War On Terror: Maple Leaf Edition

I wasn't sure what to make of this.  It was taken in Afghanistan and ran in a Guardian slide show a couple weeks ago.  The caption read: "A Canadian military official trains a police recruit using a wooden gun."

If it seems paternalistic, it also feels thoroughly "by the book."  (Not like this "opposite extreme," posted by Bill Putnam, who served as both a civilian and military photographer in Iraq.)

Guardian 24 hours in pictures.  Link

(image: Allauddin Khan/AP. 2007. Kandahar, Afghanistan. via Guardian.co.uk)

Comments

[pwapvt]

I wondered if you looked at that Guardian photo thing. They have some great pics on there.

[MonsieurGonzo]

it's boring. the subject is literally pointless, and the photographer reveals no insightful Point Of View. Why, the whole scene is a staged ‘photo opportunity’, yes? So then ~ this isn't even photo journalism : it's stenography of political theatre ~ broadcast from a proscenium stage set / Set-up between three blast walls within the greater, ‘lab-rat's maze’ of walls that is The Story of "What's Happening to the City?" that our military forces invaded and occupied.

“...and the good news from IRAQ is : Happiness is an Orange Gun.”

What the f*ck does that mean? And What are the side-effects (?) Will i still be able to drive, or operate heavy machinery after buying one? Will Chinese lead in the paint kill my kids? What's the price on AMAZON? Does eBay have any, yet? How far does it squirt ?

Break the fourth wall of the political theatre. Shoot the orange gun shooting at the audience apparent = press assembly... Now that's the bad news from the City that our forces invaded and occupied : they shoot real photographers, don't they?

Now, what the f*ck does that mean?

[Mad_nVT]

Check out the appearance of the Canadian forces trainer-- he has a face and hair, even a mouth, he's not armor-plated. Kind of human, you know. Except for no eyes. He seems to actually be communicating with the Afghani.

Compare to a post that Bagman had some months ago with American forces trainers- they looked just like they had stepped out of Star Wars.

Regarding the wooden guns-- that looks like a good goal for Afghanistan, Iraq, New York City, Dallas, Des Moines and so on.

[arty]

“...and the good news from IRAQ is : Happiness is an Orange Gun.”
It looks like it's also the good news from AFGHANISTAN, where the picture was actually taken.

[jtfromBC]

So this is what a sub-station looks like--Mickey Mouse inside with the Monster on the outside.

This article stops short of calling it mission impossible, but then again what can an embedded journalist say.

"We have the Taliban out that way about a hundred meters," says Captain Alastair McMurachy, commanding officer at one of the sub-stations. "We see them, and they see us. We know where they are, and they know where we are."

The idea behind the substations is to create what the military calls a "spider web" of Afghan army and police outposts. Once they're in place, the Canadians will be able--in theory anyway--to re-deploy their forces to other trouble spots, and the Afghans will take over.

In theory, because first of all the police have to be trained, or "mentored" into an honest, disciplined force. That's not going to be easy, and that's where the Canadians come in. A small team of soldiers has been assigned to each of the sub-stations where they spend months working with a dozen or more Afghan police.

More wishful or delusional thinking follows at
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071207/workman_police_071208/20071208?hub=TopStories

[MonsieurGonzo]

yes, now that's quite interesting, indeed... the message wasn't for US : Rather, imagine that you are Canadian. Then the lack of body armour and impotent arms of the brown-skinned men surrounding us convey the sense that: "Our Boys are not In Harm's Way."

of course if you or i were conducting live fire training on a firing range, instead of served up on a proscenium stage ~ we (and they) would be wearing armour {grin} But here Our Boys' vulnerability not is perhaps foremost The Message to we Canadians.

The illusion apparent (and conceit implicit) of Our (western, civilised) Boy communicating with the Tribal Man; oh, let's reach wayback ~ does it resonate with French Canadian arming of North American Indians? By contrast, U.S. mythology is that only scoundrels traded guns with the Indians {grin} That is unless we were empowering our native tribe to attack them = French Canadians' : proxy.

the propaganda of proxy : “Our Boys aren't expendable, they are.”

Still, as Canadian propaganda or any other NATO don't you think the image ego bravado barely masks an uneasy id of impotency : the ‘orange gun man’ is my weapon, but he does not know how, or what at, to shoot; When some one shoots at him, will he turn yellow?

How much green do we have to pay to them, so that the brown men remain true blue ?

[Mad_nVT]

Bah, it's all too late.

By this point it doesn't make any difference whether the toy guns are orange or purple, and whether this photo op is real or a facade.

The Bush Machine, with NATO compliance, is failing in Afghanistan, and it will probably be impossible to get positive momentum back. Soon, they will just be looking for an opportunity to make a least-bad retreat.

So, these become pictures of Afghani "dead men walking."

More dead souls on the Bush Account.