doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bass Pro/Cabelas policy change: no vets' discount

If Sikhs want to fight wearing turbans---and they fight well in every place they bear arms---that's fine with Canada's military. To protect is their religion. Turbans haven't slowed down the Taliban.

Accuracy is a big point with me, Larry. The Taliban wear turbans and other headdress. I know they're not Sikhs. I patrolled with Sikhs on both sides of the India-Pakistan War, more disciplined and posh than the British, their leaders educated Sandhurst. Cool when stuff whizzing but child-like at rest, arms around each other like babes wanting to hear stories of duck hunting in Canada, asking for another about Jake, my Lab. The Indians were reluctant to allow me forward until I told them where their mortars fell a couple days previously.

Their discipline and loyalty to their officers was really something, lonesome. Both countries' crack regiments are comprised of Sikhs.

A Canadian detective was considered the best intelligence asset in Afghanistan. Look him up: Karjit Sajjan, a Sikh, now Canada�s defence minister. �What set Sajjan�s anti-terrorism intelligence apart was his ability to connect and build trust with local populations, something he�s known to attribute in part to the Canadian military�s openness to turbans. His access granted him special appreciation of the unique dynamics and local conditions on the ground in Afghanistan.

King, just an observation. You seemed enamored with the idea of cult of personality. The WHO of someone seems to be more important to you that the WHAT of what they have accomplished. I'd wager that if Sajjan had not entered politics and become Defense Minister, you would not mention his name here. Yet you do, drawing a line from his service record to his suitability for and accomplishments in office. Like Trudeau himself, Sajjan has been an abject failure as a defense minister. Why bring him up?

�Sajjan�s intelligence-gathering and analytic skills soon attracted the attention of senior U.S. military and strategic advisors. His opinion letter concerning the Taliban, local warlords and the Afghan opium trade was appended in full in a major 2008 report on U.S. anti-narcotic strategies by Barnet Rubin, senior advisor to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In both 2006 and 2009 Sajjan came under enemy fire, saw open combat and coped with dead and wounded soldiers.
Following Sajjan's second deployment in 2009, U.S. Major-General James Terry, Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan�s southern provinces, requested that he join the U.S. Command Team for a third deployment 2010, where he served as Special Assistant to General Terry.�

There�s irony here as well. Very few of the military have the chance to enter the pantheon of heroes, as Larry mentioned. Joining up doesn�t get anyone past the gate in Canada. Most Canadians think that way, as do all the vets I�ve known and interviewed