ROMEO D’ALLAIRE: "I walked down one of the main roads here in Ottawa for about an hour. I stopped and bought a bottle of scotch. And I walked to the—to the park, sat on the bench, and I was reliving my mission. The booze was—I mean I was just drinking it like that out of the bottle. And I was just like any other rubby-dub or person who is left homeless, screaming and yelling and crying and drinking. I was screaming for them to kill me."
Lieutenant General Romeo D'Allaire was poised to become Canada's top soldier, but like any soldier of worth he sought an assignment that would give him the mana to walk the walk. He was 54 years old when the United Nations assigned him the command position in an African nation called Rwanda. He was in charge of a mixed bag of soldiers from a variety of nations.
He knew something was going to happen and warned the suits at the United Nations months in advance.
It was Friday in New York when the carnage began. He called the UN and got an answering machine. When he finally did get in touch with his superiors he was told to do nothing. So he had a ringside seat at the slaughter of 800,000 people. All of the different troops called their home nations and were told the same.
The above quote was taken from his memoirs. I wish I had been there, either in Rwanda or sitting beside him on that park bench. In some ways I was there. Hold fast Romeo.
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