I tuned in to a few minutes here and there of the memorial service for the dead Mounties in Edmonton. Global had a nauseating amount of coverage yesterday, even doing their National News show direct form the Butter Dome, where the detritus was being cleared away. Canadian flags have flown half-mast for the past week (after we'd only just put them back up again after the tsunami).

I'm sure these four members of the RCMP had done a lot of good things in their careers. I'm sure they were loved and will be missed in their communities.

But somebody needs to turn off the shmaltzy Oprah-esque music, and remember that these boys didn't have to die. They died because they f**ked up. It was a stupid mistake that made them heroes for all eternity. Look at the facts: The man they were sent to bust (not as a group of four, but as two sets of two) was a dangerous cop-hater with acres and acres to hide in. They didn't secure him and his whereabouts. They didn't know if he was alone. Two Mounties go off the radar, you'd think that a sizeable SWAT team would be called out to investigate. No. Instead, two more mounties are sent to the slaughter.

This country doesn't yet know where the blame will be laid; either at the feet of the boys themselves, or at the feet of their commander. But even if it was a command decision, those boys had the right to argue with the call. It was their lives on the line, and like lemmings they either did what they were told, or thought the foolish plan up themselves. They commited suicide.

In a way, it's a reflection on our whole country. If you are stupid and irresponsible in protecting the populace of Canada, you will be made a hero. Just like our Prime Minister.

None of this is to say I don't feel bad for the families of the dead officers. They've lost sons, husbands, fathers. No matter who they were, or what the circumstances were surrounding their deaths, it will be hard for these families to move on. I'm just thinking that maybe, under those circumstances, that their grief should have been a bit more private. We celebrate too many mistakes already. Let these families greive behind closed doors, so that people like me can't point out that their boys could still be alive today if they were a bit better at doing what they were sworn to do.