How many times are the US Cavalry riding to the rescue in some movie black? Not often enough if you ask me. I knew there were black cavalry regiments, the Buffalo Soldiers, but I hadn’t realised until recently that they made up 20% of cavalrymen. And yet the US cavalrymen in the movies are always white – and when they speak they usually have American accents (unless it’s Englishman Victor McLagen playing a crusty Irish sergeant).

And yet the real US Cavalry in the late 1800s was more like the French Foreign Legion than anything else. Its ranks were filled with immigrants, many of them Irish or German, lots of Germans. It would be interesting to find out which had more Germans, the Legion or the Cavalry. I guess it used to be a necessary part of nation-building myth that the West should had been won by white good old American boys rather than a ragtag bunch of mercenaries and the sons of slaves. But the United States has been around for a while now and maybe it’s time Hollywood grew up.

The recent deaths of two journalists killed by roadside bombs while travelling with Coalition troops in Afghanistan should surely make media bosses wonder about the value of embedding their employees with the military.

Media outlets love embedding because appears to be a cheap way to cover a war. The host military picks up the cost of bed and board, and even transportation around the war zone. But quite possibly, the most dangerous thing a journalist in Afghanistan can do these days is travel in a military vehicle. The bad guys hadn’t perfected what we have all come to know as Improvised Explosive Devices when I was in Afghanistan and traveling on roads regularly used by military convoys was nowhere near as dangerous as it is now. Though I have to say, I was always a little concerned about the line-up of heavy trucks along the side of the only road into the Canadian base in Kabul near the derelict King’s Palace. I was never sure how the military could be so certain that one of lorries hadn’t been switched for one packed with explosives.

But though a comparatively cheap way to cover events in Afghanistan, embedding is not necessarily a good way to get a feel for what’s really going on there. Only a very naive reporter would believe Afghan villagers will be honest with them if he or she turns up with a bunch of heavily armed Coalition soldiers. One approach is to embed but go off on unescorted side-trips. That’s what several of us did during the first Presidential Elections in Afghanistan a couple of years back. But hiring a vehicle, a translator, and perhaps a couple of body guards gets can be a little too expensive for some media outlets. And without good information about where is safe to go and where it might not safe to go on a given day, it’s not always a great idea. I got away with it. But you could run across the Trans-Canada Highway blindfold several times and not get killed – that doesn’t make it a good idea. I hate the macho posturing of some reporters who sneer at colleagues who never “go outside the wire” during their stay at the Kandahar base. I remember being quizzed about how many times I’d been off base during my trips to Afghanistan. The answer was “every chance I got” but I kept my mouth shut because I wasn’t in the mood for a dick-swinging competition.

Embedding worked for me because I worked for a paper in a city which had a large army base. I was there to cover what the local lads and lassies were up to. I only went to Afghanistan when troops from the Edmonton Garrison were there. But anyone who thinks being embedded means you're covering what’s happening in Afghanistan is sadly mistaken.

I just hope that media bosses on both sides of the Atlantic think hard about sending reporters to Afghanistan. Embedding is not a series of risk-free dog and pony shows laid on by the military. And what can reporters with little experience of war zones really expect to write that hasn’t been written before in the years since Coalition troops first went into Afghanistan. The arrangements for cutting hair on the base? The Bunker Barber of Kandahar: done already.

When I was trying to find a publisher for Scottish Military Disasters, one publisher suggested I balance each disaster with a triumph. “A litany of disasters is too much of a downer,” I was told. I didn’t agree. War, either victory or defeat, brings out the best and worst in people. And sometimes, the balance which decides between victory and defeat can tip either way.

Years ago, when I was teenager, a remote Highland glen lost its water supply. Four or five of us volunteered to go up into the mountains to clear the pipe blockage that was cutting off the water supply. The weather was terrible. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Despite working our guts out, the pipe remained blocked. And we returned from the rain-lashed mountain to a community still without water. Failure. Next day we went back. The weather was gorgeous. The job was easy, everything went our way. The blockage was easily cleared. We returned from the mountain as heroes. Triumph. But I’m far prouder of the guys for the work they did the day before. It was on that day that the real effort was made, when folk really pushed themselves and gave their all. Success was easy; it was failure that brought out the best in all of us.

We have the first entry in what we hope will become a lively and active discussion forum. Thanks to Pete from Bishop Auckland for this: -

Sadly, I’m not sure what would have happened if the Jacobites had reached London. The English had two armies roaming the countryside looking for them and one of them, or both, may have turned back and defeated the Jacobites. The wheels really came off the whole rising when the English Jacobites failed to turn-out. But even if the Stuarts had been restored to the throne, I’m not sure how much Scotland would have benefited. The Stuarts were shits and I don’t think Charles Edward Stuart, or his father, would have done much to repay the Scots for putting the family back on the throne. Appeasing the English would have been their priority – much as it was for German Geordie and the Hanovers. I’m thinking the course of British history would have been altered very little if the Stuarts had been restored to the throne. James VI didn’t really do much for Scotland when he became James I of England.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts?

So, Edmonton was the coldest place in the world on Sunday night at something like -46oC. Only some weather station at Siberia recorded anything colder, I think they got -48oC. Finally, folks had something else to talk about other than a city bus driver being dragged out of his seat and beaten nearly to death for apparently refusing to let some guy ride for free.

A couple of years back a passenger was beaten to death for asking some kids to turn down their music on the bus. In both cases I was left wondering what the other passengers were doing. Going by the time some kid pulled a knife on me on the bus, I’m guessing the other passengers did nothing.

So, I’ve been telling folks about the New Year’s Day I came to the rescue of some guy who was the victim of a vicious and unprovoked assault. I thought we’d outnumber the bad guy two-to-one but the assault victim just sank to his knees and started whimpering while the bad guy knocked one of my fillings out. Then there the time I lifted a bad guy off another fellah who was also the victim of an unprovoked attack. The guy I rescued ran off leaving me to face not only the bad guy but the bad guy’s friend. I went to the office party with a lovely cut over my left eye.

My point in telling these stories to people, apart from them being funny stories, was to paint myself into a corner when it comes to doing the right thing if I ever see a bus driver or one of the passengers being beaten to death in Edmonton. It’s not always easy to do the right thing.

So far, only one person has taken up my suggestion that we turn this into some kind of discussion forum. So, I’m thinking almost any contribution will be posted. Feel free.

Hi,

The folks at Davsus, who’ve done such a great job setting up this website, advise me that I should have a blog.

We’ve added a link to the law firm in London which represents some of the families involved in the call for the British Government to launch a proper inquiry into the 1948 Massacre at Batang Kali in Malaya. It’s an interesting site.

The press release about How the Scots Created Canada being made into a talking book attracted the interest of a magazine here in Canada and in case of small-worldism, it turned out that the editor’s father was a major player in the “friendly fire” attack on the Argylls in Korea which features in Scottish Military Disasters.

We had a surge in visits a couple of weeks back. We never did figure out what led to it but around the same time, Edinburgh Public Library recommended Scottish Military Disasters as good reading for Remembrance Day

I would have liked a discussion section for this website but previous attempts have been frustrated by people abusing it by flooding us with links to who-knows-what. So, my thinking is that this can be a combined blog and discussion forum. I’ll kick things off by posing a question put to me which certainly got me thinking. What would likely have happened if the Jacobite Army hadn’t turned back at Derby? Any ideas? Send your thoughts to me via the contact section of this site and I can post them here in the blog. Suggestions for other discussion topics are also welcome.

Paul