Forget You, Fox News.

[Lounge Daddy]

A lot of people in America belittles and mocks the Canadian everything. Canadians and Jews are pretty much still safe targets for jokes here. Mostly Canadians.
That was rude, though.




Oh craap, I forgot that Canada is a part of America. I mean, a lot of people in the U.S. mock Canada.

Edited March 23, 2009 by Lounge Daddy

[MissyP89]

This is just disgusting.

[Maggyie]

Smug Americans. Auuugh. Usually in the US/Canada love-hate relationship there is more croutons from smug insecure Canadians, but this was pretty bad.

However making fun of Canada, and Canada's relative economic/military weakness, is not unusual in America... probably because most of our great comedians are Canadian and they like to poke fun at themselves?

[Hilde]

Wow, that's a serious news program?

[curtins]

No. That's the point. Red eye is a comedy news show- its like Fox news' version of the colbert report or the daily show.

I would agree that the piece is disrespectful to the canadian military but understand folks that this is not big bad (dum dum dum) fox news.... its a comedy show- its not a serious thing.

[CatherineM]

It didn't help any that they picked a day when 4 soldiers were coming home in boxes draped in the flag.

[jeffpugh]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1815054' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:12 PM']It didn't help any that they picked a day when 4 soldiers were coming home in boxes draped in the flag.[/quote]
Yeah, pretty much. Don't diss our Military. The people serving are not a rabble of militia, but skilled men. World record for longest sniper shot goes to a Canadian, last I checked.

[Church Punk]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' post='1814662' date='Mar 23 2009, 03:12 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJn5XlbSFk"]Fox News being jerks.[/url]

"After 116 Canadian military personel have given their lives in Afganistan. Fox news belittles and mocks the Canadian military. Claim they did not even know they were there. These are the people who keep Americans up to date and mis-informed."

wow, talk about idiots on TV alienating entire cultures.

this is why canadians and most people hate fox news.[/quote]

I would like to see this guy say that you my friends faces who went over there risking life and limb so clowns like this sorry excuse of a reporter can say croutons like that.

Why is there only 116 Canadians that have died compared to 1000s of Americans? Maybe its because the Canadian military is better trained than the Americans to not get dead?

Dummy.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Church Punk' post='1815064' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:46 PM']Why is there only 116 Canadians that have died compared to 1000s of Americans? Maybe its because the Canadian military is better trained than the Americans to not get dead?[/quote]
Umm. Ok.

[BG45]

[quote name='Church Punk' post='1815064' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:46 PM']Why is there only 116 Canadians that have died compared to 1000s of Americans? Maybe its because the Canadian military is better trained than the Americans to not get dead?[/quote]

Or, not to be offensive, it could be statistical probability. There are roughly 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan under the auspices of the ISAF, and to expand on this number and to quote Canada's[url="http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/operations/current_ops_e.asp"] own Defence Ministry[/url], "On any given day, about 8,000 Canadian Forces members - one third of our deployable force - are preparing for, engaged in or returning from an overseas mission. "

Meanwhile the United States of America currently has 23,000 soldiers under the ISAF (and therefore NATO's) command in Afghanistan. There are around 140,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Canada: 8k with 116 fatalities averages out roughly to an average of 1.45% of soldiers deployed roughly has been unfortunately killed in combat. (Granted I didn't look up the Canadian figures in Iraq, I imagine not all of the 8k is split between the two theaters of operation as they are with my U.S. figures as there are a number of current Canadian military operations going on outside the Middle East).
U.S.: 167k with 4,186 dead in Iraq and 629 in Afghanistan for a total of 4,815; this averages out to roughly 2.56% of all combat troops between the two theatres whom have been unfortunately killed in combat.

My main point: statistically the casualties have been very light for both our nations, which is a blessing. Training may or may not have anything to do with it, it may just be the sheer weight of numbers. I am grateful though, that there are men and women from any nation involved that they are willing to go and fight, to go and help rebuild, and to go and die if necessary for the sake of others.

*U.S. figures provided by the Washington Post and icasualties.org

Edit: The world record for sniping is held by Rob Furlong, a Canadian who made a 2,430 meter shot.

Edited March 24, 2009 by BG45

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='curtins' post='1815045' date='Mar 23 2009, 07:51 PM']No. That's the point. Red eye is a comedy news show- its like Fox news' version of the colbert report or the daily show.

I would agree that the piece is disrespectful to the canadian military but understand folks that this is not big bad (dum dum dum) fox news.... its a comedy show- its not a serious thing.[/quote]

Ya, not everything on FOX News is news. They have comedy programs, opinion and op-ed programs. And then solid news.

Hey, wasn't there an ad campaign for a beer of some kind with a proud Canadian yelling about how Canadians are Americans too, and other things?

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='BG45' post='1815104' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:43 PM'](Granted I didn't look up the Canadian figures in Iraq, I imagine not all of the 8k is split between the two theaters of operation as they are with my U.S. figures as there are a number of current Canadian military operations going on outside the Middle East).[/quote]
We never sent troops to Iraq ([b]in a combat role[/b]). Never. We have a very limited training and reconstruction effort. The most involved we got was officers in technical support roles. Five Canadians died in Iraq. One of them wasn't even a solider.

A lot of people are talking about the state of the Canadian military.

The fact is that it was mostly dismantled under Liberal governments. When the Conservatives came to power though, and when 9/11 happened, spending was increased and p-ss poor equipment began to be replaced.
Now we're extremely well equipped, and in terms of training, very very well respected on the world stage.

It's hard to compare gross numbers because of our population, but our military is no longer a force to be sneezed at.

[BG45]

Meant to say in both counts (U.S. and Canada) in a combat zone, so my bad there. Japan is much the same way, deploying its forces in support roles.

Also, besides being the top snipers in the world, the Canadian special forces consistently place in the top three or so with the British and Americans; further evidence of how well equipped, trained, and respected Canada's military is on the world stage.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Church Punk' post='1815064' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:46 PM']Why is there only 116 Canadians that have died compared to 1000s of Americans? Maybe its because the Canadian military is better trained than the Americans to not get dead?[/quote]

It's extremely understandable for you to be upset. However, this is not an appropriate comment. At all.

[Maximilianus]

[quote name='Church Punk' post='1815064' date='Mar 23 2009, 07:46 PM']I would like to see this guy say that you my friends faces who went over there risking life and limb so clowns like this sorry excuse of a reporter can say croutons like that.

Why is there only 116 Canadians that have died compared to 1000s of Americans? Maybe its because the Canadian military is better trained than the Americans to not get dead?

Dummy.[/quote]
Wow, you had to go there.
Oh well.
One thing I learned as a Marine is not to give a rat's rear end what a civilians says about military matters.