Posted on 06/21/2005 11:30:44 AM PDT by MikeEdwards
The beleaguered Canadian military, long suffering from crippling budget cuts under successive Liberal governments, is in desperate straits. Undermanned, underfunded and ignored, the brave men and women of Canada’s armed forces are called upon to do progressively more with progressively less. Far from the least of their problems is the apathetic, cynical bureaucracy that seemingly pervades anything that touches the Canadian federal government. This is compounded by a surfeit of senior officers creating a top-heavy structure, one that could critically slow the reaction of the Canadian military in a crisis.
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Most Canadians do not understand just how dire a plight the Canadian military is in. It is not that the Canadian military does not have access to modern equipment; it is that there is far from enough of it. The result is a military culture of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. Currently inactive Canadian Forces units are forced to rely on dangerously obsolete equipment while they are cannibalized in order to properly equip a deploying unit. This only solves the problem in the short term; not only does it not solve the long term problem of equipment shortage, but also results in infrastructural faults as many fine units are reduced to skeleton placeholders, which continue to eat up resources but have little operational capability.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
The author is actually a poster/lurker here (Alexander Rubin), so be sure to give him lots of feedback!
Yeah, this is the first big article I wrote for Canada Free Press. Feedback would be great. As a sidenote, the statistics were largely garnered through some friends of mine in the Canadian military, and from a Fraser Institute report. I can provide more if you want. Just gimme a heads up and an email or FR mail.
Must be a staple in the leftist playbook. This is exactly what the Clintons did to our military, with a twist. They called it a reduction of the number of government employees as part of their government reorganization plan and gave Al Gore "credit" for it. Of course, if he thought it was a good thing Gore would have eventually taken credit anyway.
It's sad. I'm a pilot that would love to fly CF-18s, if our military wasn't so embarassing and underfunded.
Great article. There are lots of us that would be willing to serve if the military was funded properly - and if we didn't have to worry about being on the wrong side of the conflict.
Furthermore, the Canadian military doesn't need to be a general purpose force. The Canadian military doesn't exist to protect Canada from an invasion. Instead, focus on specialty missions. Canadians aren't going to be deploying on their own, so they need to figure out how to create a military that complements allies such as the US and the UK. A Canadian force should be able to go into a situation such as Iraq or Afghanistan and integrate seamlessly with it allies.
Thanks. Every few months I think about joining the reserves myself. But its a demand on my time that I'm afraid would adversely affect my schooling and career. And the reports from my friends already in the military are not encouraging.
Oh, yeah? What FR nick is he hiding behind?!??
Oh. Well, OK. Never mind...
Having trained with the Canadian Navy I have nothing but admiration and praise for their skill and professionalism. The Sea Kings are what, now, 40 years old? That's an awful lot of time on any airframe, much less a helicopter. I'd say knock it off before somebody gets killed, but people already have. About the submarines I need say nothing at all beside RIP. These folks deserve better than this.
This already happens, quietly. This is why there are, in fact, Canadians in Iraq right now. About 50 I believe. Every spring, my friends in the PPLI (Princes Patricia Light Infantry) are sent down to Virginia for training. And a lot of other units train there as well.
This was also actually a recommendation I made in a policy paper for a Poli Sci class a while ago (I was one of about 10-15 conservatives out of 200+ students. I got one of the only As on the policy papers though.) Integration is the only way I think we can survive as a military at this point, without spending more money. Ill try to dig up the paper tonight.
The problem is, partly at least, the opposite in Canada. We had the cutting back of the military forces for years, but there's not any more to cut at this point. Plus, what exacerbates the probelsm is often when someone is retired from the military, especially officers, they are rehired as consultants and bureaucrats under DnD. That is why there are, in fact, officer equivalent positions in Canadian Department of Defence and the related organizations where these guys are sent. This eats up money, and accomplishes nothing. Part of the problem is that the office fat needs to be trimmed. And fast. The other problem is an outright shortage of officers with combat experience (a self perpetuating problem since it means we can only afford to send a few officers as military consultants on small scale (1-10, or at most 25) peacekeeping operationsfor the most part) and a shortage of privates.
Integration might save the US money, too. Let's say, for the sake of argument, the Canadian military specializes in search and rescue or military policing (a sorely needed speciality, from what I've heard). That's one specialist area that the US military doesn't have to spend its money one.
The US military is having money problems, too. It would be great for everyone involved if allies could take over certain areas.
The beginning of the downfall of the Canadian military can be traced back to the unfortunate behavior of the Paras in Somalia.
(Oh, and the balloon WILL go up one day. Take that to the bank my Canadian friends.)
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I have no doubt. And I thank you in advance. And I think of the US more as the oldest, strongest, most willful and most independent brother of Canada. Canada is a little brother, the baby of the Anglosphere family. It cheerfully does whatever is easy, taking the path of least resistance and trying to be liked by everyone. And for the most part, it succeeds, but at the very high cost of its own development.
And for the record, the Canadian military is world renowned for its search and rescue. Its one of the few strong points. The others being snipers (some of the native/Indian Canadian snipers in particula are incredible. That's what comes of your grandfather teaching you how to use a rifle and hunt from age six on), counter-terrorism (believe it or not, JTF 2 is world class. Just very, very small. Its numbers are secret, but I'm led to believe they're about 150 strong at present) and anti-mine.
As for the rest...Well, we abolished tanks. We, as I said in my article, have a critical shortage of pilots, our equipment is dangerously obsolete, and in short supply, and our troops as well.
Remind me if you will, the Canadian soldiers (a sniper one of them) honored/decorated by the U.S. military recently.
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Ugh, don't remind me. What the situation was that a small group of Canadian snipers performed admirably in Afghanistan (including longest recorded sniper kill ever at 2500 m/1.6 miles). They were to be awarded the Bronze Star (and a few other decorations) for valour and skillful conduct in battle. Our government vetoed it. They did not want our soldiers to be associated with killing. That's the oversimplified version of what happened. Pathetic, eh? War is not politically correct, so our soldiers cannot be associated with it. Canada is suffering from an advanced case of political correctness, and no cure is on the horizon. The sad thing is, even the freaks and babblers at rabble (Canada's equivalent to DU, but unsurprisingly, even further left) are concerned about the state of our military at this point. Tragic.
Thanks for the welcome btw.
Pathetic, eh?
Yes, enough to get a nation killed.
War is not politically correct, so our soldiers cannot be associated with it. Canada is suffering from an advanced case of political correctness, and no cure is on the horizon.
Sheesh.
Please tell the Left in Canada that war is hell. To be avoided. If possible. Unfortunately, war is sometimes thrust upon a civilized nation, not by it's own acts, but by the acts of others. Also tell the Left in Canada that good people must prevent bad people from killing them. If the Left believes you can reason with evil, then you are doomed to live on your knees.
I believe it was Zapata that said, "T'is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." Tell the Left in your country that Islam is a most strict religion. More so than Christianity. (i.e. submit or die)
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Given that we almost allowed shariah law here for families that wanted to practice it (IN PLACE OF CANADIAN LAW), I'm not sure how much good it would do. I am not kidding. It was defeated, but it pops up over and over again. The Canadian left is in many ways a lost cause. The NDP (New Democratic Party) here actually has ties to communist countries, and sends envoys every so often. And you know all about the Liberal Party.
has anyone ever seen the series called the Underground Royal Commissions which looked at the serious problems with the military and Canadian governance overall, I even think there is a film on the UN too and their accounting and accountability problems, done quite a few years ago because Canada, when you consider its population of 30 million is one of the largest contributors to the UN
I get the i! channel which is an excellent documentary channel, they did an update on the series and one of the top ex military generals was saying they need like 25 billion just to get the military back to old or barely adequate levels, that there is going to be a massive exodus of experienced soldiers, instructors and mechanics starting about now because they are all reaching their first pension level and they are just sick and tired of the bs and being unappreciated and they can make way more money out in the private sector
my cousin is married to helicopter instructor for the Canadian military, based out of CFB Edmonton, he's retiring this summer at age 40, and my cousin said he would never ride in a Sea King, and a few other of the helicopters, they could court martial him if they wanted, which they never did
he's spent most of the last 10 years in Bosnia and he's in that wave of retiring soldiers who are just fed up.....
so now the Canadian military is really going to be in bad shape........
I'm going to make up a word here, but you will know what I mean, unfortunately:
dhimmitude.
Canada seems on that course...
Good luck.
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