Canada's snipers are getting favorable press from the home-front:
He says the years of realistic training has paid off -- Canadian snipers are among the best in the world at their highly specialized, deadly trade. "We're the centre for excellence for snipers," he says proudly.
It's encouraging to see some pride in Canadian military achievements -- it's much better than the usual tripe (search for 'submarine').
Perhaps the reflexive dissing of Canada's military by Canadians is a defense mechanism against the obvious fact that the U.S. has more armed forces than Canada. Well, duh! With ten times the population, a stronger per-capita economy, and a commitment to Cold War peacekeeping, I should hope the U.S. winds up with a better military, overall. And Disneyland has more submarines than the U.S. Navy, too.
Which doesn't mean that Canadians can't kick our asses:
That turned into a bit of a kick in the butt for the Americans," he says gleefully, pushing back his baseball cap on his bald head. "Canadians won almost all the top spots on their home ground."Staff Sergeant Justin Shaffer, 27, a sniper section leader with the U.S. Army's 501st Airborne Regiment, acknowledges that his Canadian counterparts are among the best he has seen.
"They have an excellent program here," he says. "These guys are very, very good."
As long as the US-Canada alliance remains in place, Canada would do well to emphasize high-value, training-intensive, low-materiel military fields, such as scouting, sniping, artillery spotting, and intelligence. As SSgt. Shaffer's shows, above, Canada gets recognition from its allies when it shows military excellence. Perhaps this National Post article (encouragingly, part of a series) will help improve Canadian perceptions of their own armed forces. That will benefit the US-Canada military alliance.
We can work on our political differences tomorrow.