Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 6, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Submissions to the Winnipeg free press editorial Board View from the West members Are Bob Cox Gerald flood Catherine Mitchell Tom Oleson Dave Obrien cartoonist Dale Cummings Are Welcome. Contact six month View from the West Archive available online at comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 ? 2006 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian Andrew s. Ritchie / publisher newspapers limited partnership Bob Cox / editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Patrick Flynn / Deputy editor b2 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 View Winnipeg free press sunday August 6, 2006 a deliberate abuse of language c coinciding with the recent carnage of civilians in the various Middle East states is the significant dam age done to language As a meaningful vehicle for truth. In the new Lingua Franca of the Ever expanding War on terrorism the term deliberate is of particular note. To give the most current example on the one hand Israel a argument that Hezbollah targets civilians while civilian casualties resulting from israeli military operations Are not deliberate is for the most part technically accurate. On the other hand however for the Many lebanese civilians killed or injured this is a distinction without a difference. Dead is dead injured is injured. Use of the term deliberate obscures or shifts responsibility for the act. The fact is for the past 100 years the ratio of civilians killed in conflict compared to military casualties has sky rocketed. This change is the result in obvious instances of civil ians being actually targeted. But the real cause of the change is the total War nature of modern conflict and More specifically technological advances in both the making of weapons of mass destruction and in the development of equipment designed to protect members of the Warrior class. These latter two factors Are not separate As the ability to inflict injuries from afar on ones opponent and not have to get up close also protects warriors themselves. Take the current conflict in Lebanon As an example. Understandably the israeli army does not want to risk the lives of its soldiers by sending them to fight hand to hand against Hezbollah in narrow streets. It therefore has made a calculated decision to bomb the enemy from a Safe Dis Tance. While it is technically Correct that the israeli air Force does not drop bombs labelled with the names of civilians it is not accurate ? indeed it is not truthful ? to describe these deaths As not in a real sense deliberate. Put another Way today a modern Warrior class has calculated not Only that their soldiers lives Are More Valu Able than those of enemy soldiers but that they Are also More valuable than the lives of civilians caught in the Middle ? a calculation Likely in tune of course with their own civilian populations beliefs. This was the Central Les son the american army Learned from Vietnam it does no particular Good to Label politicians and Mem Bers of the Warrior class As heartless. They often do exhibit real remorse for civilian deaths. But likewise they also understand that callously incinerating innocent men women and children is just bad political optics. And so after every incident of mass annihilation a spokesman for the Warrior class will predictably Trot out the state ment that the death of civilians was an Accident and that an inquiry will be called to find out what went there is one other aspect to this change in tactics and technologies used by the Warrior class that requires com ment its growing psychological detachment from the consequences of its actions and hence genuine avoidance of responsibility. One of the results of the first world War was that the foot soldiers that came out of it alive did not glory in Bat the. They had seen destruction up close fighting and killing at close quarters. They had Felt the blood of Friend and foe alike splatter on their flesh and knew what it was like to look into the eyes of another human being they killed. The knowledge of this drove More than a few insane indeed we know today that Many suffered from Post traumatic stress. Today a technologies however protect Many soldiers especially those at a distance ? fighter pilots and artillery soldiers and of course commanders ? from emotional responsibility for what is wrought. For a generation raised on video games and then drilled to obey orders without question the human carnage is often reduced to a Mere Blip on a radar screen. And if someone should draw Atten Tion to the fact that innocent men women and children have been slaughtered Well As they say accidents will after All it want deliberate. Trevor w. Harrison is a political sociologist at the University of Lethbridge. A thicker skin rocket propelled grenades As the canadians in based lord Strathcona a horse Royal Canad tanks provide the Best Afghanistan have discovered. Ans. As part of chief of defence staff general because Canada does to have strikers in Protection but their Rick Hillier a army transformation Canada order to develop new doctrine and training was moving to acquire the Stryker Mobile gun procedures required for army transformation system which is essentially a variant of the the Strathcona have been using the Leopard in future is up in the air Lav Iii but armed with a 105-millimetre High the Stryker a direct fire role on exercises at pressure gun like the Leopard. The cab Wainwright training area about 208 another system the Multi Mission effects Kilometres Southeast of Edmonton. Direct fire vehicle ? which is based on the forces exist Means rounds Are not lobbed onto a target but by Bob Bergen ing air defence missile system ? was to aug Are fired at directly at it by a High pressure ment the Stryker. Gun like the Styker a or leopards. T he future of the tank in Canadas armed Hillier a transformation it is said will Posi that Means while older first generation forces is As Clear As mud following a rec Tion the army to face new asymmetric threats leopards were being used for target practice commendation from the Canadian forces from terrorists suicide bombers and Small elsewhere or sold off the Strathcona tanks chief of land staff that the army a aging Leop Well armed militias rather than fighting were not collecting dust and remained ser Ard tanks be retained instead of acquiring High massed infant Ries and columns of tanks As envy vice Able. Tech new . Stryker Mobile gun systems. Signed during the cold War. More importantly the Complex skill sets . Andrew Leslie made the recon Hillier who has an armoured corps Back required to maintain them drive them fire mentation to vice chief of defence staff ground was the staunchest advocate of scrap them and work around them were not lost. . Walter a Tonczyk last month. Ping the tanks in favour of the Mobile gun what makes the new development with the at the heart of the recommendation is an systems. Leopard even More intriguing is the recent admission that the defence vehicle Industry when Hillier argued in 2003 against keeping announcement by the Stephen Harper govern cannot deliver new Light metals Strong enough tanks he likened them to millstones that had ment that it would acquire new heavy strategic to withstand the weapons systems americans Hamstrung the Canadian military a Battlefield air and sea lift capability. And their nato allies Are facing in Iraq and tactics for years. No specific planes or ships have been Iden Afghanistan hence the continuing need for in making his Case against the leopards tidied yet because the $3.4-billion strategic lift venerable old tanks and their thick Armour. Hillier argued the Canadian air Force could tailplane and $2.9-billion joint support ship pro the main fighting vehicle the canadians use deliver them with its c-130 Hercules aircraft jets Are in the contract award notice and bid in Afghanistan now is a Lav Iii. It is an eight because they were too heavy. As a result they Ding process stages respectively. Wheeled 17-tonne armoured car armed with a were useless to the troops in Kabul Eritrea or but it is entirely possible that both the strate?25-mm Cannon that is capable of transporting Bosnia. Gic lift planes and ships could transport Leop infantry at speeds up to 100 pm a. The jury meanwhile is out on whether the Ards rendering Hillier a 2003 argument against the other fighting vehicle currently in Cana strikers can fit inside a c-130. Some say they the tanks moot. Das inventory is 42.5-tonne Leopard tank can others say they can to. As murky As the future of tanks May be a which is equipped with a 105-millimetre High Hillier and defence minister Gordon of con Case can be made that Canada should keep its pressure gun and which lumbers along at a top nor have yet to make a decision on Leslie a rec leopards both for training purposes As Well Speed of 65 pm a. Commendation to keep the tanks. As for combat. Ask the soldiers who have worked with both Canada once had a Fleet of 144 leopards. It once a military capability is lost it takes the Leopard and the Lav Iii which vehicle they currently has 66, which have undergone a $145-decades to restore it and Canada is Only now prefer and you get multiple answers. Million upgrade but the plan is to reduce them beginning to rebuild its Navy and air Force after most will Tell you there is nothing like a tank to 44. Decades of previous governments neglect. And its heavy Armour for Protection. In Addi Leslie also said in his letter that the life of that is one lesson that should not be forgot Tion a tank will go anywhere. Canadas remaining leopards should be extend ten in All of this. Others say they prefer travelling in the much de to 2015. Faster Lav Iii which is More elusive. One what All this could mean for the armoured Bob Bergen is a fellow of the Centre for problem they Point is that while the Lav Iii is corps units which will still have some of the military and strategic studies at the perfect for Road travel its wheels can become remaining tanks is debatable at Best. University of Calgary and a research fellow bogged Down in soft Sand or marshy soil. It is the majority of the remaining leopards ? with the Canadian defence & foreign affairs also readily crippled by Roadside bombs and 28 of them ? belong to the cab Edmonton Institute in Calgary. Universities have their priorities All wrong some professors earn about the same As retail store managers by Garry sran Meghan Gallant and Dorothy Wigmore Manitoba universities have their priorities backwards. Somehow they Don to have the Money to give the worst paid professors session Al instructors and teaching assistants in Western Canada a competitive wage bump but have Man aged to give administrators increases averaging 14.5 per cent in the last two years. Universities and colleges across Canada suffered terribly through two decades of funding cuts. Tuition fees skyrocketed while wages for faculty and staff stagnated. University presidents Tell us that inadequate Public funding prevents them from doling out the salary increases University employees deserve but they re simultaneously Able to raise their own wages. The numbers Are Worth sharing. According to Manitoba a disclosures act for Public officials compensation University of Manitoba president Emke sea the by saw her salary Rise by almost $60,000 ? More than 18 per cent ? from 2003 to 2005. This increase is enough to hire an assistant professor about seven session Al instructors working at their minimum stipend As Many do or teach ing assistants for about 55 undergraduate labs. While Szathmary a $320,000 salary puts her in the ratified Heights of the 0.26 per cent of Manitoban who earn More than $250,000 a year other senior administrators at the u of m also have done Well. Vice president Deborah Mccallum a $43,000 increase ? at 23 per cent the High est percentage increase ? brings her compensation to $192,000 annually she is responsible for the University a finance department amongst other things. On average senior administrators received increases of 14.5 per cent from 2003 to 2005, while Deans and directors banked 16.5 per cent. As Jim Turk executive director of the Canadian association of University teach ers so aptly Points out assistant professors May earn about the same As retail store managers ? with the added problem of huge student debt loads. These increases contrast sharply with the three per cent annual increases negotiated for faculty session Al instructors teaching assistants and support staff in recent rounds of bargaining. In fact for session Al instructors who have Little Job Security and few benefits the three per cent applied Only to the minimum stipend of about $8,160 for a year Long course if they were paid More under the last con tract they got no increase promises of teaching assistant or grader Marker positions Are used to recruit graduate students. However the value of these already Low wages for student employees has been further eroded by recent fee increases. The Canadian federation of students calculates that in spite of the tuition fee freeze implemented in 2000, Manitoba students paid 47 per cent More in 2005 than they did in 1995. Consider these facts in Light of Swath mry a comments in May 2006 that the University might close its doors for Good if students mandatory user fees were not increased. It seems that the University a scarce disposable income is easily used for administrative salary increases while students staff and faculty Are left in the dust. The inequitable approach taken towards faculty and staff salaries is lowering morale at the University of Manitoba and makes it difficult for the provinces universities to attract and retain qualified faculty staff and graduate and under graduate students. More to the Point How can the univer sity of Manitoba find $1.3 million to give senior administrators generous increases while claiming it cannot afford salary increases of More than three per cent per year for staff and demanding that Stu dents pay More this not Only exposes the misplaced priorities of the University it also devalues the efforts of faculty staff and students to lobby for More adequate government funding. Even from a Short term management perspective it makes sense to Stop the massive executive salary increases to avoid the perception that top administrators Are greedy and hypocritical. Other Wise the increases makes it look As though they Are rewarding one another for squeezing faculty staff and students. Further the universities would be hard pressed to find any evidence that higher paid administrators improve the Quality of education. At times the opposite seems True More and More funds Are being diverted from academic budgets into pub Lic relations alumni relations and Adver Tising campaigns. Academic and support staff along with students form the Core of a University they ensure that teaching research and operations occur. Administrators should facilitate these functions not eclipse them. Universities do need More Public sup port to fully recover from previous fund ing cuts. In turn they must demonstrate that their priorities fit into a High Quality accessible education system. As students and employees of the University we Are dedicated to working together and with other Manitoban for better salaries More academic and staff positions lower tuition fees and increased research funding. Increased Federal and provincial government funding can make this happen. That and More efficient use of existing funding is in the interests of students faculty staff and All Manitoban. Garry sran is president of the University of Manitoba students Union Umsu Meghan Gallant is president of the University of Manitoba graduate students association and Dorothy Wigmore is president of cupe 3909 ;