Bussum Bridgehead 2004

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Dirk Leegwater
Hallo Martin,

I must thinking about the (term) "Windmill" but ..... that's an other
story !!!

Mvg. Dirk

HI Dirk..
Is this the application of the word "WINDMILL" that you were thinking about..
Our lickspittle political leader will turn in the wind at the slightest breeze...
A election is coming in Canada and this guttless wonder will be gone ,hopefully...

CVE Day Commemoration - Veterans group calls PM's decision to cancel Netherlands trip an insult
OTTAWA, April 25 /CNW Telbec/ - Cliff Chadderton, Chairman of the
National Council of Veteran Associations, issued this statement today
following an announcement by Prime Minister Paul Martin that he has decided to
cancel his trip to The Netherlands:

So the year 2005 has been declared the Year of the Veteran by the
Canadian Government! For veterans it will go down in history as the year in
which our Prime Minister delivered to them the worst of all insults. Believe
it or not, he has refused to join with Canadians in Holland who will be
celebrating the Liberation Day with those wonderful Dutch people who withstood
the brunt of the cruel Nazi SS. In the act of sending the German hordes to
their homes, what did the veterans do? 10,000 of our very best lost their
lives in our aircraft. Many young citizen soldiers threw down their civilian
implements to take up a rifle and beat the Germans in the kind of war only
they could understand.
The Year of the Veteran is meant to pay homage to other groups of
Canadians. Take for example the Merchant Navy. We lost more Seamen per capita
than any other country in the world.
What does the Year of the Veteran mean to the young Canadian with the
bayonet or the grenade who went into hand to hand combat and knocked the
blazes out of what was supposed to be the finest army in the world - - that
is, Hitler's well hardened troops?
The fact that our Prime Minister has decided not, according to press
reports, to join with those of us who went into the battle ill-prepared and
with rudimentary weapons to put the rampaging Germans back in their place, is
an insult.
Who will feel the insult more? Firstly those who lie in far off foreign
fields. Then there are those who came home maimed but still with fighting
spirit. How about the widows? They probably suffered the worst loss when their
husbands were killed, and the loss is now borne by the children and
grandchildren of that generation who fought in World War II.
Picture this: a Dutch family throws open its home and invites a Canadian
veteran and his bride or children to dinner. How would the Canadian explain
that Liberation Day may be important to the Dutch but apparently is not of
significant importance in the eyes of our Prime Minister? He could easily have
joined with his troops and their survivors to participate with The Netherlands
in celebrating the 60th anniversary of May 8th. The Dutch call it Liberation
Day for good reason.
How many Dutch would understand if a Canadian tried to say that our Prime
Minister felt it more important to stay home and defend the record of a sleazy
Government which spent $250 million under circumstances which may be close to
indicating criminal intent? No! The Dutch will not understand. They will say,
"Politics are politics. We have them in Holland, you have them in Canada, but
there was only one Hitler and only one World War II."
We lost 39,000 young Canadians in defeating Hitler. The Dutch will never
forget that. How will they explain to their own children, who go to the
Canadian gravesites at Christmas with candles and who have adopted as their
own, the Canadian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the freedom of
the Dutch?
I am speaking as Chairman of the National Council of Veteran
Associations. It represents some 51 veterans groups - some of them small, like
the RCAF; but all of tremendous importance, like the Nursing Sister
Association of Canada.
Words fail me in describing the extent of this insult. The next time I
visit Holland it will be necessary to say that our Prime Minister attempted to
ride out the storm at home on the unsurpassed record earned in foreign
battlegrounds.
What a shame that The Year of the Veteran - 2005 - should be celebrated
by what can only be called a mockery engineered by our own Prime Minister or
those who gave him the advice to stay home.



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