New Canadian leader to rebuild military

Washington Times ^ | July 6, 2006 | Fawzia Sheikh

[Mr. Silverback]

OK, go ahead and sign me up. TIA.

[fanfan]

Ok, I've added you.

Also pinging GMMAC who keeps a duplicate list.

Welcome aboard.

[proudpapa]

Is it possible that many countries, including Canada, did not join the US in Iraq because the little fact that they did not have a standing army would suddenly be revealed to their citizens?

Umm, Actually, Canada joined us in ousting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And several Canadian snipers died due to "friendly US fire". I believe we had an air raid that went bad.

So around the time that we were asking countries to join the coalition against Iraq, there was still a lot of anger at the US over the incident.


However, now would be a good time for Stephen Harper to send a few troops in to assist.

[Alexander Rubin]

Canada actually has troops in Iraq, as far as I know. It's just not talked about. People forget that Canadian troops train with American troops, and some are integrated into American units.

I've heard from some friends in the military, but I can't confirm, that there are Canadians on active duty, as many as 50, embedded with American troops in Iraq.

On "training" missions, and such, you see. ;) If someone could confirm this, it would be handy, but I do think this is likely to be true.

[recce guy]

That's one way to look at it and to some extent may have some truth to it....but I don't recall the US saving Canada from anything recently. Canada NEEDS to rebuild it's military and that is not in question. Continental defense agreements signed back in the 60's basically ended Canada's days of being a weapons platform manufacturer and refocused our industry on weapon component's. I firmly believe the US did not want another military super power living next door and rooked us into this deal. The end result is what we have today.

[GMMAC]

Please note that even a CINO Canadian conservative government, like Joe Clark's, can be depended upon to stand with America:

Revisiting Canada's Contribution to Resolving the Iranian Hostage Crisis
~ Lead Story, April issue of Centerpoint; The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

[mitchbert]

You're recollection is correct as far as I know, including the number of troops.

[Alexander Rubin]

*nods* Cool. Thanks for the input. I think we all understand why this isn't brought up often, but it's probably like the "American" tactical nuclear weapons that Canada used to possess.

[Levante]

"... but it's probably like the "American" tactical nuclear weapons that Canada used to possess."

Ah, you must be talking about the B61 nukes carried by the Canadian Starfighters in Germany, the Genie missiles carried by the Voodoos, the Honest John battlefield missiles, and the nuclear-tipped Bomarcs.

I wonder how many Americans or Canadians know about them?