Renewals of Membership

Reunion 140

Bursary Program

Fundraising for the Milton F Gregg, VC Documentary

White House, Black Memories

The Upper Ottawa Valley Branch

The RCR Participation in the AMF(L)

Association Leadership

• Sandy McQuarrie....... Chair;
• Leo Boyd.................... President, the CWO Bobby Girouard (Alberta) Branch;
• Eric Christensen;
• Mark Connolly........... Recording Secretary;
• Jim Davis.................. President, the Kingston Branch;
• Geordie Elms............. President, the GTARCR Branch;
• Anthony Jones;
• Bob Near................... President, the Ottawa Branch;
• John Redmon............ Treasurer;
• Jon Cox;
• Mike Stapleton........... President, The Home Station, (London) Branch; and
• John Barnes.

Pro Patria

Sandy

A Soldier Died Today

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,
And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.

It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part
Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.

© 1987 A. Lawrence Vaincourt

The following link takes you to the song We Are Canadian recently composed by Ellis Craig, an 83-year-old resident of a retirement home in Perth, Ontario.
A stirring and patriotic ribute to all Canadians but especially those who have fought for and served this great land.
http://canadiansatarms.ca/we-are-canadian/

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565,895 views Aug 14, 2022 Genitals were cut off, and then person was executed. Footage of Russian atrocities against a Ukrainian soldier in the Luhansk region, who was held captive by the occupiers, was posted on Russian propaganda media. We found the commanders of a unit of Russian executioners who murdered an Ukrainian soldier, and even after his death continued to abuse his body. Find out who they are in the article of journalist Dmytro Replyanchuk.

• 00:00 - introduction
• 00:16 - Akhmat unit and its crimes
• 01:46 — commander of the "Akhmat" unit Dmitriy Kobreev with the nickname "Cobra"
• 04:42 — deputy commander of the "Akhmat" unit Mikhail Chilingaryan with the nickname "Raf"
• 05:54 — fellow traitor of the Russian executioner Ochura-Suge Mongush

A Soviet-era statue in Oleksandriya, Ukraine, titled “Knowledge Is Strength” was transformed a few weeks ago to include a Ukrainian flag.
Photo credit: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist, The New York Times

The seven most dangerous words in journalism are: “The world will never be the same.” In over four decades of reporting, I have rarely dared use that phrase. But I’m going there now in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Our world is not going to be the same again because this war has no historical parallel. It is a raw, 18th-century-style land grab by a superpower — but in a 21st-century globalized world. This is the first war that will be covered on TikTok by super-empowered individuals armed only with smartphones, so acts of brutality will be documented and broadcast worldwide without any editors or filters. On the first day of the war, we saw invading Russian tank units unexpectedly being exposed by Google maps, because Google wanted to alert drivers that the Russian armor was causing traffic jams.
You have never seen this play before.
Yes, the Russian attempt to seize Ukraine is a throwback to earlier centuries — before the democracy revolutions in America and France — when a European monarch or Russian czar could simply decide that he wanted more territory, that the time was ripe to grab it, and so he did. And everyone in the region knew he would devour as much as he could and there was no global community to stop him.
In acting this way today, though, Putin is not only aiming to unilaterally rewrite the rules of the international system that have been in place since World War II — that no nation can just devour the nation next door — he is also out to alter that balance of power that he feels was imposed on Russia after the Cold War.
That balance — or imbalance in Putin’s view — was the humiliating equivalent of the Versailles Treaty’s impositions on Germany after World War I. In Russia’s case, it meant Moscow having to swallow NATO’s expansion not only to include the old Eastern European countries that had been part of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, like Poland, but even, in principle, states that were part of the Soviet Union itself, like Ukraine.
I see many people citing Robert Kagan’s fine book “The Jungle Grows Back” as a kind of shorthand for the return of this nasty and brutish style of geopolitics that Putin’s invasion manifests. But that picture is incomplete. Because this is not 1945 or 1989. We may be back in the jungle — but today the jungle is wired. It is wired together more intimately than ever before by telecommunications; satellites; trade; the internet; road, rail and air networks; financial markets; and supply chains. So while the drama of war is playing out within the borders of Ukraine, the risks and repercussions of Putin’s invasion are being felt across the globe — even in China, which has good cause to worry about its friend in the Kremlin.
Welcome to World War Wired — the first war in a totally interconnected world. This will be the Cossacks meet the World Wide Web. Like I said, you haven’t been here before.
“It’s been less than 24 hours since Russia invaded Ukraine, yet we already have more information about what’s going on there than we would have in a week during the Iraq war,” wrote Daniel Johnson, who served as an infantry officer and journalist with the U.S. Army in Iraq, in Slate on Thursday afternoon. “What is coming out of Ukraine is simply impossible to produce on such a scale without citizens and soldiers throughout the country having easy access to cellphones, the internet and, by extension, social media apps. A large-scale modern war will be livestreamed, minute by minute, battle by battle, death by death, to the world. What is occurring is already horrific, based on the information released just on the first day.”
See more-Feb 25th, 2022

An interesting video on Russia;s Cruise & ballistic missiles in Ukraine - effectiveness, lessons (and are the Russians running out?)

219,112 views Aug 7, 2022 Russia (and the USSR before it) has always placed great emphasis on its missile and rocket forces. Whether the threat to be countered was NATO aircraft, shipping, or ground targets, the Russian military has always looked to relatively advanced missile systems as the answer.

And so, when the February invasion opened, many observers expected Russia to commence its campaign with a barrage of modern cruise and ballistic missiles, the famous Kalibr and Iskander missiles, destroying Ukrainian command and communications infrastructure. Instead, what followed was a relatively limited campaign the achieved, at best, the temporary suppression of the Ukrainian air forces and air defences.

As the war evolved however, Russia broadened its list of targets and started inflicting a greater toll on Ukrainian targets. For their part, the Ukrainians introduced their own new family of missiles - the GLMRS of HIMARS fame.

In this video I look at that initial missile campaign, the way the campaign evolved subsequently, and what lessons other countries might take from the war to date. I also address the question of sustainability - is Russia running out of these precision munitions, and to what extent do their production facilities have the ability to compensate.

One thing I do want to say as well, is that while I try and take a reasonably detached look at issues like this, I want to make clear that discussing the performance of these systems shouldn't take away from recalling the very real human impact of their use, particularly against civilian targets or in built up areas.

Apologies for the late upload - wasn't well earlier this week and it pushed my recording window back.

.......................................................................
Editor's Note:
About Perun
Welcome all. This is a platform to support me if you appreciate the content, want more say in what I cover, or want to commission specific videos.

My YT was originally built on gaming content, and for those of you who are interested, that content has now been spun off into its own channel, now focused primarily on the upcoming title Terra Invicta.

Since February 24th however, I primarily cover international events (including the Ukraine war), trying to bring an defence industry and investment minded analysis to recent events. My recent videos have covered topics ranging from the performance of particular military systems in the Ukraine war, to economics and defence production. On these topics, expect long-form lecture style presentation on topics of interest.

The Patreon exists to give people a convenient way to support the content that I produce on a (roughly) weekly basis. There are no hard differences between the tiers other than the level of support provided, so please base your decision to support on your financial situation and the extent to which you enjoy my content. I am genuinely grateful to you all.

As always though, all of my content is available to all!

Thanks to everyone for your support.
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“Put a rat in a cage and give it 2 water bottles. One is just water and one is water laced with heroin or cocaine. “The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and almost always kill itself in a couple of weeks. That is our theory of addiction. “Bruce comes along in the ’70s and said, ‘Well, hang on! We’re putting the rat in an empty cage. It has nothing to do. Let’s try this a bit differently.’ So he built Rat Park, and Rat Park is like heaven for rats. Everything a rat could want is in Rat Park. Lovely food. Lots of sex. Other rats to befriend. Coloured balls. Plus both water bottles, one with water and one with drugged water.

“Now here’s what's fascinating: In Rat Park, they don’t drink the drugged water. They hardly use it. None of them overdose. None of them use in a way that looks like compulsion or addiction. What Bruce did shows that both the right-wing and left-wing theories of addiction are wrong. The right-wing theory is that it’s a moral failing, you’re a hedonist, you party too hard. The left-wing theory is that it takes you over, your brain is hijacked.

“Bruce says it’s not your morality, it’s not your brain; it’s your cage.

“Addiction is largely an adaptation to your environment.

“Now, we created a society where significant numbers of us can't bear to be present in our lives without being on something, drink, drugs, sex, shopping, even our phones...

“We’ve created a hyperconsumerist, hyperindividualist, isolated world that is, for many of us, more like the first cage than the bonded, connected cages we need.

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection. And our whole society, the engine of it, is geared toward making us connect with things not people. We no longer focus on bonding with other people, we now bond with stuff. In fact, we are trained from a young age to focus our hopes, dreams, and ambitions on things to buy and consume. Drug addiction is a subset of that."

#TheAllAmericanAddict

Chief Warrant Officer John G. Barnes recounts his military career, with a focus on his experiences in Afghanistan as a Company Sergeant Major of Charles Company in the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment during Operation MEDUSA. The fight for the “White School,” where the Taliban were formed in the mid-1990s, was the fiercest combat the Canadian Army had seen since the Korean War.

Barne’s extremely frank memoir is a tale of courage, greed, loss and eventual redemption in the manner of someone telling you a story at the kitchen table. Above all else, this is a book about the truth.

Available in August, 2022.

Lt. General Gregory Newbold, director of operations at the Pentagon's military joint staff, conducts an operational briefing 16 October 2001 at the Pentagon, in Washington DC. (JOYCE NALTCHAYAN/AFP via Getty Images).

Many Americans, particularly our most senior politicians and military leaders, seem to have developed a form of dementia when it comes to warfare. The result is confusion or denial about the essential ingredients of a competent military force, and the costs of major power conflict. The memory loss is largely irrespective of political bent because all too many are seduced by a Hollywood-infused sense of antiseptic warfare and push-button solutions, while forgotten are the one million casualties of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, or the almost two million in the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.

This “warfare dementia” is a dangerous and potentially catastrophic malady, because the price for it could alter the success of the American experiment and most assuredly will be paid in blood. The condition is exacerbated and enabled when the most senior military leaders — those who ought to know better — defer to the idealistic judgments of those whose credentials are either nonexistent or formed entirely by ideology.

The purpose of this essay is to explain the fundamental tenets of a military that will either deter potential enemies or decisively win the nation’s wars, thereby preserving our way of life. What follows are the tenets of Critical Military Theory:

"1. The U.S. military has two main purposes — to deter our enemies from engaging us in warfare, and if that fails, to defeat them in combat. Deterrence is only possible if the opposing force believes it will be defeated. Respect is not good enough; fear and certainty are required.

2. To be true to its purpose, the U.S. military cannot be a mirror image of the society it serves. Values that are admirable in civilian society — sensitivity, individuality, compassion, and tolerance for the less capable — are often antithetical to the traits that deter a potential enemy and win the wars that must be fought: Conformity, discipline, unity.

3. There is only one overriding standard for military capability: lethality. Those officeholders who dilute this core truth with civil society’s often appropriate priorities (diversity, gender focus, etc.) undermine the military’s chances of success in combat. Reduced chances for success mean more casualties, which makes defeat more likely. Combat is the harshest meritocracy that exists, and nothing but ruthless adherence to this principle contributes to deterrence and combat effectiveness.

4. A military should not be designed to win but to overwhelm. In baseball, you win if your total score is one run better than your opponent’s. In war, narrow victories incur what we call “the butcher’s bill.”

5. Wars must be waged only with stone-cold pragmatism, not idealism, and fought only when critical national interests are at stake. Hopes for changing cultures to fit our model are both elitist and naive. The failures of our campaigns in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan confirm this.

6. A military force’s greatest strengths are cohesion and discipline. Individuality or group identity is corrosive and a centrifugal force. Indeed, the military wears uniforms because uniformity is essential.

7. Infantry and special operations forces are different. The mission of those who engage in direct ground combat is manifestly distinct, and their standards and requirements must be as well. Not necessarily better, but different. For direct ground combat units, only the highest levels of discipline, fitness, cohesion, esprit, and just plain grit are acceptable. Insist on making their conditions and standards conform to other military communities, and you weaken the temper of steel in these modern-day Spartans."
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(Editors note: Changes to the Canadian Forces Dress Instructions refers)