Canadian army pushed to the edge

I find it rather "sad" that a country as wealthy as ours can't sustain such a minor deployment (in the grand scheme of things 2,700 troops is not alot) without this kind of strain.

We need more soldiers. Scratch that we need a larger military period.

You see a large portion of Canada believes we are Joe Peacekeeper. And to be Joe Peacekeeper all you need is a token force. It's a good thing we don't have many actual enemies.

Even if we were just "peacekeepers", we can't do anything effectively with an ill-funded and supplied force. It's such a shame, when you think of all the areas where the government pisses money away.

Such as?

I don’t think the military is really ill supplied or funded at all. We mainly have a man power issue, which is due to the image of the Canadian soldier in Canada.

What is needed here? How can that image be fixed?

First off stop with the peacekeeper bullshit. Second show off Canadian military accomplishments, let Canadians have military heroes. Third make people want to be a Canadian soldier, get better ads for joining the forces, remove the stigma that as soon as your in your going to go and fight. Show that being in the military can be a lot of fun.

Where I lived in the North the history of the villages military people was very well preserved and commemorated. There was respect.

However, I don't see peacekeeping as BS, but part of what Canadians have done quite well, although I never could see why that was not a function of a special branch of the R.C.M.P.

I agree with all of what you said, beyond the above two points.

Does Canada have a programme like the U.S. where someone who signs on for 4 years gets their education paid for and do you think this would help?

Thanks.

The economy goin' south like a duck in winter will bolster enlistment. Oshawa recruiters will have a lot of luck.

If you look back on history, despite our best efforts, Canadians have never embraced the military, except in times of major conflict. After WW1 and WW2 ended, troops rioted because they weren't released from service fast enough. Troops who returned after the Boer and Korean conflicts hardly got any notice whatsoever. The sad fact is Canadians have NEVER given our troops enough of what they need in peacetime. However, we should look at the current CF and be happy, as it is far better equipped and staffed than at any other time of peace in our nation's history. We have more personnel, ships, planes, etc than we did from Confederation to WW1, or during the interwar years. The only peacetime exception (if you can call it that with Korea, Suez, and the Congo occurring) was the Cold War years until the mid-60s. And that force structure (100,000 personnel etc) was funded by the generation who had just fought the greatest conflict in human history and were deathly terrified of fighting another.

I don't call peacekeeping BS at all. Its 'invention' won Pearson a Nobel Prize (2 if you count the one awarded to UN Peacekeepers in 1988) and considerable kudos for Canada on the world scene. Peacekeeping allowed us to punch far above our weight internationally. Say what what you want about it, but our mission in Cyprus helped prevent a war between 2 NATO members. And missions in the Balkans saved hundreds (if not thousands) of people from being ethnically cleansed.

Instead of abandoning the way we have done in the past decade, we should have created a special peacekeeping battalion and continued with it, while using the rest the of the army for traditional military missions.

I respect any one in uniform that puts their life on the line for freedom.

While I served in the US Marines I sure wouldn't be one to turn down any help from a Canadian fighting beside me. Note I never was in combat. Seems recruiter forgot to tell me when I joined in that only sons couldn't serve in a war zone.

That will never lesson my respect for Canadians who serve Canada and freedom.

I want to add that I thank each one of them.

Hillbillybob

By peacekeeping bullshit, I mean sustaining the image that Canadian Soldiers are peacekeepers, and nothing but.

It was a cheap way to showcase the Canadian flag abroad and make it look like we were doing something important. In some places we were but in places like Rwanda or Bosnia, how little we really could do was made obvious.

I like the idea of an RCMP peace-keeping force but their screaming for more money already and they already have their hands full in Surrey's gang war.

I think the first step is to go knock heads over at the CBC and get them to start telling Canadians the real story about what we're doing in Afghanistan.
Stop showing our troops as poor kids who couldn't get a real job and show them as the excellent all-volunteer force that they are.

Such as?

Off the top of my head - "regional development programs" (read: subsidies); agricultural "assitance packages" (read: subsidies); Auto sector bailouts (read: bailouts?); etc.

If we can cherry pick what industries to support, often to laughable failure, surely we can adequately fund our soldiers and improve our national image abroad.