GG apologizes for Rwandan genocide inaction

Is she talking on behalf of Canada or herself. Anyway what gives her the right to say what she did...she should get her facts straight before making an apology for Canada.

She ran it by the PM first.

So, which facts should Harper have gotten straight?

Apologize for what??? Not jumping into the middle of someone else's civil war??

And one other thing, Since 1992 we've had some 40,000 troops and military personnel go through Bosnia. On top of the other peace-keeping missions, where did she think we were going to get the troops for Rwanda?
Here she is bad mouthing us(by way of apologizing for our "inaction") and yet, how many Canadians are aware of the fucking AWESOME job our troops did in Bosnia during the same time-frame??

Sounds to me she went off script and offered her personal opinion.

We couldn't really do anything, but on the other hand we should have. It was beyond our capacity to do so and really not our decision to make. In essence I think the apology is warranted, it's not just an apology for Canada's involvement(or lack of) though, but for the International Community at large.

From what I know we did what we were expected to do in the event of a massacre. That is inform UN HQ wait for permission to do something, we were told to stand down and basically let it happen.

So if anyone failed Rawanda it wasn't Canada, It was the some desk jockey general at UNHQ in NYC.

There was nothing to apologize for. The Canadian troops had no mandate to do anything past what they were ordered to do and had General Dallaire ordered the troops to do something without approval he'd have been promptly cashiered along with every officer under his command.

No offense, but knowing you people as I do I think it's fair to say that if Dallaire had prevented the genocide you all would've soundly condemned him for going off the reservation as a 'gung-ho cowboy' and the fact of nothing happening would've only served to hang the man.

It's the bloody UN that should apologize. If Dallaire had taken things into his own hands with the limited resources available to him, the UN would have been first in line to punish him. Ineffective bastards. All talk and no action. But they have a great buffet at UN headquarters. You can see them all around the trough. The out-going GG should keep her un-educated opinions to herself.

I think you don't know us as well as you think. I would have stood behind him 100% as would most of my colleagues, had he intervened in the conflict.

Members of the UN should apologize, because even the UN doesn't ultimately have the final say on such matters. Not unless you're willing to Fund a Standing UN Military who takes its' Orders from a Single Head of the UN whose sole purpose is to advance specific Principles and not the whims of Members of the Security Council.

The UN can certainly apologize, but it's mostly symbolic just as this apology is symbolic.

I think you don't know us as well as you think. I would have stood behind him 100% as would most of my colleagues, had he intervened in the conflict.

Agreed. sounds like Bart is projecting a Stereotype. That being, that those who generally oppose War, always Oppose War no matter the circumstances. Sounds good on Fox News and to the FN Viewer, but doesn't really exist IRL.

I think you don't know us as well as you think. I would have stood behind him 100% as would most of my colleagues, had he intervened in the conflict.

Sure, the CF guys would stand behind the man. But the common Canadian would be mortified that a Canadian soldier actually used force to protect innocent lives.

And please understand, I am looking at this through the lens of the genocide being .

I have seen too many good people toss away a career because they impolitely prevented someone from committing a wrong.

See, when you prevent something from happening you then have no justification for your actions because nothing happened.

Imagine an F-16 pilot shooting down the four airliners on 9/11 and thereby preventing what followed. The poor bastard would be put to death for murdering the airline passengers and crew regardless of the intention of the hijackers.

It's just the way this crap works.

No, I am not.

Say I go out and shoot some guy and say he was about to blow up a busload of babies. I'd be stuck having to prove his intent and the whole thing would be on me.

Same goes for Dallaire.

I think the poor guy was damned no matter what he did. I'm really on his side here, okay?