[CaptainCrunch]

the sad state of the military, and why bother anymore

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/otta...it-altogether/

It was revealed over the weekend that the government intends to keep our aging CF-18 fighter planes in operation until 2032. But, like the Sea King helicopters, the planned retirement date for these jets has been pushed back before. There is no reason to believe the next government won’t try to keep them airborne for another decade after that.


And why not? It will cost us billions in maintenance to ensure these can fly well past their designed lifespan, but it would cost even more to replace them with modern fighter jets. And Canadians don’t really care one way or another. The state of the military is never a significant election issue. And when did you last see a public protest over another leaky frigate or more broken helicopters?

In fact, it is long past time we simply disbanded the Canadian military altogether. That seems like a radical step, but it would require little actual movement—just the simple act of accepting this is where we already stand.

This current government loves to breathlessly emote about our peacekeeping past, but is careful to avoid promising any actual troops. In November of last year, after side-stepping previous promises to make a significant UN deployment, the Prime Minister announced an initiative to increase the proportion of women deployed in peace operations–just not women from the Canadian military. Right now, there are 14 Canadian officers assigned to the UN, a record low; that is less than Honduras, Bhutan, and Armenia. Former Liberal senator Romeo Dallaire explained that this was a new enlightened policy that went beyond the “traditional boots on the ground.” So, why do we even need actual boots anymore?

So, why don’t we just own it and admit the truth, as painful as it is: We do not have a functional military, and that’s the way we want it. Let’s implement this new “enlightened policy” by shutting down the Canadian Forces and declaring ourselves a post-military nation. We could join the ranks of Haiti, Andorra, and Vanuatu.


NATO might accept an annual payment in lieu of actual troops. (We won’t be able to donate any of our tanks or ships, however, unless they want them for scrap.) In return for staying in NORAD we could simply give the Americans a few Arctic islands; we’re not using them. Perhaps we keep a few soldiers for disaster response, but they don’t need guns or jets for that.

So my thoughts on this. Why the hell not?

I mean its not like we're living up to our Nato Obligations at all.

We're certainly breaking faith with the men and woman in uniform by asking them to do dangerous and life threatening things when its clear that we don't really care enough to give them the tools that they need to do it.

The current government breathlessly talks about peacekeeping, but they show a keen mis-understanding of the concept of modern day peace keeping. The day of the men and woman in Blue Berets acting as diplomats and social workers is effectively dead, replaced with the nebulous concept of Peace Enforcement, and being able to put a force in the field that is equipt to force the peace.

We after breaking out promise to send peace keepers to Africa (Thank god that public relations action was broken) instead we offered to train peace keepers, but frankly Canada hasn't been a significant contributor to peace keeping for 20 years, so we really don't have much to teach.

With the current failure of the Fighter Jet Replacement program and the purchase of basically structurally questionable F-18's from Austrialia, and the boon doogle that is occurring with the naval ship replacement program and the Cyclone Helicopter program, this government and the previous government have amazingly accelerated the rust out of the Canadian Forces.

With the latest court decision that is leading to a class action lawsuit by injured veterans that stated that Canada didn't have an obligation to take care of these men and woman its become clear that there's no point in putting anyone in danger.

I know that the Macleans article is a heavy bit of sarcasm dealing with a major problem that the Canadian Forces is rapidly becoming unfixable. It just is, and nobody is interested, so why do it?

I mean I'm sure that we can negotiate a payment plan with Nato. Since we're not really interested in Arctic Defense, lets put out a bid to China, America and Russia based around the defense of our waters

Our navy is broken and rusting with no command and control capability, limited air defense of our ships and 4 submarines that still have trouble diving and firing torpedoes, wouldn't it just be simpler to hand over the defense of Canada's coastline to our American Friends.

If young men and woman still want to wear the uniform and serve, work up a agreement with the American's that lets Canadians join the US Navy, Airforce, army or Marines. Of course they'd be deployable on American missions as well.

A few years back I posted a thread looking at the state of the Canadian Forces and what they needed going forward. At this point its now an impossible task, they've let things slide to far.

Do we want to get in a situation again where we end up deploying men and woman into a Nato Mission like we did in Afghanistan and then have to do a crash purchase after the fact?

None of this makes any sense in terms of geo politics. Certainly Canada would lose its international reputation with NATO and NORAD and even the UN. But its not like we have a stunningly great reputation now, so why does it matter?

And no this isn't some kind of twisted plea from me to make some kind of point about buying F-35, upgrading our combat vehicles, addressing our laughable lack of ground based anti-air defenses or upgrading or frigate navy to this century.

Personally I served in the bad old days when the Trudeau government basically spit on the military service and wanted a boy scout troop instead, and we went out and made do with what we had.

I know that there are a few others on this board with vastly more experience with me that will say the same thing.

But no soldier is going to want to soldier for a country that doesn't give a crap and is willing to throw the dice on their lives.

So lets cut out the lie here.