Asymmetrical Information

In other news... Richard Clarke was hired by the government of Mexico and News Corporation (hint: Fox) to spec out a plan for Mexico to invade Quebec using a caravan of pickup trucks stocked 20 feet high with supplies from SoCal garage sales. Additionally, Dr. Clarke and Dr. Rice bobble-head dolls go on sale next week at Carl's Jr. Dr. Clarke will also be hosting Saturday Night Live in May and travelling with legendary rock band Kiss this summer. Dr. Clarke will be a celebrity judge on the next season of American Idol during a week in which the finalists will sing patriotic songs. Finally, Dr. Clarke's burial two years from now in Arlington National Cemetary will be televised with a nationwide after-party to be held at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico.

how incredibly sad.

I participated in this...

http://www.geocities.com/rmc_redmen/west-point.html

I knew people who went into the Canadian Defense Forces.

I served alongside Canadians in Somalia...

If Canada ends up actually getting rid of even the pretense of a national defense capability, then they might as well give up even the pretense of sovereignty.

Maybe its time after all for the United States to annex them...

regards,

vtrtl

Hell, from the original post it sounds as if New York City could annex them on its own!

Not much new here: It's been more or less official policy to gut the military since Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister in the late 1960s.

Canada will still need some maritime capability to patrol and supervise its fishing areas.

Otherwise, bye-bye.

Their Navy has a long and professional history of service in peace and war. They will be missed, even if morphed into a strictly Coast Guard capability.

AIUI, they're having trouble defending an uninhabited island (near Greenland) from Denmark right now, since their navy can't actually get up there to stop the Danes from claiming it.

boo is right. They're already exactly on this course.

(Shameless plug to my own blog, but it's a summary of a not-available-online Foreign Policy article.)

Of interest, I heard a statement about five years ago that there were more privately owned peices of artillery at the 135th Aniversary reenactment of Anteitam in the US than Canada had in its army. Now muzzle loaders are no match to modern howitzers, but the comparison did stick in my mind.

Dr. Rice bobble-head dolls go on sale next week at Carl's Jr.

I'll take one!

A sad commentary on the status of a proud military. From the Boer War to The Great War to World War II, Korea and multiple peacekeeping missions in most every hotspot of the latter half of the 20th century, the Canadian military has, despite the government's best efforts to dismantle all semblance of military strength, punched well over its weight for nearly 100 years. Ypres. Paeschendale. Vimy. The Somme. Normandy. Korea. Cyprus. The list is long. I hope that the military (and Canadians) can survive this government and turn around what has become an international embarassment.

Here are a couple of links along the same lines:

Canada plans to phase out tanks in favour of a light armored vehicle, acceptable for "all operations other than war." 'Cuz, you know, why would you want an army that's able to fight a war?

And Colby Cosh had a recent piece on how our Prime Minister's recent reference to Canada's invasion of Norway (as opposed to Normandy) in WWII is symptomatic of the Government's general contempt for Canadian history in general and the military in particular.

Tanks on even a semi-modern battlefield are deathtraps unless you have a lot of them, with fast guns, and wide-open terrain in which to opperate. Otherwise, you're just asking for an RPG attack.

Yeah, but tanks are cool!

OK, so maybe not everything the Government does to our military is completely without merit.

Free defense, free pharma research, and they still have higher taxes? Socialist paradise, indeed!

For as long as they continue to boo our national anthem at hockey games, I advise that Canadians maintain a standing army.

Who's going to invade Canada? Why would they need a standing army? Remember, originally it was UNCONSTITUTIONAL for the US to have a standing army in peacetime. Mostly to prevent the oppression of the people, and military adventurism of the type that we have now. Sounds to me like Canada has taken at least one step towards becoming a libertarian paradise. Why pay taxes for an army the you are never going to need? Unless Greenland starts to get frisky.

Believe me, if Canada gets invaded the US is going to get involved. And their five tanks aren't going to be much help anyway.

Morty, those were Habs fans. They've been known to boo the Canadian national anthem as well. Most of Canada was mortified.

And hats off to the Boston fans who were too classy to respond in kind.

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