Future🍁

I've looked at this photo 10 times, and I'm still trying to figure out what Pete Hegseth did that was supposedly so horrible that it caused this firestorm. All he did was repost an actual photo that had already been posted online by the Canadian cadet program and added three words, "This is real." He didn't slander anybody. He didn't disparage anyone. He didn't openly mock the individuals in the photo. He simply reposted a photo that was already publicly available. It was a picture that our own Cadet program put on line as a promotional image. An image that is supposed to somehow reflect the excellence of our programs? Yet somehow, we've turned it into a national controversy. I think the reason there's such a firestorm is because Canadians, deep down, know how pathetic we've become, and we absolutely hate it when someone else points it out. We'd rather live in this fantasy where we're still this strong, respected, serious country, as long as nobody outside Canada notices what's actually happening. But the moment someone does notice, we get our panties in a knot. Not necessarily because they're wrong, but because we don't like being criticized. Instead of asking why this photograph struck such a nerve, we're attacking the person who reposted it. Maybe the outrage itself says more than the post ever did. What it comes down to is we have massive insecurity about who we are, and when someone calls it out, instead of reflecting, we lash out. At scale. People who are strong and secure, don't care what other people say and they don't care what other people do. Only weak people that lack self-esteem react so poorly. We are no longer a serious country.

The biggest German defeat in Normandy was the Falaise Pocket. The actual closing of the Pocket was largely done by the Poles and Canadians, who had also done a lot of the hard attritional fighting around Caen, alongside the Brits. I like it when these "minor" nations pull off decisive victories that decide the fate of a campaign. And this wasn't the only example. Poles and Canadians were top-class soldiers in WW2. Fought well in Holland, in Italy, in France and in many other campaigns.