[Newsbot]

Title: Winnipeg Jets logo and Militarism
Written By: NAUWATCH
Date: Sunday, August 07 at 20:53

New Winnipeg Jets among the only international professional sports teams in the world depicting in-service weapons of war.
The new Winnipeg Jets logo has received a lot of commentary with respect to the design, layout and overall look. While some are simply happy to retain the “Jets” label, others have applauded True North for using pro-military imagery in the new design.
The association of sport synonymously with military symbolism merits some further discussion.
Militarism, Sport, Europe. War without weapons (2003) edited by J.A. Mangan noted the extent to which nations have used, and use sport as a form of cultural conditioning throughout history, from Roman gladiators to the mass sporting events in 1920s Italy to modern-day North Korea.
Bad Sport, How owners are ruining the games we love (2010) by David Zirin notes that stadiums and sports teams are now often being used as religious and political platforms. Zirin highlights the fact that everything from “
Military Family Days” to pro-war speeches propagated by George Bush at halftime shows have changed the playing field from centres of leisure and entertainment to centres of modern-day nationalist zeal.
An arena full of uniformed spectators, fervently waving flags is certainly not an image often associated with Canadian sport, and bears striking allusions to the sport exhibition games in many countries with militaristic (and often dictatorial) governments.
Even in Canada, the Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto Maple Leafs “Military Night” on February 19, 2011 saw a camouflaged Canadian Forces Light Utility Vehicle on centre-ice, rather than the beloved Zamboni or the much-coveted Dodge Ram.
The International Olympic Committee understands the negative associations military sloganism can have in professional sport, and prior to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, informed US goalie Jonathan Quick that he would not be permitted to wear a “Support our Troops” slogan on his helmet through IOC Rule 51, though this type of policy does not exist in the NHL.
Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of mass media (1988) found that associating militarism to sport simply propagates nationalist-like fervor, and is an iniquitous medium to garner support for our military actions overseas, legitimate or otherwise.
read full article http://mybananapeel.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... arism.html
 
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[robertjb]

The Jets logo looks like something that came from The Dollar Store or maybe a cereal box. It clearly has little to do with hockey. As NHL logos go it is more suited to a badge or insignia for an air force operating in some banana republic.

It borrows heavily(design plagerism?)from the roundell used by what was the RCAF, the RAF and other commonwealth countries fifty years ago. It is a static,symmetrical design that does not suggest the speed of a jet aircraft or hockey. Let's hope the players are not as lethargic as their team logo.

Whoever designed this insipid militaristic piece of crap should be suspended for the season and have his crayons locked up.

[RickW]

Is Harper paying for stuff like this - the way Bush paid Hollywood for "patriotic" movies after 9-11?

[Canadian_Mind]

Why do people treat pride in the military like a bad thing? Honestly, whats the issue with having a military that is capable of defending the country and our allies in war, and being proud of it?

[robertjb]

Canadian Mind- the answer to your question is that we are fighting phoney wars against enemies that are largely manufactured. We are obsessed with military spending-1.4 trillion dollars a year - mostly by the US and NATO. Military spending is really corporate welfarism. Military spending is bankrupting the US.

If you want to find out what is really going on try Googling "Tomdispatch" an excellent website on the issue of militarism

Read books by Andrew Bacevich

The age of militarism is over. Our hapless politicians just won't face this reality.
It is ruinous to Western civilization

[Dr Caleb]

robertjb wrote:

Canadian Mind- the answer to your question is that we are fighting phoney wars against enemies that are largely manufactured.

Which wars are those?

[robertjb]

Dr Caleb: I am answering your question by referring you to this article: Best of Tom Dispatch: Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling the Empire
The late Chalmers Johnson is the Author of "Blowback" and has written extensively on the issue of American militarism
There is a whole body of literature critical of American militarism. Another such book is "The New American Militarism by Andrew Bacevich" These books are available quite inexpensively at Amazon.ca(don't use the US Amazon site as it is more expensive and shipping isn't nearly as good

[Dr Caleb]

robertjb wrote:

Dr Caleb: I am answering your question by referring you to this article: Best of Tom Dispatch: Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling the Empire
The late Chalmers Johnson is the Author of "Blowback" and has written extensively on the issue of American militarism
There is a whole body of literature critical of American militarism. Another such book is "The New American Militarism by Andrew Bacevich" These books are available quite inexpensively at Amazon.ca(don't use the US Amazon site as it is more expensive and shipping isn't nearly as good

That's nice, but your comment was directed at Canadian_mind, the Winnipeg Jets are from Winnipeg - a City in Manitoba, Canada; and the name of this site also incorporates the name of 'Canada'. We tend to deal with matters therefore pertaining to 'Canada'. To my knowledge, we've only been involved in 2 wars in the last 20 years, so I have no idea which wars (plural!) you are talking about.

I'm not overly concerned what the Americans do on their own dime on their own time. I do however like the Jets logo, as it pays homage to a fine military tradition that helped keep Europe and Canada (and Kuwait and Korea, and Afghanistan, and Lybia) safe and secure. You are free to dislike the logo out of your natural dislike of all things military, but let's at least focus on the topic?

Canadian_Mind wrote:

Why do people treat pride in the military like a bad thing? Honestly, whats the issue with having a military that is capable of defending the country and our allies in war, and being proud of it?

I guess some people cannot take pride in what they feel is morally wrong, even if its representative of a 3rd party such as a sports team. I don't understand it, but I don't need to in order to empathize.

I'll bet the Clevland Indians and Washington Redskins have regular protestors calling on them to return the 'stolen lands' too.

[robertjb]

Dr. Caleb the logic of your argument escapes me. As I suggested you should do some reading on the subject of militarism and then we can discuss the issue again. You appear totally ignorant of the social, political, and economic implications of militarism.

[RickW]

Dr. C:
The title says "Winnipeg Jets Logo And Militarism". So I believe we are all still on topic.

BTW, can you demonstrate that Afghanistan and Libya are "safe"?

[Dave Ruston]

If an invader was attacking Canada and our military stepped up to fight the invaders, then I think we could safely say that our military was fighting to keep Canada and Canadians safe. But ever since the Boer war,Canada's military has served only to further the murderous imperial ambitions of the (drumroll please) BANKER-CORPORATE FASCISTS! The goal of each war was to loot colonies, cause chaos in the world so as to force whole societies to submit to Versaille treaties and Marshall plans, as well as accept corporate police forces such as NATO and the fraudulent UN and WTO, or to punish countries and regimes who don't go along with the new world order. Gadhaffi and Libya are merely being punished for not playing along with the globalist sociopaths. Same with the Taliban in Afghanistan who decided they wanted more royalties for all those resources going through its territory via the Indian Ocean pipelines. Saddam in Iraq was once Washington's little buddy too! Nah, I can't get into this glorification of the military, as they don't even know who they serve- well, maybe the higher ups in our military do- but the rest are blind to the reality. Who's next- Iran? Funny how those US military men who were supposedly responsible for getting Bin Ladn are all dead now. Coincidence? Or is it because they have a true story that doesn't serve the interests of the controllers? But frankly, I think the Winnipeg Jets logo should have been the Avro Arrow! A plane that never dropped a bomb on innocent civilians let alone anyone, and a plane that even today, would still be front runner! We should be celebrating this symbol of Canadian ingenuity and know how that was decades ahead of its time!

[RickW]

Quote:

But frankly, I think the Winnipeg Jets logo should have been the Avro Arrow!

You mean......gasp!.....something built by Canadians??!!

[Canadian_Mind]

RickW wrote:

Dr. C:
The title says "Winnipeg Jets Logo And Militarism". So I believe we are all still on topic.

BTW, can you demonstrate that Afghanistan and Libya are "safe"?

Niether country is safe. But they are safer now than without our actions.

I also have to ask what relevance does American militarism have to do with a Canadian military themed sports team logo?

Dave Ruston wrote:

If an invader was attacking Canada and our military stepped up to fight the invaders, then I think we could safely say that our military was fighting to keep Canada and Canadians safe. But ever since the Boer war,Canada's military has served only to further the murderous imperial ambitions of the (drumroll please) BANKER-CORPORATE FASCISTS! The goal of each war was to loot colonies, cause chaos in the world so as to force whole societies to submit to Versaille treaties and Marshall plans, as well as accept corporate police forces such as NATO and the fraudulent UN and WTO, or to punish countries and regimes who don't go along with the new world order. Gadhaffi and Libya are merely being punished for not playing along with the globalist sociopaths. Same with the Taliban in Afghanistan who decided they wanted more royalties for all those resources going through its territory via the Indian Ocean pipelines. Saddam in Iraq was once Washington's little buddy too! Nah, I can't get into this glorification of the military, as they don't even know who they serve- well, maybe the higher ups in our military do- but the rest are blind to the reality. Who's next- Iran? Funny how those US military men who were supposedly responsible for getting Bin Ladn are all dead now. Coincidence? Or is it because they have a true story that doesn't serve the interests of the controllers? But frankly, I think the Winnipeg Jets logo should have been the Avro Arrow! A plane that never dropped a bomb on innocent civilians let alone anyone, and a plane that even today, would still be front runner! We should be celebrating this symbol of Canadian ingenuity and know how that was decades ahead of its time!

Rhetoric much?

You might be right with certain wars reference fighting for the colonial power (Boer War, WWI). Hell, I'll even give credit that in WWI, we were the bad guys. But every war we've been a part of since has been for a just and honourable cause. Just because the Americans choose to wage a war for a certain reason (money, oil, water, whatever you want to blame it on) does not mean that this is the reason we went to war.

And you're wrong about the team that killed Bin Laden. Those who died on the chopper were members of the same unit that killed Bin Laden, but not one was a member of the same team. There are many teams within the unit, and it was a different team on a different mission, not the team that killed BL. Get your facts straight.

And I actually agree with you on the point that it should have been an Arrow, but not for all the reasons you stated. If we still had the Arrow, it more than likely would have dropped bombs in Iraq (Gulf War 1), dropped bombs in Bosnia, and dropped bombs in Libya. Hell, if it were so awesome, we might have even used it in Afghanistan to drop bombs.

[RickW]

Quote:

If we still had the Arrow

It's very likely Harper never would have made it to Prime Minister......

Regarding Afghanistan, the peasants are no more safer now than they were when the Soviets were there. Every invading force has concentrated in the cities, and has failed miserably in the countryside.

[robertjb]

And don't think the Afghjanistan war is over just because we Canadians left. The US is still there in large numbers and still using it as a killing field. Many of their operations are covert and the use of drones more common than ever. Nothing has really been accomplished there just a lot of people killed.

Don't try to dignify our involvment there. NATO has become just a bunch of hired guns in service to a sorley corrupted US foreign policy.