Newsgroups: alt.current-events.somalia
From: liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu)
Subject: Re: Somalia
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Distribution: na  
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:27:45 GMT

In article <1gia4oINN1b9@menudo.uh.edu> HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.) writes:
>
[......] 
>  France, Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada and maybe one or two others might
>have the ability to go to Somalia with enough troops to make a difference.  Why
>not complain to them for NOT going instead of the US because it did (I don't
>know how many Legionaires France has sent, but Canada sent something like 150.
                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Wow.  Be still my heart.)?  First they complain that we do nothing, then they 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>bitch and moan about ulterior motives.  Pick something and stick with it.
>
>

Alright, this statement cannot be unchallengled.  Canada had pledged about
1000 troops to Somalia as combat troops not as traditional peacekeepers,
I believe they are a couple of days late due to a nasty snow storm 
that closed most of the airports in the northeast.  A Canadian supply 
ship is just off the coast of Somalia with the US navy ships.  

Canada has close to 2000 troops in ex-Yugoslavia, it was a Canadian general
secured the airport in the Bosnia capital, 1000 canucks in Cambodia, 500
in Cyprus, ...  the entire defense budget was stetched to the limit
by Canada's peace keeping activities, 8-9% of the army is probably
on some kind of peace-keeping humanitarian missions overseas at the moment,
Canada is providing 10% of all peace-keeping personnel for the UN.  
keep in mind the entire Canadian Armed Forces has only 75000--80000 men,
you don't hear that Canadians "moan & bitch" about the boys in uniform
being constantly shot at, legs blowing off while clearing mining field, 
organizing dialog between warring fractions, securing vital airfields
with only lightly armed infantry, delievering food under artillery shell, 
trying to find lost family relatives for the residents in the war zone, 
and act as a police force in hostile areas, confiscate weapons from 
trigger happy gunmen, do you? 

Somebody is Bitching, Moaning and Whining here, but I don't think it's
the Canadians.   

the world should be grateful about US taking the lead in Somalia,
it should, 'cause it's probably the only power capable of such an operation.
But let us the US & other nations' troops do their job and accomplish
the mission, and lay off the chest beating & finger pointing "You
are not doing your share of work" whining on the sideline, shall we?  


>semper fi,
>
>Jammer Jim Miller 
>Texas A&M University '89 and '91
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