Sunday, September 05, 2010
Dogs of War, by Richard Martineau
Richard Martineau
02/09/2010 7:14
Before yesterday, I was in Normandy on Juno Beach, Courseulles-sur-Mer, where thousands of soldiers in Canada and Quebec were landed June 6, 1944 to liberate Europe and go kick the ass of the Nazis.
I went to shoot a story which I will speak on the day of broadcast on Télé-Québec.
Heroes and bastard
I met two Normans who, each in its own way, have seen war up close.
The son of a French resistance fighter wanted by the Gestapo, who lost his father and his mother the day of landing (they were killed by Allied bombing).
And a bristling military medals that made the war Algeria.
The two spoke to me (microwave closed) Charles de Gaulle.
For the first, the great Charles was a hero who led the French people to victory. For the second, he was a bastard who betrayed the French military in granting independence to Algeria.
Two men, two facets of the same person.
The two wars
Two facets of the war, too. As I started the veteran of Algeria, who came back from the front head down "the war in the Aures had nothing comparable to the Second World War. It was a dirty war. Our enemies do not wear uniforms, they were everywhere, there was no front, no rule was the guerrilla ...."
And unlike the 1944 fighters, veterans of "war without a name" does not return home to applause, but in a shameful silence reproachful.
They are all suspected of being racist, of torturing and chewed the "gook" ...
Roll of honor
Faced with the Juno, the Museum honoring the soldiers who liberated Normandy, there are austere columns where the names of the fighters appear ...
Some have participated in the landings, others have made the campaign of Italy had occupied Berlin.
There are also the names of Canadian soldiers killed in action during the current war in Afghanistan.
The soldiers of World War II came back from the front with the feeling of work. They had a mission to fulfill, and they have met. Relatives of those killed by the bullets of Nazis may console themselves by saying that their son, their brother or sister did not die for nothing.
The verdict of history
But what about the veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan? What were these deaths, these sacrifices?
Not only the region is still as unstable, but bin Laden is still running and the Islamist movement is also dangerous, if not more.
One could even say that these unpopular wars have served to fuel the jihadist movement, rather than extinguish it.
"I'm not against all wars. Only against stupid wars ", has already said Barack Obama.
I wonder how history will judge those that are currently the United States and Canada ...
Sports idiot
After surfing for the mindless youth have invented a new sport: balconing. It is diving into a pool from the balcony of your hotel room.
Since the beginning of the year, nine tourists were killed in the Balearics.
You can not stop progress ...
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Labels: Richard Martineau
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 1:03 AM 
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