[EyeBrock]

Bacardi4206 Bacardi4206:

Canadian's have always respected there peace keepers a lot more than there combat military. Despite the growing support and interest in developing the combat side of the military. IMO it only has to do with the wide range of threats that generally can only be dealt by the military. Such as terrorism and biological terrorism.

People want to feel protected and there is no bigger protection than a military that can actually defend it's own land. Which the old CF could not do, probally even the current and updated one.

Once this whole terrorism thing blows over and immigrants stop bringing over there diseases. Perhaps everybody will calm down and probally will just go back not caring if the military gets any funding.

Attitude hasn't changed, only the situations have. Peace, no threats = nobody cares for the military. War, Threats = A need for a functional military that can defend it's citizens.

If Australia can afford a decent military that can well defend it's own territory and keep that funding going regularly. Canada should have no troubles what so ever doing the same or to a greater extent. Doesn't make sense how our government sucks so bad regarding the military.

What utter crap.

The myth of 'peace-keeping' resonates with the left-wing of Canadian politics and the media. 'Soft power' is no power at all. The final death nell of the peace-keeping myth was Rwanda and the debacle led by another soft-power believer, Romeo Dallaire.

Now, once again we have a combat proven military that is effective and deployable.

[Akhenaten]

The thing about peacekeeping is that it only works if both sides want peace...

...the conclusion here of course is that if both sides want peace than 'peace keepers' is kinda superfluous at that point. If neither party wants peace, peace keepers aren't going to stop it. At that point you need either peace makers or to just sit back and watch.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Yep, just like Bosnia where our "peacekeepers" were actually involved in some very heavy firefights. Killed some soldiers there too but I guess that's ok since the word PEACE was part of their mission statement.

[EyeBrock]

These people spouting Canada as a 'traditional peackeeper' are just full of it. Traditionally? Really?

These are the people that would rather hold up Rwanda and Romeo Dalliare as icons of the Canadian military instead of Lew Mackenzie or Rick Hillier and disregard Queenston Heights, Leliefontein, Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, Normandy, Sicily, Korea, Bosnia and numerous other places that Canadians have fought and died in.

It's just patently false.

[bootlegga]

DerbyX DerbyX:

bootlegga bootlegga:

Having said all that, peacetime defence spending now is far higher (as a percentage of governemtn expenditures, not total dollars) than it ever was prior to the Cold War. If our governments were as lazy as those of the past, our navy would have 2 or 3 ships and everything else would be from a generation or two ago.

This doesn't make sense. Our peacetime defence spending is higher now then prior to the cold war?? We are currently at war right? You also just said that the spending was much higher during the 50s and 60s which was mostly peacetime spending right?

Do you mean we were spending more on defence throughout the 80s and 90s compared to the 30s?

Yes. Our spending on defence is much higher than it ever was prior to WW1 or the interwar years. 'Peacetime' defence spending peaked during the 1950s (you know, while those Liberals who hate the CF ran the show) during the Korean conflict, when we fought a war against a serious foe (North Korea/China), backed by yet another with global reach (USSR). In the 50s, we built a huge peacetime navy (almost 60 ships), had a division and 12 fighter squadrons in Europe, a brigade in Korea, and gave equipment to equip several divisions to both Belgium and the Netherlands.

As paltry as our 60,000 personnel large military seems today, it is far larger than the few thousand we maintained after 1867 or during the interwar years. Hell, the navy wasn’t founded until 1910, and then it was with two rather out of date hand me downs from Britain. The RCAF wasn’t created until after WW1. The militia was just a handful of regiments based in Halifax and Victoria, with a few reservists across the country getting together for training once a year.

The Cold War forever changed Canadians perceptions of peacetime defence spending. Canadians would never accept a military of 5,000 personnel, that’s for sure.

Despite the conflict in Afghanistan, I wouldn't really say our nation is at war, at least not in the sense that we did during the world wars or early on in the cold war. The CF might be at war, but society isn’t. Back then, society made real sacrifices to help our nation win the war. Today, people slap a magnet on their bumper and think they’re making a difference.