Scott Taylor just ripped into the military on CBC News - Morning....

[S McKee]

Unfortuantely, our main sources of information seem to be the Scott Taylors and the media. And apparently Scott Taylor is not the most popular guy on the block. So I can only assume that the reason is because his information is screwed up?Inaccurate? Negative? Perhaps it would be beneficial to have some alternative views presented.

Merlane

Your right about the government not knowing anything about the military, if you ask most MPs they don't have clue, very few have any military experience. If you caught any of the questions posed by some of our politicians to our commanders during the sub inquiry it was truly embarrassing. As for Scott Taylor he is generally maligned by most members of the CF. I think most feel that he sold out. He started off with some good intentions and a positive direction and a  good outlook then he made a 180 and went the route of just digging up dirt. The problem is the media loves this guy and assumes he's THE military expert on the CF. In the US CNN has all kinds of ex-generals  to call on for military analysis we have ex-corporal Taylor. I don't dislike him I just think he views the world from a corperal's perspective (not that that's bad) but you've got to maintain a global perspective when you look at the problems in the CF.

 

[Wizard of OZ]

;D

MBT = Main Battle Tank

MLBU = Mobile Laundry and Bath Unit

You're right. The CF does a lousy job promoting itself.    :

really what can you promote.  Come join the Forces use equipment your grandfather trained on?

Ride in our helicopters ohh no more then three at a time and no weapons or kit.

Come ride in our 25 yr old jeeps they make lovely antiques.

Fly in our 25 yr old fighters there must be one or two running around here

Sail on our newly used submarines but watch out for leaks

come on we want people to join not leave.

Get the Kit get the people.... simple.  Problem is no one wants to pay for the kit.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

really what can you promote. Come join the Forces use equipment your grandfather trained on?

How about pride in your Corp and yourself, and the knowledge that you can do the job no matter the obstacles.

 

[marlene]

Unfortunately I do know how underfunded the CF is because when I speak of the media - so often that is all I hear. And it is truly unfortunate - perhaps the media really do have good intentions in printing this stuff - perhaps they feel if they print how underfunded the CF is that it will embarrass or propel the government into doing something about it. I don't know. What I do know is that I am a civilian and I am envious of the U.S. military - I'm envious of what I see as a well run, superior war machine with superior equipment and a large enough force of soldiers to perform the job. So how sad is that? Very if you ask me. But as mentioned above we could focus more on the positive side of things. I'm assuming from the very little information I can find out that you (Canadian soldiers) are good????  That you know your stuff, that you do win medals (that Canadians don't really get to hear about) that you do have skills that perhaps other militaries don't have. But do I know for sure? No - because CBC and others just tell me about helicopters crashing, fires on submarines,  etc. Okay we did recently hear about DART but there was even negative talk and controversary surrounding that. For the most part what I saw on CBC was how Oxfam? or one of the aid agencies really didn't want them around, how they weren't deployed fast enough, etc. etc.  There was some good coverage but not enough.

As for Scott Taylor - thanks for the information. Experts and so-called experts are called upon regarding many issues in the Canadian and other medias on a variety of subjects.  It amazes me that Scott Taylor is the sole "expert" for things military in Canada. I wonder why that is.

Merlane

 

[camochick]

"It amazes me that Scott Taylor is the sole "expert" for things military in Canada. I wonder why that is. "

Because I havent graduated from journalism school yet hehe.

 

[S McKee]

"It amazes me that Scott Taylor is the sole "expert" for things military in Canada. I wonder why that is. "

Because I havent graduated from journalism school yet hehe.

Oh no you don't! Wait till I get out. Then I'm going to join his team of disgruntled ex-CF members, then I'll be the expert.  ;D

 

[Brad Sallows]

Which one of the release forms has the box you can tick to select "chip on shoulder"?

 

[Zipper]

As for Scott Taylor - thanks for the information. Experts and so-called experts are called upon regarding many issues in the Canadian and other medias on a variety of subjects.   It amazes me that Scott Taylor is the sole "expert" for things military in Canada. I wonder why that is.

He isn't the only "expert" out there. General MMacKenzie(I hope I spelled that right) has appeared in the past on many new broadcasts to comment on various issues. However when he ran for Government in the last election, he stopped doing it so that he could "clean" up his image for the Canadian public at large who do not take kindly to military types. I wish he would come back and comment again.

There was also a retired Colonel, but I cannot remember his name.

I agree that it is unfortunate that the military is not well promoted within our society. In fact our own military does a lousy job of promoting itself. But one of the things that will hurt us as well is our veteran. With fewer and fewer of them around (those from Korea and before) to show the flag, it will be very hard to influence the young.

One of the reasons I joined was the fact that my Grandfather would sit me down as a child and tell me stories of WWI and II, which inflamed my romanticism of the military. He didn't pull any punches and told me the horror's along with the happier times, but they still appealed to me. He was the one who instilled the ideal of honour and service to Queen and Country in me. It is that type of "story telling" that is very much lost to the younger generation of Canadians.

 

[Wizard of OZ]

How about pride in your Corp and yourself, and the knowledge that you can do the job no matter the obstacles.

That gets me through every week that and knowing the person beside me depends on me as much as i depend on them.

 

[mainerjohnthomas]

The biggest problem with our profile is that the gov't keeps the military where no one can see it.  When I travelled through the US I saw American military vehicles and servicemen in parades, and in high visibility positions for the public.  The Americans looked about their major cities and saw fighters in the sky, bases near the cities, and uniformed military personnel as a normal part of the crowd.  The total awareness of the military presence was felt.  In Australia, a nation with a military of similar scope to our own, I saw beautiful warships cruising through its busy harbours, I saw military manoeuvres being reported on in the news, and military equipment and personnel were quite visable as you traveled the country.  They were aware and proud of their military, knew its uniforms by sight, and some of its equipment by name.  I got so tired of being asked if I was American when I was in uniform in Canada.  It was easier for our public to accept that a foreign soldier was walking the streets then one of our own.  When I saw the Strathcona Horse on full parade, I thought to myself, that is a sight to behold.  Why do civilians never see this?  Why do we never show our troops in their might and splendor (a shadow of what we should be, but something impressive enough in itself)?  Our politicians don't like the public to see the military, they keep us out of sight like some poor relation.  Why should the public know or care of us, they only hear about us from our critics, only hear of our missions if one fails, and never hears of our decorations, or heroes, our successes.  Let the public see us, let the children hear what we have done since 1945, and maybe they will have an answer to why they should care, and why they should pay for better.

 

[Slim]

When I saw the Strathcona Horse on full parade, I thought to myself, that is a sight to behold.  Why do civilians never see this?  Why do we never show our troops in their might and splendor (a shadow of what we should be, but something impressive enough in itself)? 

It is nice to watch the Strathcona Mounted Troop in action...A very professional and talented group of individuals. I wish all the armoured regt's had something like that...maybe then people would see the CF a bit more and take the time to learn a little bit...

Slim

 

[ArmyRick]

As far as informing the public of what is happening in the CF, I agree we (The CF) are probably the worst for it.

Several Issues I have with our CF and it self awareness

(1) How many recruiting ads go overboard with females in uniforms (its getting rather patronizing to ladies as my fiance noted)...

(2) As far as recruiting, we should go with emphasis on what we do have that is effective (Halifax frigates?, Coyote surveillance, LAVIIIs, etc)

(3) We should stop putting so much light weight fluff in the Mapple Leaf news paper. Really. How many people care about the latest changes to CFSAL or some small trivial thing like that?

(4) As a trained CIMIC operator I will say this. Lets lighten up on the feel good projects stories in the Maple Leaf. WHOA !!! Its too bad people don't realize how many CIDA funded projects fail !

(5) The army.gc.ca has some good things to display (if you have not seen it, check it out). I like the features for taking a virtual tour of Coyote, Leo C2 or LAVIII. (This by the way is a good point)

My opinion we need to educate the public what we the military are here to do. Also as general Hillier as mentioned the old noble image of the CF peace keeper (like the '82 image of a cypres peacekeeper) is not realistic.
We should teach people what stabilization, security, humanitarian assistance and other modern operations are and what is really involved.

Must take a break and drink more wine.....

 

[bossi]

Personally, I believe there are a number of ways educate the Canadian public about THEIR military.
For example - Rick Mercer is using the humourous approach to attacking indifference and ignorance, with his brilliant video's from Bosnia and Kabul http://army.ca/forums/threads/24173.0.html

Other media personalities and journalists are diplomatically trying to point out problems, without specifically attacking the Forces (i.e. instead of pissing off the generals/admirals, these people are allies who are trying to draw attention to problems that have been FORCED UPON the Forces - no punditry intended)  http://army.ca/forums/threads/27060.0.html

 

[Zipper]

And why is it that the Governor General gets in the news if she is seen "spending to much" on something not deemed worthy, and yet you never hear about her and her husbands visits over-seas at Christmas to visit our boys in Kabul and such?

 

[Wizard of OZ]

We have to be careful not to flaunt are forces to much with parade style things as then people will say look at all the money they must have they can go on parade and play all the time, time for a cut.

Have to strike a very careful balance.