We only have one border to defend and that's the one separating the US and Canada. Neither the US or Canada has enough money of soldiers to defend it, which is why it's called "the world's largest undefended border", something we used to take pride in on both sides of the divide.
Yes our army is limited to national defence an peacekeeping operations under the aegis of the UN. That's why we call the DND, the Department of National Defence. (Google Lester B Pearson, Suez Crisis regarding reasons for this long standing Canadian policy.)
Oh and next time you need someone to do forward recon/sniper duty in desert and arctic conditions, call the Italians.
see:
http://www.timelapse.dk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=187)
and on the JTF-2 commandos see:
http://www.canadaka.net/cka/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=397
On the subject of deserters, when the two American's are charged and convicted of desertion and the US government requests their extradition they probably will be returned to the US because their refugee claim isn't a strong one. They did enlist after all. They signed a contract and it's binding.
The situation may be complicated if the US government demands the option of a death penalty. O'Reilly's answer to that is curious. He says the war in Iraq is "undeclared" so the US is unlikely to demand the death penalty. If he's correct, the war in Iraq was "undeclared" by all but one member of Congress.
I think we can all agree that the US declared on Iraq. (the declaration of the right to unilateral intervention in Iraq is a defacto declaration of war, 11th hour UN acquiescence aside).
Having said that, the Canadian government isn't going to turn the deserters over without due process and no US administration in it's right mind would ask including Bush2. What if Canada turned over a US citizen to a country other than the US just because charges had been laid, would that be OK with O'Reilly? Final note: neither of the two men have denied that they're deserters.
Bill O'Reilly is just blowing smoke because it makes good copy. If he's a journalist rather than a lowly commentator, he should check his facts.
Having said that, the Canadian government isn't going to turn the deserters over without due process and no US administration in it's right mind would ask including Bush2. What if Canada turned over a US citizen to a country other than the US just because charges had been laid, would that be OK with O'Reilly? Final note: neither of the two men have denied that they're deserters. I would think that Canada will turn them over once they've been officially charged. I don't know that they have been charged as yet. As for turning over a US citizen to a 3rd country, I think that is a separate issue from that of returning a national to his country of origin, and it just confuses the issue.