When a news commentator for Fox News made disrespectful comments against Canada and its military, it created a media firestorm. The news came on the heels of four more Canadian soldiers killed and eight others wounded in two separate roadside bombings in Afghanistan.
On his show Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld said, “Meaning, the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white Capri pants.”
His comment came after Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the chief commander of the army, said the military might need a year to recover after Canada’s mission in Afghanistan ends in 2011.
The Canadian military should be respected unconditionally for the sacrifice they are making overseas to make someone’s life better.
Canada bows its head when a procession carries the dead on the Highway of Heroes. Canada sheds a tear when another soldier is lost to a firefight or roadside bomb. Canada celebrates when our boys make it home alive.
It is disappointing when some late-night news host on an American network makes defamatory remarks against the Canadian military. It is practically a slap in the face to every Canadian and every soldier fighting in the war in Afghanistan.
But then again, who cares? Who cares what this guy on TV has to say?
Greg Gutfeld’s show is broadcast at three in the morning on weekdays on Fox News.
It is his career he puts on the line when he makes rude comments about something so important and so honoured.
When the government of a foreign nation calls your employer, demanding an immediately apology, it looks bad to your audience and to the world. (Gutfeld did indeed apologize, but almost a week after the fact.) Who would watch your show after that?
His comments are inconsequential to those in Canada and those in Afghanistan.
It is a drop of water in a sea of people who care for the mission in Afghanistan and would never breathe a bad word against it.