MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 27 Feb 12

• Afghanistan (1)  This, after this:  “The department of foreign affairs says Canada has suspended all meetings in Afghan ministries following the killing of two U.S. military advisers. Foreign Affairs spokesman Yohan Rodericks says the move was taken as a precaution in light of recent security concerns. He says all Canadian staff are safe and accounted for. It isn’t known how long the meetings will be on hold, but Mr. Rodericks says officials are keeping a close eye on the situation. NATO and the British government recalled their international advisers from Afghan ministries in the capital late Saturday after the two American advisers — a lieutenant colonel and a major — were found dead in their office ….”  More here and here.
• Afghanistan (2)  Another load of troops preparing to deploy to train Afghan security forces in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan (3)  Postmedia News starts series on the troops’ “long road back from the battlefields of Afghanistan” – more here, here, here, here, here and here.
• Way Up North  Arctic Ram 2012:  The Montage (via YouTube)
• Canadians, Americans jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in North Carolina (via Army.ca)
• U.S. flogging Ospreys to Canada, others?  “The U.S. government is eyeing Israel, Canada and the United Arab Emirates as possible initial foreign buyers of the V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing Co and Bell Helicopter, a top U.S. Marine Corps official told Reuters. Lieutenant General Terry Robling, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation, said U.S. officials were continuing to drive down the cost of the aircraft and hoped to sell it to allies overseas to keep the production line running past 2018 …. Washington is increasingly looking to foreign military sales to keep the cost of weapons systems from rising as the Pentagon cuts its own orders to strip $487 billion from its planned defense budgets over the next decade. Robling said Israel, Canada and the UAE had expressed interest in the aircraft, but had not received formal pricing and technical information for the Osprey ….”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Someone to run a “business acumen” course and “Strip, Camouflage, Fabric, Burlap Cloth to be supplied in various colours”
• U.S. media view of Canada’s take on the War of 1812:  “For a piece of history that gave us the rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air, the War of 1812 tends to evoke a collective “Huh?” on the U.S. side of the Canadian border. “The War of 1812 has no compelling narrative that appeals to the average American,” said Jerald Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. “It’s just a hodgepodge of buildings burning, bombs bursting in air and paintings being saved from the invaders, all for a vaguely defined purpose. ” Yet the vacuum of interest in the War of 1812 is about to get a pyrotechnic blast of attention for its bicentennial year. Canadians, who consider the war a pivotal conflict in their nation’s history, have made 200th anniversary celebrations a national priority and are opening government coffers to stage a splashy show. Also, a few American cities and states, mostly on the East Coast and Great Lakes where fighting took place, are planning commemorations ….”