Fox News Mocks Service of Canadian Soldiers

by: Brandon Friedman

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 17:02:17 PM EDT

Rob is a Canadian.  These days, he's a police officer in Edmonton where he tries to live a pretty normal life.  But in military circles, Rob is sort of famous.  That's because in the early days of the war in Afghanistan--only months after the 9/11 attacks--Rob was serving in the Canadian infantry as a sniper in the Shah-e-Kot Valley during Operation Anaconda.  One day, while covering American soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, Rob killed an al Qaeda fighter carrying an RPK machine gun.  It was one of many that week for Rob and his team.  For their service during the operation, the Americans of the 101st Airborne will always be indebted.  Maclean's put it this way:

They destroyed al-Qaeda firing positions, saved American lives and tallied a body count unmatched by any Canadian soldier of their generation. U.S. commanders who served alongside the snipers nominated all five for the coveted Bronze Star medal. "Thank God the Canadians were there," is how one American soldier put it.

The thing was, the al Qaeda fighter with the RPK was nearly a mile and a half away when Rob took the shot--and no one before had ever recorded a kill at such a long distance.

This is all true.  I was there.

Now.  This is Greg Gutfeld:

Greg wasn't in the Shah-e-Kot Valley and he's never been to Afghanistan.  In fact, Greg has never provided cover of any kind for American troops in the field.  I'll have more about Greg and some of his friends in just a minute.

But back to Rob Furlong.  This is footage of Rob Furlong's colleagues--members of his Canadian infantry unit--in action, in Afghanistan, in 2006:

As you can see, Rob's colleagues are in what we in the military call "the shit."  And they've been putting their lives on the line there since 2001--after the United States was attacked.  They even decided to continue helping after the first four Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan were killed at the hands of an American pilot in 2002.  And they're still there now, even after four more Canadians were killed last week, bringing their total number of killed to 116.

Okay.  Now, about Greg.  Greg hosts a TV show with his colleagues in the media on Fox News.  It's called Red Eye and it's on late at night.  Like him, Greg's colleagues have never provided cover of any kind for American troops fighting in Afghanistan or anywhere else.  But for some reason, when they all got together last week, they decided it would be funny to mock those who had.  That is, they decided to deride members of the Canadian military--troops like Rob Furlong and the four killed on Thursday--for being effeminate slackers and stupid pansies who can't hack it.  

This is Greg and his crew last week engaged in their version of "action:"

NewsHounds has a great write-up with the portions of the transcript here.

At this point, Greg Gutfeld and his handlers at Fox News have embarrassed the United States.  And when I say that, I'm not exaggerating.  As the video clip featuring Fox's unabashed chickenhawks spread across the country, Canada's Defence Minister called for a Fox News apology--which he and the rest of the country received this afternoon.

And it's great that Gutfeld has apologized for the ignorant chatter over which he presided last Tuesday, but it's still demonstrative of the larger problem we face in this country of the disconnect between those who serve in uniform and those who don't.  Fox News is part of the problem.  They always have been.  And until that culture changes, we can expect to see more Greg Gutfeld's on the air mocking those who've sacrificed in the service of their country--or someone else's country--like Rob Furlong and his brothers in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.