Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
|
Good
Unless the UN generates a clear set of rules of engagement, a proper TOE that allows the UN forces to protect themselves against an insurgency which is what will happen there. And properly funds the armed forces then I want no part of it.
The butcher's bill for peacekeeping in these nations is going to make Afghanistan look like nothing. Especially since the UN seems to be willing to sacrifice troops so they can wear t-shirts that say "look we're helpimg"
We are once again approaching serious rust out in the armed forces. Harper tried to slow it down, but he had to spend a ton of money just to update essential kit for Afghanistan, and to stop relying on other countries for their logistical train and transport at hideously expensive rates.
and no I wouldn't have interest in buying used equipment. Military equipment is sophisticated and its used hard, so why would we want to buy something that's probably at or beyond half life and will cost a fortune to maintain.
When we bought the Victoria Class submarines, the government at the time self back stabbed themselves at how much money they saved. And it would have probably been a decent purchase as the Victoria Class boat at the time was a really good concept for a budget navy. But our lack inspections and trusting the English when they said "Relax Chap, we've telling you these submarines are pristine" instead created a massively costly program where we have submarines that are lacking the capability that we require.
At the end of the day as well, we could buy used equipment but then how much do we spend to Canadianize them? Inspect them for wear and tear and failure points, as opposed to buying new with a plan for how to Canadianize them on the production line like the CF-35.
I mean the bottom line is that we can talk about the troubles plaguing the F-35 and there are some especially with the Marine variant, but that check list is shrinking and we are seeing operational squadrons starting to be deployed by other nations and the American's starting to sign off on the operation of the F-35. But we're not talking about problems with the Super hornet including problems with the oxygen system that can't be fixed.
I like what Flash said about the disgrace of how we equip our troops. If we're going to continue with a small army and airforce and navy, don't we owe it to those soldiers to have all the advantages and survivability possible. If we're going to have a relatively small military shouldn't it be modern? Shouldn't we be able to go onto the battlefield and not have to worry about our planes being badly outmatched or vulnerable. Our tanks not being able to function properly engine failures on our AFV? or showing up wearing forest cammo in a desert environment.
And this isn't just a liberal problem, though Trudeau didn't trust the military and tried to bring it to heel, and Chretien thought that people in the military were knuckle draggers. But Harper could have done a lot more, to give him credit he improved airlift and ground forces capabilities, but he was frozen on the helicopter replacement, didn't fight hard enough for the F-35 and watched us lose our command and coordination and self supply naval capability.
To me its nuts that we're so willing to put people in a position to die and then spend very little on improving their odds of surviving, and then and here's the rant, when they come home damaged and broken both physically and mentally we sit back and do nothing while parading our troops around as if its a sign that we support them.
the average person supports our soldiers and pilots and sailors, I've seen it every day at remembrance day, but our government no matter what the party sure doesn't.
Its stupid and its aggravating, we have no long term strategy, we have no procurement strategy and our new PM is using the military like a public service campaign with very little awareness of what its going to cost. We're not going to bring peace to these nations, we're going to unite both sides to fight us and we're going to die in numbers.
I want this nation to have absolutely nothing to do with UN peacekeeping unless its done right, not just rolling a bunch of guys in jeeps out with blue berets with bad equipment and a rules of engagement that's stupid and dangerous.
If Justin wants a cushy UN job and he wants to walk over our troops to get it, then I damn sure hope that he's the first one that's going to be willing to say, "We're not doing it, unless its done right"/
Sorry rant off.