Faithfully yours - Lessons we must never forget—the finale

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Published on Saturday, November 28, 2015

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

In the fall of 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States. He served two terms—the maximum number allowed by the US Constitution.

Reagan’s election signalled a new era in relations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). He had revealed his vision during the campaign. First, he would rearm America’s military; making it the strongest in the world. Then he would negotiate with the Soviets from a position of strength and demand that they agree to a mutual reduction in nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal being to get rid of them completely.

He also promised the American people that an America under his leadership would never send its military personnel to war and then refuse to let them win that war. That, he argued, is what happened in Viet Nam and Reagan vowed that it must never happen again. If we are going to war, he argued, we must be in it to win it. Anything less is an insult to those we send into battle.

This was proven to be true in the three wars of the past century in which Canadians have fought.

In World War I, 425,000 Canadians went overseas to fight in the European theatre. We knew who the enemy was. We knew what we wanted to achieve. And we did not stop fighting until the enemy had surrendered and the armistice had been signed. We were in it to win it.

Twenty years later during WWII, our armed forces were 1.1 million people strong—that was 10 per cent of our country’s population. Military personnel served in Europe, Italy, North Africa and in the defense of Hong Kong. Again, we knew who the enemy was and what we wanted to achieve. We did not stop fighting until the enemy surrendered. We were in it to win it.

But after that, the strategy changed. In Korea, we fought to a stalemate—finally settling on the 38th parallel as the border between South and North Korea. Today, 60 years later, an uneasy peace still exists between the two Koreas; and that is not about to change any time soon.

A lot has changed in the years since Korea. Canadians are far less trusting than we were during WWI and WWII. We no longer believe everything our governments tell us. We want our leaders to be honest with us—no hiding behind a screen of national security.

If we are going to deploy people and equipment to a war zone, we want to know where they are going, why they are going, what they hope to achieve and how we will know when they have completed their assignments. Then, once these goals have been set, we want our politicians to choose the best people to command the operation, give them the best equipment available and then get out of the way and let them complete their missions so we can bring them home.

Canadians are not afraid to go to war if the cause is just. We fully support the members of our armed forces. We know that whenever they go on assignment, whether in active combat, peace-keeping, protecting our borders or fighting floods in Manitoba, they are in it to win it.

Our soldiers take great pride in doing their jobs and doing them well. They deserve our support while they are on assignment and our respect once they return home. Anything less is an insult to them and a huge blot on the reputation of our country.