Posted on 08/29/2004 3:24:04 AM PDT by Cronos
ANGNIRTUNG, Nunavut, Aug. 24 - Hundreds of Canadian troops were all around. Helicopters swooped over the tin roofs of this isolated hamlet. A navy frigate and coast guard icebreaker were moored and readied in a nearby fjord. Across the bay, Master Cpl. Carl Gale was doing his part, too, as he introduced himself to an Eskimo family out picking wild blueberries.
"I suppose you know we are up here for training," he told Aluki Metuq, 31, and her four children, and then asked if they had seen any the mock satellite debris his unit was hunting for. They had not. But the troops and their Eskimo Ranger guides gathered in a field of flowering moss anyway to join them for a snack of berries and a friendly chat before the patrol resumed.
The show of force, coupled with efforts to win over local people, showed how far the Canadian military was willing to go to familiarize itself with an increasingly valued region where it seldom operated while strengthening Canada's claim to it.
The $4 million exercise is the most prominent sign to date of Canada's intensifying effort to reinforce disputed claims over tens of thousands of miles of Arctic channels and tundra. Once nearly permanently frozen, forbidding and forgotten, the region is today seen by officials from Canada and competing nations as a potential source of both wealth and trouble.
Not all of Canada's vast claims to the Arctic are recognized internationally. The United States, the European Union and Denmark either contend that the region's waterways are open to all or have placed their own claims on parts where climate change is expected to increase access to the region's bountiful resources in coming years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
yea whats canada gonna do with 50,000 military forces?
Will they bomb the Baldwins?
ping
They could always invade Mass. eh?
I remember about 15 years ago, the then-Canadian Defense Secretary, Mr. Beattie, boasted about the British-made submarines Canada was going to buy to "enforce" its Arctic territorial claims.
The submarine purchase turned out to be a huge disaster, financially and military-wise. The result is that Canada is LESS able today to "enforce" its Arctic aspirations.
We in the US have nothing to worry about from the alarums and bombast from our cousins north of the border. A single US Navy task group can defend our rights very easily.
Wow, I didn't know they had that many.... [: )
That was all of them.
What's the difference between Canada and yoghurt?
Are the Canuck's still sailing those 4 stack destroyers we gave them ?
What could all this be aboot?
And the Arquettes too?
"huge disaster"? no way. Canada is even halfvast at mismanaging Submarine projects
![](http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=mounties/v=2/SID=e/l=IVS/*-http://www.worndoorstep.com/images/album/Lesley-and-Mounties.jpg")
Even Bush finds Canada pathetic!
Australian long-range missiles concern Asia (Plans most lethal force of fighter jets in SE Asia)
memorybump!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.