I wrestled with the decision of whether or not to post this video. Some Canadians might ask me "why are you spreading this story further?" I love Canada, and for almost a decade (and counting) I've devoted much of myself to its army, but if I want to help tell Canada's story, I can't honestly avoid telling this chapter of it as well.

The reason I'm not posting this to the "Canadian World Domination" collective is because the collective's tongue-in-cheek title is incongruous next to the brutal nature of this story -- not because I'm trying to maintain distance between Canada and this item. I hope this is fairly obvious to begin with.

(EDIT: now that there's a Canada channel, I am adding this video to it. The channel is still nominally labeled "Canadian World Domination" if you click through but I think I've said all that needs saying above.)

This specific news item is a CBC op-ed piece by Rex Murphy.

From Wikipedia:

"The Somalia Affair was a Canadian military scandal in the mid-1990s. It began with the brutal 1993 beating death of a Somali teenager, Shidane Arone, at the hands of two Canadian soldiers participating in the United Nations humanitarian efforts in Somalia. The crime, documented by grisly photos, shocked the Canadian public and brought to light internal problems in the Canadian Airborne Regiment that went beyond the two soldiers directly involved. Questions were asked about why the unit was chosen for that mission despite disciplinary problems. Perhaps most damaging to the leadership of the Canadian military was how it reacted after the events became public, as accusations of covering up the event surfaced.

"Eventually a public inquiry was called. Despite being controversially cut short by the government, the Somalia Inquiry found deep problems in the leadership of the Canadian Forces. The affair led to the disbanding of Canada's elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, greatly damaged the morale of the Canadian Forces, and damaged both the domestic and international reputation of Canadian soldiers.

"There were serious concerns among Canadian leadership with regards to sending the Airborne, as the mission was seen as being outside its raison d'etre. Controlling a large area of a country required a mobile force, while the CAR was essentially a light infantry battalion, and only recently reorganized as such. There had also been recurring discipline problems and reports that some members of the unit were white supremacists, who were concentrated in 2 Commando (each company sized subunit was designated a Commando); one of the symptoms being the adoption of the Confederate States of America flag as the commando's barracks-room decoration. The Airborne consisted of distinct sub-units provided by each of Canada's regular infantry regiments; later, commander Lieutenant Colonel Kenward suggested that the line regiments had offloaded some of their "bad apples" into the CAR. The commanding officer of the CAR, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Morneault, declared this "rogue commando" unit unfit for service abroad and sought to leave it behind in Canada when he deployed. Instead, he was relieved of his command and replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Carol Mathieu, an officer renowned for his rough-and-ready toughness.

"The CAR was accompanied by a helicopter squadron and a squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. These forces were deployed to Somalia in January 1993, setting up its tented patrol-base outside the town of Belet Huen. Their mission was to secure and bring order to the town and a 30,000 square kilometer area around it. The soldiers lived on hard rations, with limited water, but patrolled actively while also establishing effective relations with the local tribal leaders. The Canadian Airborne Regiment stood out as having rapidly brought a modicum of order to its assigned territory. However, much of the aid was still being siphoned by local warlords, and there was also a constant stream of locals pilfering from the Canadian camp itself. This theft from the camp was a major irritant, and also a risk to the safety of the soldiers. At least one commanding officer had tacitly encouraged abuse of any thieves who were caught."

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_Affair