Re: InterFET

>How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing? 
I'm
>curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

up here in the great wet north (Canada - no snow yet, but raining
lots...)
we're getting coverage, but it has died down a lot.  when interfet first
went in, there was lots of coverage of the Australian forces, etc... but
not as much now.  There was a piece in the international news section of
the paper today that mentioned the skirmish on the weekend, but I didn't
hear about it on the weekend (though I wasn't paying close enough
attention)

we're sending forces down, and when the next group gets there I'm sure
there'll be more coverage.  there was plenty when our airforce
contingent
(a couple of Hercs) tried to get there, but the coverage was embarrasing
for the military as both aircraft had mechanical problems enroute, and
one
had to turn back three times.... (and this was just as the NATO defense
ministers were having a conference here in Toronto....).  We have the
honour of having the world's most overworked force of Hercules transport
aircraft here in Canada.  Ours fly on average about twice as many hours
as
other fleets world wide, and we have the example flying with the
greatest
total number of flying hours (over 40 thousand).  Lockeed uses the
Canadian
fleet as a test group for aging and stress issues, and uses the data to
advise other users world wide....

Canada is sending a couple hundred (250 I think) infantry to join the
operation soon, and I'm sure there'll be more coverage here when they
arrive.  It should be interesting to see what happens when they arrive.
The last time that I know of that the Australian/New Zealand troops and
the
Royal 22nd Regiment of Canada (actually, that's Le Vingt-Deuxieme
Regiment
Royale du Canada, otherwise known as the "Van-doos") were operating
together was in the Commonwealth Brigade during the Korean war.  By all
reports, the French Canadian lumberjacks in the Van-Doos and the Maori
warriors in the ANZAC forces took an immediate dislike to each other,
and
spent more time trying to kill each other in REALLY violent bar fights
than
they did trying to fight the North Vietnamese...   There was a funny
account of this in Michael Caine's (the actor) autobiography (he was in
the
British army in Korea at the time)......    Are any New Zealand infantry
serving in INTERFET?

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com