Via Pol:Spy – General Lewis MacKenzie (RET) has some things to say;
Ottawa’s general ignorance regarding the state of our Armed Forces is reflected in the current election campaign.
Consider, for instance, the partisan hype surrounding the Conservatives’ announcement that a Stephen Harper-led government would purchase new “hybrid carriers” to transport Canadian troops and their equipment to overseas mission areas in the future. For the past year, a number of distinguished senior retired officers (most of them were my bosses at one time or the other) have been working on a proposal that would recommend just such a purchase. We don’t care which political party implements the purchase as long as it’s done as soon as practical, thereby enhancing Canada’s ability to project force abroad.
You can imagine our disappointment when the Prime Minister recently denounced the Conservative plan to purchase “aircraft carriers” — an erroneous charge suggesting a Cold War-type military spending spree that threatens support for social programs. A hybrid carrier is about as similar to an aircraft carrier as my Honda scooter is to a Kenmore 18-wheeler, and the cost relationship is also about the same.
And on the ingnorance behind a persistant Canadian mythology;
As we improve our military’s ability to project force abroad, we should dispense with the all-too Canadian conceit that what the world needs is “peacekeepers.” Peacekeeping in the classic, Pearsonian sense — whereby our troops occupy a piece of territory at the request of local belligerents — is no longer in much demand. What is needed now are peacemakers with the weapons and mandate necessary to kill belligerents who don’t want us there.
Go read it all. Read Ray’s comments too
But why would Canada want to project any kind of force abroad? That just doesn’t seem to be the Canadian way these days.
Now WWII was a different matter!
“But why would Canada want to project any kind of force abroad?”
Because if we don’t take the fight to the Muslim fanatics they’ll bring it to us. If we must have a war, I’d rather it be waged on our terms than theirs.
Not to forget when Pearson was sending the CAF abroad to do peacekeeping, one of the reasons that Canada was appreciated was that they were technically competent and well equipped.