Anti-Project Hero Profs Offside
Sixteen professors at the University of Regina have written a letter protesting their institutions involvement in Project Hero. This scholarship program provides children of fallen Canadian soldiers with free tuition for their post-secondary education. Several post-secondary institutions across the country are taking part in the program.
The 16 profs in question believe the University of Regina should withdraw from the program. They denounce the program as “a glorification of Canadian imperialism in Afghanistan and elsewhere.” and “support for Project Hero represents a dangerous cultural turn. It associates heroism with the act of military intervention. It erases the space for critical discussion of military policy and practices“.
Are these people so far up on their ivory towers they don’t know how to find their way to a simple dictionary? I managed to find one and discovered that one of the meanings of ‘imperialism’ is: the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies.
The last time I looked, Canada’s mission (and indeed NATO’s mission) in Afghanistan was to secure the country in order to allow the elected government of Afghanistan to establish themselves as the properly constituted government. In order to accomplish that end, Canada and other countries are needing to work with the civil authorities to assist them in establishing the various elements of good government.
The bottom line is, when Canada (and eventually the other NATO forces) withdraws from Afghanistan, the Afghani government is free to use or not use the assistance they have received. In fact they are free to exercise their sovereignty now, which is why Karzai’s demands in regards to safeguarding civilians are being taken seriously. That is not imperialism.
If those 16 professors believe differently, maybe they need to climb out of their ivory towers long enough to visit the real world. It scares me sometimes when I hear the bunk that so called learned people are free to try to indoctrinate our young people with.
As for their claims of associating heroism with the act of military intervention. How quickly they forget the soldiers who serve our country are committed to defending this country and carrying out the mission(s) given to them by our government.
If these ivory tower dwellers wanted to go after the government over their efforts to equate any questioning of the mission given our soldiers to a lack of support of the troops, have at it.
By trying to go after a program designed to give back to those children who have lost their parent as the result of missions given to our soldiers, the ivory tower dwellers are trying to take out their displeasure at the mission on the children. Go after the government, not the innocent survivors.
As for their dislike of the program’s name. I’m reminding of something I read when researching the origins of the Victoria Cross. When Queen Victoria was commissioning the creation of the Victoria Cross she was reported to have said she didn’t want the medal engraved with the word ‘bravery’ because she believed any man who went into battle was brave. Instead the medal carries the words ‘For Valour’.
When I return to my trusty dictionary and look up the word ‘hero’ I find: a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. Notwithstanding the slightly sexist language, it seems once more we cross paths with the word brave in relation to being a hero.
I don’t believe it is a very big leap to see all our men and women serving our country and in particular those serving in combat as being heroes. Some of those heroes have ended up dead, 141 to be exact. Some of those dead heroes left young children behind. Young children to whom a grateful country should be proud to make sure they receive a future education.
So, those 16 ivory tower dwellers need to exercise their democratic right to disagree with the government who sent those men and women into harm’s way by directing their complaints to the government. Leave the innocents alone.
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