Crikey

Canadian TV watchers were no doubt shocked and dismayed at the news of Steve “Crikey” Irwin’s death. Irwin, the famed ‘Crocodile Hunter’, was killed by a stingray while working along the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin, known for his daring exploits with wild animals, apparently got too close to the ray. He died doing his job as an entertainer.

On that same day, a Canadian son, Mark Graham died in another far-off land, Afghanistan. Graham was killed in a ‘friendly-fire’ incident involving an American Warthog. He died serving his country, standing up for what Canadians believe are everyone’s human rights.

Not to belittle Crikey’s death, but we ought to have been more shocked and given more consideration to the death of yet another Canadian soldier. While viewers wondered how a gentle creature like a ray could have killed the Australian, I suspect most gave little thought to why another of our sons and daughters died in a war accident, killed by our allies. We may assume that Irwin assessed the risks and wore whatever protective gear he felt necessary. Can we assume that Graham’s superiors did the same for him?

Remember how we first sent our troops into the desert area wearing green uniforms? Then the lightly-armoured vehicles that were used initially before the generals realized we were in a war, not on a peace-keeping exercise? Remember the treatment of our snipers who were chastised for doing too-good a job? The many years that the military budget was cut and cut has no doubt had a impact on how well our troops can function in a war environment. But did our generals (and we seem to have quite a few of them) spend more time working on their shrinking budgets than keeping up with guerrilla-fighting tactics?

Are they more concerned about up-grading the CF 18’s than they are of sending them to Afghanistan to do our own ground support? Could our men and women in Afghanistan use a few of those Leopard tanks that we only deploy for training on Canadian soil? Are the defence people so keen on doing deals to stretch their budget that they buy used British subs instead of getting some transport capabilities? Have we, because of budget, sent too few people to do the job in Afghanistan?

Maybe it is time to debate not why we are in Afghanistan, but why we are taking so many losses compared to the other NATO troops. Are our troops as properly trained and equipped, as the senior officers say so often to the cameras? Jack Layton thinks we can debate with the Taliban, a tribe of fanatics. With naïve thinking like that, it will be some debate in our parliament!

If we are going to send our troops in harm’s way, then we should do with the best equipment and training available, and that includes communication equipment that lets everyone know what is happening on the ground. Steve Irwin’s last words may well have been, ‘Crikey!’ We probably do not want to hear what our troops were saying as they were strafed by friendly fire.