This might be enlightening
$1:
This is a transcript of a CBC interview with Bruce Moncur who was directly involved in Operation Medusa. He was severely injured in that battle. His comments are in stark contrast to Saiijan's comments about the success of this battle and how Canadian troops were deployed. Fascinating interview. Worth the read. Some pretty scathing comments about both Saiijan and Trudeau from a vet's point of view.
[/B]First aired on May 2.
AMT: Althia Raj, Ottawa bureau chief for HuffPost Canada. She's in Ottawa. Bruce Moncur is a former soldier who took part in Operation Medusa. He is one of several Canadian soldiers injured in that battle as they fought along US and Afghan troops over the course of three weeks in 2006. Five Canadians were killed in the heat of Operation Medusa. Bruce Moncur joins us from our Ottawa studio. Hello.
BRUCE MONCUR: Good morning.
AMT: What was your reaction when you heard Minister Sajjan’s comments?
BRUCE MONCUR: You know I don't understand why anyone would want credit for being an architect for the battle of Operation Medusa. From the start, the architect reduced the aerial bombings from three days to one and then essentially sent two platoons of soldiers in an extended line albeit in a World War I-style frontal assault where we then were enveloped on three sides similar to a 2000-year-old battle tactic used by Hannibal in the Battle of Cannae. And for five hours we fought for our lives. The architect—whoever that person was—deviated from the battle plan and it cost a lot of Canadians their lives. And if he had been a part of the initial assault, he would probably think twice about taking credit for such a battle plan. I think you really have to focus on the fact that once you've deviated from the plan, it begot one tragedy after another and it eventually culminated with the friendly fire that I was part and it essentially wiped out Charles Company. My platoon in two days of fighting was reduced from 40 to fivee so I don't know if anybody would want to be the architect of such an action.
AMT: Reduced from 40 to five, why? What happened?
BRUCE MONCUR: That were either shot or killed by the A-10 or the subsequent battle the following day.
AMT: There's differing numbers on how many Canadians died in that operation. What's your understanding?
BRUCE MONCUR: Well, the first initial assault which again, I don't know where they're getting the number 1,500. I would not say there was 1,500 combatants. I'd say they'd be lucky to say if there was anywhere from 100 to 400 would be a better judgment of how many Taliban were fighting. But on the first day, there was four casualties that were killed.
AMT: Canadians.
BRUCE MONCUR: Canadians. Rick Nolan, Frank Mellish, William Cushley and an engineer sergeant and then the next following day in the subsequent friendly fire, Mark Graham was killed by the A-10 Warthog.
AMT: You were injured in the same friendly fire incident?
BRUCE MONCUR: Correct. I was shot three times. I had five per cent of my brain removed and I had two brain surgeries and I had to relearn how to read, write, walk and my talking was slurred.
AMT: Wow. And Operation Medusa, how are you today?
BRUCE MONCUR: Fully recovered. I have a couple of the long term I guess effects of the injury and my short-term memory is deficient and I fatigue when I concentrate.
AMT: Now Operation Medusa was pivotal to the war in Afghanistan. How so?
BRUCE MONCUR: Well, Operation Medusa was essentially our version of the biggest battle of our generation of the Afghan war. A lot of soldiers have that pivotal battle that they took part in. To say that you were actually part of that is special in its own right. It would be like Juno Beach or Vimy Ridge. That's our version of that. Obviously a much smaller battle and not as important as a watershed moment in Canadian history, but that was our version of it or the best that we were I guess afforded.
AMT: And so how are you and the soldiers you know from that time reacting to what's happening with Mr. Sajjan and what he said?
BRUCE MONCUR: He wasn't part of the assault so I didn't see him there. I never witnessed him at all. So I think that’s not in respect to the memory of those soldiers that did pay the ultimate sacrifice. However, I will play devil's advocate and say a lot more Canadians know about Operation Medusa now than they did a week ago. So that is a bonus. I like to think that now a lot of Canadians are going to read about the Frank Mellishes, the Eggs Benedict who you played earlier, Eggsy. Scotty Russell. Some of these guys did some absolutely superhuman things and I hope people now take the time to actually read about some of the true heroes of this battle.
AMT: And so what do you think of his apology?
BRUCE MONCUR: I think this is par for the course in terms of the Liberal government. I mean you have a prime minister that puts his hands on a co-worker. You have a minister that lied about her refugee status and other people are being deported for that. And now you have Sajjan who's doing this. There is precedent though for stolen valour. If you recall, there's a female colonel that lost her job and was forced to retire when she was wearing medals she was not entitled to. And another gentleman lost his MMM, military medal of merit, and of course there's a local person in Ottawa that he wasn't even in the military and was wearing medals and he faced criminal charges. So overall I think there should be some sort of punishment levied—maybe not losing the ministerial job—but maybe he can't wear his commander's commendation anymore.
AMT: And now we know that both the Conservatives and the NDP are calling for his resignation and I should mention your partner is NDP MP Niki Ashton. How much is your politics involved in that? I just want to make that point that you're speaking for yourself.
BRUCE MONCUR: Of course. You know it's ironic that me and Niki met on—I was coming up for a committee for veterans affairs and I like to tell people—we actually met at an airport. So it’s the only good thing that's come out of the committees as far as I'm concerned.
AMT: Talk to me then a little bit more about Operation Medusa because there was something called the white school. What was the goal? What were you trying to do?
BRUCE MONCUR: Well, the white school I guess is where the Taliban actually first became an entity. They had a meeting and that was where the first meeting in which they formed the Taliban and it had a symbolic meaning for these guys. And they were bound and determined to protect it. This was like their last stand, essentially their Alamo where they were going to go down swinging. This is actually the only time that the Taliban put any sort of concentrated resistance up in such a way. That's why this battle is so significant is that it was the only one of its kind where it was honestly where you knew who was on whose side and it wasn't guerrilla style warfare.
AMT: Because before that it was mostly IEDs and ambushes then.
BRUCE MONCUR: Correct.
AMT: And this was about more like a textbook battle.
BRUCE MONCUR: Of course. Again like I said, they used the tactic of Cannae, Hannibal's famous envelopment which has been used for two millennia.
AMT: You make the point that a lot of Canadians are hearing about Operation Medusa and being reminded about what was done in their name. How important do you think this particular issue is compared to other challenges facing the Canadian military at the moment?
BRUCE MONCUR: Well, it's funny that today is the year anniversary that Justin Trudeau did one-handed push-ups with the Invictus athletes where he sent a video to President Obama and Prince Harry kind of in a social media way of just saying that the Canadian team is going to win more medals type of thing. Twelve days later, the Liberal government reopened the Equitas lawsuit, lifted the abeyance on that. So if you've got to think—you have a prime minister that is going to look at these men and women and thank them, shake their hands, ask them to do him a favour. But knowing full well 12 days later he's going to open a lawsuit that is actually going to fight against re-establishing their lifelong pensions. That is the type of I guess obstacles that we have in front of us. And unfortunately you know you've got a minister of veterans’ affairs that has really dropped the ball on his file. And I mean from day one they said that Sajjan was going to be interlocked and working closely with veterans’ affairs. I've never seen him at any of the stakeholder summits or any committee meetings. So I feel that it's a lot of lip service and I think the biggest issue with the defence minister is that he is one of us. He has gone on these tours and to basically turn around and be a Liberal instead of being a soldier is a shame. Because he knows how bad the equipment is. Operation Medusa’s architect failed but you know the Canadian soldiers prevailed despite the architect's plans. So it is disheartening and hopefully that some good will come from all of this.
AMT: When did you leave the military, Bruce?
BRUCE MONCUR: I left in 2010.
AMT: So after your injury. How many years did it take you to recover?
BRUCE MONCUR: I'd say about three years before I was medically cleared. And then once I was cleared, I was deemed undeployable and thus unemployable and then released.
AMT: What do you do now?
BRUCE MONCUR: I am actually currently back in school. I graduated. Actually I was prescribed university to see if I still had the capacity to learn and now I'm going back for teacher's college. And also I am the first—hopefully will be the first man—with Niki's leadership bid.
AMT: Okay. Well, thank you very much for speaking with me today.
BRUCE MONCUR: Thank you so much.
AMT: Bruce Moncur, retired soldier, veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was injured in a friendly fire incident during Operation Medusa and he spoke to us from our Ottawa studio.
CKA Uber 
