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E-book Scattering Chaff : Canadian Air Power and Censorship During the Kosovo War

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Penilaian

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his book vehemently disagrees with Stein and Lang’s contention that there had been no combat mission since Korea. It examines Canada’s con-tribution to the 1999 Kosovo air war authorized by the Liberal govern-ment of Jean Chrétien, for which a dedicated campaign medal was struck, and for which Battle Honours were awarded to the 441 and 425 Tactical Fighter Squadrons for their participation in Operation Echo. Operation Echo was the Canadian contribution to Operation Allied Force, the North Atlantic Treaty bombing campaign against Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian military and paramilitary forces in Kovoso. It should be noted that Canadian pilots also dropped bombs during the last three days of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but they were not engaged in protract-ed combat, flying predominantly escort and sweep roles accompanying coalition aircraft. That is as far as the disagreement with Stein and Lang will go. But Operation Echo does establish a modern baseline departure from Canada’s reputation as a purely peacekeeping nation. That this is not general knowledge is not surprising. To put it bluntly, Operation Echo was a black hole from which no light of information could escape by the usual means of mass information dissemination: the news media. Most Canadians know little if anything about their military men and women who fought that air war and who rightly should be considered modern-day war heroes. Despite the news coverage, Canadians could not have learned how their men and women in uniform dealt with critical equipment shortfalls and personnel problems resulting from years of mil-itary budget cuts; the threat levels and the calculated, but terrifying, risks that were taken in combat as a result; the incredible success stories; and the absolute skill, dedication, and bravery of the aircrews.3The reasons for this failure of knowledge are many and are explored in detail in the following pages, but one of the biggest is that an occupational conflict of interest lies at the heart of the relationship between the news media and the military. Journalists like to think that the news media, de-spite its vagaries, “constitutes the foundation of all freedoms” and that they are one of its principal supports.4 They are small “l” liberals by na-ture. They favor openness and think that the news media should provide their readers, listeners, and audiences with the information, ideas, and freewheeling public debate that citizens need to make informed decisions about government and the society in which they live.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

358.471 BER s

Penerbit

Canada : University of Calgary Press., 2019

Deskripsi Fisik

347 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781773850313

Klasifikasi

358.471

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Canada Air Forces and Warfare

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

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