Greetings. Long time no blog. I have been racing around the planet and just don’t feel like opining from a weary hotel bedroom.
My peregrinations have included the IAEA in Vienna to deliver with other colleagues a senior leadership course; Astana in Kazakhstan, for a speechwriting course for top Kazakh officials, and this week Ankara for a good session on negotiation and presentation skills with Turkish diplomats. Phew.
While all that has been going on I have been fine-tuning Speechwriting for Leaders and generally minding my own business.
Over in Canada we now see more extremist Islamist killing. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
“… attacks on our security personnel and our institutions of governance are by their very nature attacks on our country, on our values, on our society, on us Canadians as a free and democratic people who embrace human dignity for all. But let there be no misunderstanding. We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated.”
Hmm. What does ‘intimidated’ mean?
One way of dealing with terrorism is to strike a bold pose. Another way is to try not to be ‘provocative’. Canada for now seems to be going for the latter: its service personnel have been told not to wear their uniforms in public:
And amid those increased tensions and the apparent increase in threat against those proudly serving in military uniforms, some soldiers are being warned to limit wearing those outfits to official duties.
Following the the shooting death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on Wednesday and the death of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., on Monday, some military officials are warning soldiers to stay out of uniform whenever they are off duty.
CBC Montreal reports that an email was sent to local military personnel telling them to only wear their military uniforms when on base or while travelling to their homes. In all other cases, they should stay out of their gear. Another email to student soldiers warned them not to wear their uniforms at any time.
This approach of course has some merits: quick, be careful, stay calm, reduce risks in current circumstances! But it also effectively cedes ground metaphorically and literally to Islamist lunatics: their zeal to murder people is for the time being the über-value defining what free Canadians can do in public.
Note that this policy was also deployed temporarily in the UK in 2013 after the atrocious murder of Fusilier Drummer Lee Rigby.
Imagine what would happen if after such murders all service personnel were ordered to wear their uniforms in public as a mark of pride and respect for their fallen comrades. Yes, it would be ‘risky’. Some might even die in further Islamist murder outrages. As might civilians.
But if soldiers are not ready to take that risk, they should not be soldiers. And civilians unwilling to champion their armed forces and to take on any risks from doing so do not deserve those soldiers’ protection.
The first and last place to stand tall for one’s national values of freedom and civilisation is right out there in public, on one’s own streets.
I cannot imagine a better way of saying this, I will shamelessly steal and disseminate it.
I also noticed that on this day one of your countrymen put a big whuppin on the the French, and another wrote probably the finest words a soldier could ever hear. St. Crispin's day. You're sentiments fit right in.