Afghanistan or Canadian politics. This isn't just for the military and political junkies. After you do so drop me a comment with your post URL. I’ll take a look I'll add you. Here's the code to add just cut and paste what's inside the box.


<p>Supporter Canadian Forces bloggroll</p><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=aa0cd6c4ad0b204d4c000aa729de4d69"></script> <p><a href="http://jmnlman.blogspot.com/2007/04/support-canadian-forces-bloggroll.html">How to join</a>

Naturally I reserve the right not to add web sites with pornographic content or hate speech.

Disclaimer: this is completely unofficial and has no relationship with either the Canadian Forces or the government of Canada.

New tanks good idea

It feels good to be right. Now if they had only decided to do this a few months back the equipment could actually be in the field now. Canadian Forces to refresh aging fleet of tanks.

"Make mail free for Canadian Forces overseas " Paul Zed

A superb idea from Saint John Liberal MP Paul Zed. Let's see Stephen "I love the troops" Harper shoot this down. Remember it is what you do not what you say. And yes before anyone points it out currently postage is the same price as domestic mail.