Canada: We Don't Stand on Guard for Thee

Image: A Canadian RG-31 limps back to base ... Only the crucible of Afghanistan and Canadian blood forced bureaucrats and politicians to spring for modern equipment like the RG-31.


Canada is an unmitigated embarrassment; a spoiled little prom queen preening and posturing about her greatness ... or worse yet, an uppity little hobbit taking pride in being better than the neighbour, when in reality there are some things Canadian that should be a source of national embarrassment.

I speak of course, about Canada’s national effort in things military. I don’t speak of course, about the men and women in uniform who are as courageous as any who have ever worn the maple leaf and who are as capable as any of their peers the world over.

I speak about the fact, that the Canada which had a vastly smaller population and was many times poorer in 1944, could field two corps (five divisions total), plus an independent armoured brigade, fly 78 squadrons, and could float the world’s third largest navy ... cannot today maintain a 2500 member Afghanistan force indefinitely, in what is an incredibly low intensity conflict. Afghanistan is, by any historic measure, child’s play. Yet, Canada’s armed forces are being pulled out not only because of a lack of will among her populace, but because the forces themselves are becoming spent by the effort.

In short, one of the richest countries on the planet, one so wealthy that it has shrugged off the second worst recession of a hundred years, and one that can provide a vast welfare state without breaking a sweat, has a tiny and in many respects, poorly equipped Army, Navy, and Air Force. And this, despite the fact that Canada has the longest coastline on the planet, is a member of NATO, and owns one of the largest chunks of real estate on earth.

Let that sink in ... a post-modern country of 30 million people which is one of the richest in human history can’t field a force of 2500 individuals without burning out the military.

It’s no coincidence that Canada also shares a border with the most militarily powerful nation in history; a nation which would step in on a moment’s notice to defend Canada; a nation which uses its military might to not only defend and project Canada’s strategic interests, but to do limitless humanitarian work simply because nobody else can (tsunamis come to mind). I wonder if Vancouver suffered a massive earth quake, who would get there first? Or better yet, who has the capacity to get their first? I have visions of US National Guard helicopters disgorging American troops to save Vancouverites while Canada’s military winds its way through the mountains in long slow convoys made up of Cold War antiques. (I can also imagine the likes of Steve Staples, Michael Byers, Maude Barlow et al protesting against the National Guard invasion while Vancouverites died in the rubble waiting for help to arrive)

Check out the following list of military expenditures as a percentage of GDP (2005 numbers) ... it says it all:

USA .................. 4.06
France .............. 2.6
Australia .......... 2.4
UK .................... 2.4
Poland ............. 1.71
Holland ........... 1.6
Germany .......... 1.5
Sweden ............ 1.5
CZ .................... 1.46
Denmark ......... 1.3
Canada ............ 1.1

While we can be proud of our soldiers in Afghanistan, while we can support them and laud their heroism and ability, we must never forget that on the macro scale, Canada neglects her military and her responsibilities to her forces. We must never forget that our soldiers initially entered Afghanistan with a military force that had no heavy helicopters, no modern tanks, many armoured vehicles incapable of protecting against even small IEDs, no heavy lift aircraft, and no modern artillery, etc. We must never forget that the flesh and blood part of our force rode into battle astride yesterday’s castoffs, or at most, modern beasts in very limited supply. Furthermore, Canada did, and still does, depend massively on the USA, UK, and others to fill in the gaps.

Only the crucible of Afghanistan and Canadian blood forced the bureaucrats and politicians in charge to spring for modern equipment. It’s been one big race to catch up to battle field realities ... it’s been one big race to modernize a command that still in many ways lives in the Cold War and Peace Keeping eras ... it’s been one big race to do something as simple as purchase a dozen modern artillery pieces or find ways of slapping extra armour onto APCs so that they aren’t death traps. And now, after a few short years, we learn that our tiny rotating human band that fields about 2500 soldiers at a time is all but burned out. The point is, that it took Canadian soldiers dying in order for modernization to take place.

Way to go Canada!

I can’t help but believe that the only way that Canada gets away with her woeful military effort is because she lives next door to the greatest military power of all time, and that she can rely on American power in times of need. America, in fact, makes it possible for Canada to spend little on her military while spending instead on domestic goodies ... to run rich equalization schemes, to buy off Quebec, and to run the only fully universal healthcare system in The Western World. A 1.1 percent of GDP spent on the military has a way of enabling that.

In a very direct way, that’d make Canada a parasite, and America the host. How fitting, that our national bird is the Canada Goose ... which flies South each year to poop on the US of A.

"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Update: Further reading on GDP and military economics, and historical perspective @ Unambiguously Ambidextrous.

Update 2: My December 09 Rant