It seems that the high mucky mucks down at DND headquarters may have just been blowing smoke up the Canadian tail-pipe last summer when they or their spin crews were making a big deal about Operation Nanook the whiz-bang Canada Command sovereignty operation that took place in the Baffin last August.
The G&M has a copy of:
"... an internal report highly critical of military leaders' lack of interest in an Arctic sovereignty protection exercise last August.
Actually I don't know really many, if I know any at all, Southerns that have much enthusiasm for a summer on or about Baffin Island particularly in Iqaluit. But I guess I'm wondering just a bit about internal statements such as this:
""The report says Canada Command failed to issue a set of orders that had been planned to help disseminate instructions on Operation Nanook.
“[It's] a sad testament to the lack of interest in this operation and its associated training events displayed by the superior HQ that directed it to be conducted in the first place.”
We ordinary Canadians know that all the fun for the Hillier brand army, sorry, Canadian Forces, is in dusty places thousands of kilometers from 101 Colonel By Drive so someone likely should have told Canada Command that Iqaluit is really dusty in the summer (why do you think people get out of town in the summer) and it and the Baffin are a couple thousand kilometers away from the defense palace on the Rideau canal.
But we needn't worry according to one of DNDs spinstiress, Lieutenant-Commander Diane Grover, who said:
"it's always a juggling act to balance the effort devoted to exercises such as Nanook and unexpected demands such as search-and-rescue missions or forest fires.
“You're never going to have 100-per-cent satisfaction on this,” ... .
... the Forces expect criticism of how these exercises are run. “That criticism, whether it's negative or positive*, is a valuable part of the training process. There's no point in training if you can already do things right.”
Now after that reassurances I'm much much more confident that someone down by the Rideau might issue an order or two the next time the boys & girls of the Forces thinking of heading North for part of the summer.
Last November, Rob Huebert from the University of Calgary, maybe had the best assessment of Nanook when he
"... graciously described this exercise [Nanook], and another problem-plagued one last summer [in 2006] that left a Twin Otter stuck in mud on the edge of a tundra cliff. "These are important baby steps that are absolutely necessary."
'Who's guarding our back door?'
Ed Struzik
November 18, 2007
Toronto Star
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*Incidentally, what the hell is criticism that's positive? Is that good disapproval or fault finding as opposed, of course, to bad disapproval and finding of fault.
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