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r Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST = $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. " Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must tie signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the^oss^orjamage^ofsuchTtems^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A view of the frontlines from the sidelines By Colin Rowe So, for three weeks you have been glued to the television watching watching the war in Iraq unfold as "èmbedded" reporters speak in glowing glowing terms of the "coalition" forces and their battlefield accomplishments. accomplishments. As with everything in life, it is all a matter of perspective. While western news media replay the victors in action on each newscast, Arab news outlets continue to home in on the victims. For me, I look at the television screen and increasingly wonder if there is a makeup artist working for the networks because the entire! war zone at times seem so sanitized as do the soldiers being interviewed. The military is full of paradoxes and having spent fifteen years as a musician in the Canadian militia, my role was often to put a more glamorous face on the art of soldiering. Nothing sells better than the image of a clean-cut young soldier in uniform and military bands are part of the public relations strategy aimed at attracting young people to the many interesting career opportunities that the military can provide. However, war is a nasty business in the true sense of the word and even as a musician, I was unable to escape the simulated combat conditions training which was a requirement to attain my Sergeant's rank. Ironically, I endured my most intensive combat arms training at CFB Petawawa at the start of the last Gulf war and often refer to it as the month from hell. Now that I have declared my credentials for commenting on this war, let me tell you what I see and think of as the images unfold on my television screen. At the start of the assault in Iraq, I was acutely aware that for more than seventy-two hours, thousand of young coalition coalition soldiers were deprived of sleep, which becomes a luxury on the battlefield. In fact, as soon as there is a lull in battle, soldiers are often "ordered to ground", meaning they should get some sleep while they can. Sleep deprivation causes hallucinations in the battlefield and that can be dangerous. To not take advantage of any opportunity that comes a long to grab a quick nap, is seen as irresponsible. The choice of a military trade can determine whether you find yourself in a tank, a plane, behind an artillery gun, on a ship or on foot in the infantry. Military strategists have determined your possible possible life span in battle depending on your trade, but for the infantry life can be harder than that of a construction worker. Let's take a look at troops in tanks and other assortment of armoured vehicles. There are no luxuries of home in these mobile steel coffins, which have room only for a limited number of personnel and lots of ammunition. In training the most common injuries for this group are bumps and bruises and cracked skulls. With very little suspension and no padding on the metal interior, a sudden stop or dip into a pothole can be dangerous even if you are prepared for the worse and your life is in the hands of the driver who barely has his or her (yes her) head sticking out of the vehicle. Of course, with all that ammo on board, the risks are obvious and I know from personal experience that passing passing those large rounds on ammunition for insertion into the gun can be nerve racking and requires a firm grip on the ordnance.. In the battlefield some basic amenities do not exist, but if there is one thing the military insists on, it is personal hygiene. It is possible to endure a week or more without a bath but a regular change of underwear and sticks is mandatory if you are to avoid the discomfort of jock itch or fungus feet and foot inspections are not unheard of. The call of nature also requires creativity under these trying conditions conditions and although the American's seemed to have everything in their supply lines, digging a small hole somewhere off to the side to deal with mother nature is often standard procedure. Practical as this may be, my experiences with poison ivy and insects would dictate that extreme caution be exercised and the process is not complete until the hole is covered before moving on. Of course under intense pressure of battle, your dugout or foxhole is the best you have to work with. I perhaps might have been insensitive in my earlier comments about the sanitized appearance of soldiers but the comparisons with the rag-tag images from the Viet Nam war is inevitable. Shaving daily is a habit ingrained in today's soldier. This is not an exercise in vanity but rather a necessary precaution to ensure that your gas mask fits properly on your face in the event of a gas attack and facial hairs is not part of that equation. The image of a soldier with his helmet off to the side and hanging chinstrap is also passé because today's technology has created the kevlar helmets, which really do stop bullets. So, what have we learned from all this? Hopefully, a better sense of reality can be gleaned from the video games imagery often presented on television, which is really an obscenity in light of all that goes on in battle. Yes, war is nasty business and before making the supreme sacrifice, many men and women in the battlefield have given up a lot the day they left home for the shores of a foreign land. Whatever your political views on this battle in Iraq, just remember that these young men and women in uniform that we send off to far-away places are making sacrifices that many of us cannot or would not make and that each life on all sides is a potential yet to be developed. www.dolighon.com • 1 n ifili AS I S 66 it ...by Peter Jaworski You can cut through the smoke as you walk in. Bars thickly laden with the noxious fumes from cigarettes that are soon to be anachronisms as city hall's line up to outlaw smoking in "public" places. From restaurants to bars, the cigarettes are getting scarcer and scarcer. In one sense, this is perfectly perfectly fine. Having quit smoking just over a year ago--a seven- and-a-half-year veteran of DuMaurier's Ultra Light regular regular cigarettes--I very much prefer not facing cigarettes everywhere. It's easier not to think of them when you aren't confronted with them. I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way. Complaints range from not wanting to have to shower and do the laundry after spending an evening at the bar, to more serious public health concerns. Smoking is, to be sure, a habit of doubtful redeeming qualities. Even with these com- in smoke plaints, the case for city-wide bans is a poor one. The cost of cleanliness and some improvement in public health is the restauranteur's preferences, preferences, a general liberty, and the inculcation of tolerance. The public health issue is the argument of note for smoking bans. People who do not smoke are made to bear with second-hand smoke. Worse still, waitresses and other employees and staff virtually virtually smoke three packs a day vicariously--by being constantly constantly around patrons who smoke. Thus people who don't choose to smoke, have to put up with smoke anyhow. Isn't this a harm of the sort that shouldn't be allowed? Well, yes and no; it depends very much on where you find the cigarette smoke. If I come to your house, knowing that you smoke, I can expect having to put up with it. If I didn't want to, I would mention something to you, or refuse to visit. And I certainly can't make you stop smoking while I'm at your house--it's your house after all. A restaurant is only slightly different. It is 'public' in the sense that just anyone can walk in, but in a different sense it isn't. It isn't 'public' in the sense that you and I own it or can dictate how it is to be run. The restaurant owner decides these things, and she does so with customers in mind--the better the restaurant restaurant appeals to you and I, the more likely we are to plunk down our money for her food. This is the right person to decide this issue; after all, she's the one who is risking quite a bit by opening up a business in the first place. So her preferences get trampled for the preferences of a particular particular majority of voters. If she'd prefer smokers as clientele, clientele, we say 'go stuff it* and head straight for city hall-- even if we never plan on going to her restaurant at all! JAM0R8KI conünuêd ptft 3