Body of Cpl. Megeney heading home to Canada

I just read an article on msn.ca about a Canadian soldier, Kevin Megeney, who was shot in the chest and killed inside of his own tent at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The military says that they do not know exactly what happened but they beleive it to be an accidental shooting as it did not involve any enemy action. Megeney's body is now being trasported back to Canada, wrapped in a Canadian flag, on a military aircraft. Although the article did not say very much about this part of the story, the reporters still chose to use it as the headline for the article. This tradition of sending the bodies back to Canada after a soldier has died for his or her country relates back the the Tuan article we read for class on Home and Homeland. Tuan talks about people feeling a connection to homeland because their ancestors have died for their country in battle and this gives people a sense of pride and belonging. I think that this article is trying to convey this idea with the title and with a picture of the flag-draped casket. I think that these are devices used to instill national pride and reinforce this idea of homeland. However, the problem that I have with this article is that this soldier did not really die for his country or even in any sort of battle, he died because another soldier shot him inside of his own tent. I wish the article would spend more time focusing its attention on how this sort of thing can happen instead of trying to deflect the reader's attention on this idea of how nice it is that the casket is quickly being flown back to the soldier's homeland. This is not to say that the soldier does not deserve recognition for his bravery to risk his life by voluntarily going to fight in Afghanistan and I'm sure that he loved his country very much. So I do not mean to say that this connection to homeland is not important or irrelevant in this case. I just think that the article should not spend so much effort in romaticizing this event and more time dealing out the needed criticizm of Canada's military operations.

Filip Franiczek