Un-armed services

 

Writing in the Canadian Military Journal Alan Okros, a professor at Royal Military College, apparently states that the military will never escape its harmful practices (whatever they are) unless it can move beyond an identity that prioritizes “violence and aggression, institutional unity and hierarchy.” Dr. Okros, an ex Canadian Naval Officer, apparently does not understand those are the essential ingredients to an effective fighting force. This is not unexpected since Dr. Okros is an adherent to critical race theory and specializes in advising the Forces in this and other countries in DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion.

One is reminded of Kipling’s poem Tommy "Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep... For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that an' Chuck him out, the brute! But it's Saviour of his country, when the guns begins to shoot!" and "For it's "guns this" and "guns that," and "chuck 'em out, the brutes," But they're the "Savior of our loved ones" when the thugs begin to loot."

Then the there is the Margaret Atwood quote,“Soldiers in peacetime are superfluous: celebrated once a year for something they once were, avoided in the here and now for what they have become.” What have they become, she fails to say.

Professor Okros would have our military become a woke institution, incapable of actually go to war, as General Schwarzkopf said. “A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers”. In order to undertake that level of damage a soldier must be aggressive, relatively violent and at one with the unit and command.

It turns out that Professor Okros need not worry, the government and high command has accepted his formulation, the current Canadian soldier has nothing to fight with and the government neglects its NATO commitments. Command is only worried about climate change, LED lighting and less wasteful water taps.

Oh, how far we have fallen.