From: Robert Wright

 

Subject: Local vets critical of Afghan intervention

From Ft. McMurray Today's report of Remembrance Day events there -

(entire article at http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/Local%20News/267629.html)

 

"... one of the Second World War veterans who gathered at the Royal Canadian Legion after the ceremony, 85-year-old Roy Hawkins, called Canada?s military presence in Afghanistan ?unfortunate.
?In as much as we?re there, I?ll support them any way I can, but it?s unfortunate we?re in a foreign land, trying to solve foreign problems,? Hawkins told Today.
?Overall, for the population of Canada, we?ve sacrificed an awful lot of people to keep the world reasonably safe. And the fact that Afghanistan is on everbody?s mind puts some things in the Second World War and Korea in the background.?
Hawkins was 18 years old when he boarded a boxcar from Fort McMurray to Edmonton in 1939 to enlist with four of his buddies.
?I learned more in two minutes in Dieppe than I did in two years of training in England,? Hawkins said, the last survivor among the five friends.
?Those were the worst nine hours of my life. There we were, getting shot at before we even reached the beach. And then when I was laying in a ditch, trying to avoid getting killed, I thought, ?What the hell are we doing here? I don?t know that guy shooting at me and he doesn?t know me.? And I know damn well he was thinking the same thing.?
While Ed Gordon never saw combat, the 80-year-old Englishman remembers with horror when he volunteered in London to put out incendiary bombs.
?We were walking along and saw a parac hute coming down. The first thing we thought was it was a German, when all of a sudden, the damn thing exploded and blew me unconscious quite a ways down the street. The man was in so many pieces, the only thing left intact was his helmet.
?The air raids were horrendous, too,? said Gordon.
?In Liverpool and other industrial towns, civilians were killed in the thousands. And it wasn?t just the military I respect, but the civilians: the French, Germans, Polish and Russians all lost civilian lives and you have to respect them, too.?
Jack Avery, meanwhile, served in the signal corps as a high-speed wireless operator in Canada and England.
?I support peacekeeping and I support the troops in Afghanistan, but I?m not an advocate of war; wars are terrible things,? Avery, 81, said.
?When I was in the army, yes, there was the casualty list, but every time you turn on the TV these days, you see bodies coming back. It really makes you think.?
In the end, it?s the surviving veterans who have suffered the most for war, Hawkins said.
?We put the prime deal on those who lost their lives, but if you went across Canada, you?ll find people in nursing homes and veterans? homes who are paying a big price. No one wins a war; politicians can sign peace, but the devastation has been caused,? Hawkins said.