(Canadian) Forces Rejuvenated ... Peter Worthington
Toronto Sun via cnews.canoe.ca ^ | June 30, 2006 | Peter Worthington

While it's hardly a spending spree, this week's federal announcements of purchases of planes, trucks and helicopters for the armed forces underline a radically changed attitude towards our military.

In fairness, it began, sort of, under the last, unlamented Liberal government of Paul Martin. But the Conservative regime of Stephen Harper seems to actually believe in this new military direction.

By dedicating the week to an announcement per day, each in a different city, of new military purchases, Harper is showing his commitment to changing how the military is perceived.

The government seems anxious to put to rest the "goody-goody" image of Canadian peacekeeping. In past UN missions, soldiers who were fired upon were supposed to read from a little card they carried, that outlined in sometimes ludicrous detail, conditions that would justify shooting back.

These days in Afghanistan, it's reassuring that Canadians soldiers don't hesitate to shoot back -- and do so with lethal accuracy. Of course, to the swords-into-ploughshares types, this is more evidence of the Americanization of our forces. If so -- it's about time!

Our military is now in the process of being revived as a fighting force, which is what soldiers are, and which doesn't prevent humanitarian virtues of helping others, encouraging peace and enhancing security.

Some of the declared spending priorities are simply to maintain what is left of our depleted military, which is still absurdly small and overtasked: 20,000 regular soldiers; 15,000 air force; 10,000 navy; maybe 20,000 reservists.

Monday's announcement in Halifax was for $2.1 billion for new supply ships, Tuesday's in Quebec for $1.1 billion for new trucks, Wednesday's in Edmonton promised at least $2 billion for helicopters and yesterday's in Trenton declared $8.3 billion to replace the antique Hercules aircraft and buy four mammoth C-17 Globemaster "heavy-lift" planes that seem more for prestige than necessity.

Our soldiers need "fighting" helicopters as well as "lifting" helicopters. Helicopters are the new air artillery, and provide invaluable, accurate strike support for ground troops fighting a guerrilla enemy.

We need more light armour. At present, our troops in Afghanistan have most of the armour that Canada has available.

The army needs Hercules aircraft for rapid tactical movement, more than it needs Globemasters, which are easier to rent if necessary. And while the navy needs ships and helicopters, it doesn't need secondhand submarines, especially subs that can't safely submerge.

The latest report of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence last week commended the Harper government for "rejuvenating" our military. They note that the $343 per capita that Canadians spend on defence is far less than the $648 Australians spend, the Dutch $658 or the Brits' $903.

In fact, the $15 billion Harper has pledged is "catch up" spending. Real costs will be in the equipment and weaponry needed to make Canadians more effective soldiers.

That said, the military budget today is more than it was when Canada had double today's number in uniform. There's still a lot of waste, much of it in areas far from the action, and far from wherever the front lines are. Isn't that always the way?

Jean Chretien's observation that "it's never enough -- I have never seen an army anywhere in the world who returned government money," is also true. But it seems the Canadian public has, once again, fallen in love with our forces, which have always served Canada more loyally than Canadian governments have been loyal to them.