(Written 19 September 2007. Obviously it's a little dated now, given the way things are going in the Middle East, but I figured I'd put it up just for posterity.)
I just got a Myspace friend request from Canada. That's right, Canada wants to be my friend. I was unaware that Canada and I had had a falling out. We've been on relatively good terms for the last twenty-three or so years. Maybe Canada was pissed that I've been spending so much of my free time in transit to, thinking about, and generally working on moving to Texas. Could Canada be jealous? Naw, it's too pleasant a country to succumb to jealousy. Anyway, I accepted Canada's invitation, and we are now friends (again?).
But it seems Canada has had a change of heart since we last spoke. You see, I went to Canada's Myspace page, and all I could find was various maple leaf paraphernalia, a few references to the Tragically Hip, and a lot of "Support Our Troops" notices.
Okay, now I've been down in Texas for a few weeks now, and I've seen my share of Support Our Troops ribbons stuck to the back of large SUVs and just about every other conceivable surface. I can't remember which colour signifies "Support Our Troops" because it seems that every cause and charity now has a ribbon attached to it. Pink for Breast Cancer, yellow for Other Indiscriminate Cancer, white for Male Violence (which is so non-discriminatory), blue for human rights, red for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the cute little rainbow ones for gay rights, and even a black ribbon for - get this - the fight against ego. But the "Support Our Troops" one still seems to be most prevalent. I saw a Hummer the other day with six different ribbon stickers on the bumper, four of which were Support Our Troop ribbons done stylistically in the Red, White and Blue colours generally associated with the American flag. This driver also had a bumper sticker that read "Git 'Er Done" on his rear window and a few non-specific military logos, and my favourite: Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) peeing on something with a nasty look on his face. Bumper stickers make you cool, no doubt about it. The one that wins for me is still the lady driving around with the "Kerry For President" sticker still hanging onto the back of her beat-up Subaru. I guess she needed a new one to replace the "Bring Down the Berlin Wall" sticker she had on there up until May of 2003.
Anyway, the Support the Troops thing. So I'm loathe to enter into a political debate about a country whose political leaders have been somewhat lacking in my eyes, especially because I'm trying to move here and the DHS is listening. I'll say this much: insofar as "Support the Troops" goes, I'm all for bringing men and women back to their homes in one piece as quickly and efficiently as possible, because I'm tired of turning on the news and seeing more dead people. The concept of supporting one's troops isn't what bugs me about Canada's Myspace page (this is a Canada story, remember?)
What bugs me is that it's just another symptom of my country blithely following along the beaten path laid out by our neighbours to the south and adopting yet another element of their culture into ours. Canadians have always been proud of our military men and women, and we've always done our best to be respectful and honour those who have served in war - to the point that a certain War Museum is considering revising a plaque it has posted detailing the Allied attacks on Axis civilian populations during the Second World War (in which Canada took part) because it paints us as the "bad guys". Yep, we're willing to rewrite our history for the sake of our veterans. So I think it's safe to say that we are supportive and respectful in our own way already. I just don't get why we think we have to remind one another to "support our troops". Canada's involvement in the Middle Eastern conflicts of the last several years has continued to be a peacekeeping, humanitarian role (largely). We're there to help folks out who've been disadvantaged by the ongoing hostilities, and I really don't think you'll find a Canadian anywhere who is going to disagree with our political standpoint on the whole thing (Canadians feel free to disagree with me). Canada joined most of the rest of the Western world in giving the big thumbs-down to Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Coalition of the Willing and everything else, instead opting to do the same thing we always do - go in and help clean up the mess. We're doing our bit as international peacekeepers, and we're largely staying out of the cluster-fuck that is the main conflict out there right now.
So, we've determined that we do, in fact, support our troops in many ways and that we don't really need to be convinced that supporting our troops is a good idea (the way that a lot of Americans seem to require convincing that being in Iraq and sending their young people to get blown up is a good idea). So why does Canada's Myspace page suggest that we need to be bringing more attention to this idea? Why does Canada's Myspace page say that we should go to "rallies" to Support Our Troops? I'm well aware that this page is probably not sanctioned by any member of the Canadian government, but still: there are enough people in the world who are totally ignorant of the country I love that they might actually believe that Canadians on a whole are this stupid. We aren't a military culture and we never have been: granted, we'll fight like crazy people if we figure we're in the right, but we'd rather find diplomatic solutions to our problems. Hell, we've been putting up with the Quebecois for over a hundred years and have yet to start an armed conflict...that has to say something.
I guess it just bugs me when I see an expression of my culture that doesn't really accurately reflect what we're like (to my mind). Granted, we too have our share of psychotic rednecks who live by the mantra "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out", but they truly are a minority - by and large, Canadians really do live up to the stereotype of being friendly, non-aggressive people.
That said, I did "friend" the Canada page, just so my American friends can go have another good laugh at my expense. I'm sorry if this post was disjointed...there's more I want to say about this, but I'm not yet sure how to phrase it. I might come back to this issue later; I really just am trying to get the juices flowing again. More rage another time.
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