Canada's history: peacekeeping or combat?

I grew up hearing a lot about our Canadian reputation for peacekeeping.  FWIW, I found this to be an interesting read: 

A nation of peacekeepers or of warriors?

excerpt:

In the last 40 years or so Canada has been one of the least involved nations in actual UN peacekeeping missions.  Peacekeeping is increasingly becoming an activity of smaller nations and often of third-world nations, particularly in the past 10 years.  For example, in 2002 only 314 Canadians were on peacekeeping duties compared to, Nepal with 1,100 and Bangladesh with 6,000.

In fact, most of our military involvement in the past 15 years has had much more to do with shooting than blue helmets.  The 1991 Gulf War, operations in the Balkans in 1993; the invasion of Kosovo in 1999; and most recently Afghanistan these were all combat operations.  In the first three most of the real activities of Canadian troops were never reported accurately in Canada, and it was only when the stories were told after the missions that the truth was known.  For example, the action in the Medak Pocket in Bosnia rivalled any engagement in past or present warfare (and we in uniform didn't even know the full extent of what went on there).  There are stories that may never be told - like the deadly effectiveness of Canadian snipers (the US wanted to give Bronze Stars - a valour award - to a group of Canadian snipers).

Our military history as a nation is characterized by one constant thread, and it has nothing to do with our skill as mediators or negotiators.  Canadian troops have always been known for their effectiveness and fierceness in battle.

 

Comments

[steve the z]

The term "peacekeeping" is primarily a political term that holds very little actual value in the real world. My belief is that there are people who will hurt other people if allowed and they will not talk about solutions or comprimises. You can't keep peace when there is a group that is violent, unless somehow you can stop the violence. We call it peacekeeping because that's what we want it to be, that's what we want to see ourselves as. We do not want to be a nation at war, we do not want to be associated with the horror that war is. I wish that the way to deal with conflict on the world stage was sitting at the table and simply talking until it was established that we have worked out something, at least talk for years rather than shoot people dead.

Violence prevention is the highest priority if it can be done, Canada's invlovement in the developing economies is worth the billions of dollars if we can help build societies that have some sort of balance between needs and oppourtunities. I believe the true peacekeeping begins with treating disease and educating children, establishing fair relationships with countries and groups that benefit all involved. We have to think in terms of decades and building healthy societies, rather than just what we can get out of them. But even then, there will be groups that want to hurt people and we need to be able to help stop them. Unfortunately we will always need the warriors, their kind will always be asked to do the bad stuff we don't want to know about.