Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I know what you’re saying about these other conflicts, but Canadians aren’t like a lot of other countries. We don’t have mandatory military training, and we’ve never fought wars here. That’s not suggesting that no one has fought in wars elsewhere, because obviously we’ve sent our troops overseas. But the reality is that “we” aren’t really ready for this. I feel like a lot of the people saying they’d fight to the death are people who have never been in war, and the people who come from war torn countries are less enthused.
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Only a small fraction of young men in Canada have ever fired a weapon in anger or been subjected to any sort of collective physical rigour. Bold comments made on a keyboard between slurps of ramen delivered by Skip the Dishes are well and good for our collective sense of defiance. But there’s a world of difference between that and the brutal, harrowing business of insurgency warfare.
Countries that fight sustained resistance against occupation have more than just a defiant attitude. They have lots of weapons, lots of people who know how to use them, and a tradition of conscription or collective training.
Anyone serious about fighting off an American invasion (which remains a remote possibility) should be campaigning for universal military service of the sort standard in Europe during the Cold War: 12-24 months of mandatory enrolment served between the age of 18 and 22, and periodic month-long refresher enrolment by older men.
That’s what a country serious about fighting off foreign invasion would do. For all the defiance Canadians are feeling today, count me as skeptical that mandatory military service would be welcomed by the electorate.