[CaptainCrunch]

Granatstein is a great read for anyone who has an interest in Canadian Defense Policy.

Who's war is it anyways looks at the War In Afghanistan and Canada's internal conflict when it came to that war. It also looks at the rust out of the Canadian Forces and its effect on our foreign policy and ability to respond to internal crisis.

Who killed the Canadian Forces looks at the Canadian Governments treatment of the forces since WW2 and the destruction of the ability for the Canadian Forces to be an effective force, of course this book was released before Harper came to power. But it looks at every Prime Minister including a very negative view of Mulrooney, Chretien and Trudeau, it also looked at the imbalance of Quebec Power and the effect of pacifism on government policy.

He also wrote a full history of the Canadian Forces that's a must read.

Quebec has been anti forces since WW1, with their limited support for Canada in WW1,which to an effect was justifiable looking back on that war. Their anti WW2 stance including open support for the Vichy regime in Paris and their pacifist sentiments, except at the time of Quebec Separatism where the separatist's secretly negotiated with French senior officers to build a Quebec Army in the event of a Yes vote.

There's no doubt that Harper has taken a much more pro Canada defense policy, and it came from a meeting that happened between Paul Martin and George Bush, where Bush acknowledged Canada's friendship, then basically stated that one day an American President will come along who will state that they are sick of paying for Canada's defense needs. They took it forward further when Canada under the Liberal's stepped out of the Ballistic Defense Shield, then demanded that Canada had a seat at the policy table.

Once Harper came to Government he decided that one of the things that was needed to rebuild Canada's friendship with the States and remove the concept in the congress and Senate that Canada was an anti american country that refused to pull its own weight in terms of North American defense decided that he had to rebuild Canada's forces.

He also decided that Canada couldn't depend on other countries planes and ships to transport Canada's troops and equipment to other nations when called upon.

But while Harper has done well in refunded the Forces and rebuilding morale, He's only slowed down the rust out of the Forces not stopped it.

There are a number of key issues that need to be looked at

But first, what has the government done well

First of all, they ended the use of the terrible Iltis jeeps that put a ton of money into Chretien's family pockets, and replaced them with the G wagon.

The Leopard II's that we leased then purchased from the German's give us tanks that can function effectively on the battlefield.

The F-35's the best selection to replace the near end of life F-18's

Pushing through new helicopters for the Navy and Search and Rescue

The puchase of new heavy lift and medium lift transport planes.

What needs to be done.

The Canadian Forces is under strengthed, especially in two key areas. One being actually front line troops in the Army, we need to fit out at least another Battalion. We're short on sailors in the Navy.

Canada has 3 Iroquois Class Destroyers, but these ships are 40 years old and far past the end of life. These ships are critical as part of our Maritime strategy as they are command ships which allow us to not only form task forces with our Halifax Class Frigates but also to work with the complex data links in U.S. Navy Task force. Also while the Halifax Frigates are nice ships, they are frigates and lack the punch that the Destroyers, especially guided missile class destroyers would bring to the table.

We need to accelerate the retirement of the Sea Kings and accelerate the EH 101 deployments.

The Victoria Class Submarines have the potential to be excellent little boats, which combine a diesel electric propulsion system with SSN level quieting and electronices, and they are slowly coming on line after some severe problems, however they are not really effective for arctic patrols. As desirable as nuclear submarines would be, that will never happen, so we need to look at alternative measures of quiet patroling up north.

Canada's army needs to improve its artillery and long range anti air capabilities.

In terms of arctic policy, we need to really build more coast guard armed ice breakers, improve our coastal defense fleet (more sailors would help) accelerate the deep harbors, and move away from the Rangers as the primary response units in the arctic and form a dedicated battalion of Northern harsh weather capable troops and fighting vehicles.

Finally I'm not against unification of the military, and the early move to go to the RCAF and RCN and Canadian Army was a good move especially for Espirit de corp, but we need to move back to distinctive uniforms and get rid of the bus driver uniforms.

On top of that the Frigates are at half life and we need to start thinking of their future, we need new Joint Support Ships, we need to look at new Light Armored fighting vehicles and recce vehicles and we need to improve our battle field intelligence and strike capability through the use of unarmed and armed drones.