Did you know that Canada has committed over 16,000 troops to the war on terror? Or that Stephen Harper, Canada's first conservative prime minister in twelve years, took office on February 6, 2006? Or that PM Harper has committed to keeping 2,300 Canadian troops in Afghanistan through 2009? Or that PM Harper has vowed to rejuvenate his country's long-neglected military forces?
Americans have forgotten that Canada remains one of our key allies in the War on Terror. Of course, it's hard to overlook the fact that Canada has long distanced itself from the militaristic focus that occupies much of the industrialized world.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has has been pushing our northerly neighbors to increase military spending, but that advice was generally ignored — until now, that is. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is committed to a stronger, more secure Canada and, more importantly, he is pushing for a closer alliance, military and otherwise, with America.
Today, PM Harper will be visiting President Bush in the White House for discussions on a wide range of topics. It will be a nice change of pace for the President, as he has grown accustomed to Canadian officials — especially prime ministers — whose far left ideologies sharply contradict that of the present Administration. More than anything else, PM Harper's visit reemphasizes his deep commitment to strong relations with the United States, which have suffered some setbacks in recent years.
Mr. Bush also can expect a major improvement in atmospherics after years of prickly relations with Liberal Party governments, whose members were accused at times of adopting anti-American positions to score political points.
[...]
"Canadians take a very pragmatic view about their relationship [with America]," said Tim Woolstencroft, managing partner of Strategic Counsel, a research firm based in Ottawa. "We want to have good relations with the United States and resolve issues and concerns."
Last month, PM Harper's government announced a major boost in military spending. According to the plan, $13.5 billion will be spent on new ships, trucks, helicopters, and aircraft. Additionally, the government has proposed to add 23,000 troops to its military. Though it may not sound like much, consider this: Canada's military is presently made up of 62,000 regular and 26,000 reserve forces; 23,000 additional troops translates into a 26% increase of its present forces. Now that's big.
Article comments
1 - Mark Edward Manning
If Canadians are so genuinely warm toward the American public, why do they routinely spew so much antagonism our way? I appreciate what Harper's gov't is doing, good for him and the Conservatives, but that is just the government. The people, I'm sure, feel much differently. A government won't change the sentiments of the majority of the diversity-worshipping Canuckistani population.
Committed to helping us fight terror? What a laugh - in the wake of the 17 Allah-worshippers arrested in Ontario, Toronto police chief Bill Blair said that the men "were motivated by an ideology based on politics, hatred and terrorism, not faith." The Toronto Star theorized that it was difficult to find a common denominator among those who wish to commit Islamic-based terrorism! As Michelle Malkin put it, "please take your infidel heads out of the blinding sands before you lose them."
2 - Joey
Would it be the Canadian people or the Canadian press corp? Media can distort perceptions, especially those of public opionion.
I can validate anything I hear as fact or buzz by asking my brother-in-law, who has been working at the WashDC affliate of a MAJOR network for 30 years.
Now that guy has some stories.
3 - Nancy
There is much to be said for the kindness and charity of the Canadians towards Ugly Americans, even when they go to Quebec uninvited and proceed to mangle the Quebecois; despite considerable provocation, they never did me any violence, even when my pronunciation was most atrocious & my grammar non-existant.
4 - Deano
"diversity-worshipping Canuckistani population"
And this is how you talk about your friends and allies? And you wonder why you might have a problem with anti-Americanism?
The Canadian's have lost 15 dead in Afghanistan (4 of them directly due to trigger-happy US planes). At what point in your calculations do the dead stack up high enough to count as a meaningful contribution?
Don't mistake reluctance to avoid getting dragged into what was and is perceived in Canada as an unnecessary war in Iraq with being unwilling to help in the fight against terror. Canadian forces have been involved in Afghanistan since year one.
As for Canadian anti-Americanism - yes there is an anti-American streak in Canadian politics - you try living beside a superpower 10x your population, economic and cultural strength and try to maintain and build your own institutions, approach and attitudes. What's shocking isn't that there is an anti-American streak but that it is as muted and polite as it is, particularly in the face of the current administration's "my way or the highway" attitude towards its allies.
Try to remember that Canada was founded by the people who did not join the American Revolution.
5 - Deacon
Canuckistan? Wow, guess who watches FOX.
That's the kind of acknowledgement that turns allies into enemies.
Then again, some people absolutely refuse to see that 911 was an inside job, and will gladly deny any eveidence to the contrary.
Here is a direct question for you Micheal Edward Manning: have you ever heard of an event called the Reichstag Fire?
Look it up, and learn from history.
6 - somebigguy
Oh man, this article hurts, you can cut the propaganda with a knife. Oh well, once you learn 9/11 was an inside job, you have to be concerned about what is really going on. Canada is one false flag terrorist attack away from becoming American. If something happens in Canada, I'm sure the Americans will come swooping in to "protect us" from those pesky terrorists, and the Canadians will welcome them with open arms. The U.S. seems to have the right to do anything it wants, as long as they use the excuse that their fighting terror, and Canada will be no different. Canada has oil, and that has to concern everyone here. If 9/11 was an Inside Job, what is really being played out here for us?
However, if we can expose the 9/11 attacks as a scam, then any and all justifications for the bogus "war on terror" will be null and void and the insanity being perpetrated by Bush and Blair can be stopped.
The media is complicit in this crime, as they refuse to cover anything regarding this topic. To show how thorough the media blackout has been, here are some people that have spoken out, while the media remained silent. Google them for more information:
Robert Bowman, former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions. He has publicly stated 9/11 was an Inside Job and is running for office:
The Veterans for 9/11 Truth, featuring veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, Viet Nam, and others have spoken out.
Scholars for 9/11 Truth, featuring engineers, physicists, mathematicians, and others have spoken out.
Sibel Edmonds, FBI Translator and Whistleblower made the statement that: "once this issue gets to be...investigated, you will be seeing certain [American] people that we know from this country standing trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally" as well as: "There is direct evidence involving no more than ten American names that I recognized".
Sibel has subsequently become the most gagged whistleblower in history.
Then there is Morgan Reynolds, Ph.D., who is professor emeritus at Texas A&M University and former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis headquartered in Dallas, TX. He served as chief economist for the US Department of Labor during 20012, George W. Bush's first term.
Additionally, there is a great new documentary out called Terrorstorm that investigates the history of government false flag attacks. Google Terrorstorm.
Finally, here is the mother of a 9/11 victim speaking out in front of a sign that says "9/11 Was an Inside Job"
7 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Deano,
The problem with some Americans is that they LOST the War of 1812, getting their asses soundly trounced by British forces and their capital burned.
There is this unconscious strain in American thinking that that 4,000,000 square miles north of the 49th parallel should be part of the USA.
And then there is the fact that for all the similarities the two countries have, you guys insist on being different from them.
How dare you!
:o))
8 - Deano
My experience is that they generally gloss over that little fact in their own history books, painting it as a war against Britain perfidy in challenging US rights in trade etc., instead of portraying it as the shameless expansionist land grab attempt that it was....
9 - Tony
The article on a whole is a welcome change in Canadian polics. I definately congratulate you all on the change. The responses on the other hand are vitriolic. The war of 1812 was not a US defeat but was a stalemate the whole time until the battle of New Orleans when the British were soundly defeated. The events leading to that war were numerous but the most important was the impressment of US sailors by Britain. The war ended through peace negotiations and the British conceded the most important demand (impressment of US sailors). However, the news didn't reach the armies fighting until after the battle of New Orleans. Thus ending in an American victory. The invasion of Canada during the ouset of that war was a disaster due to the ineptness of the American General. The reason for the invasion was to deny England access to Canadian ports as Canada was friendly to her. This is the abbreviated version and is also an over simplification but it is enough for now. That war was between England and the US not between Canada and the US.
I won't go so far as calling Canada Canuckistan but many Canadians are very anti-American and that is just a fact. It isn't a hatred of the present US administration, the same anti-Americanism was around during the Clinton era, as well as Bush Sr. and Reagan. I personally have no problems with Canada but I do take note when our friends are talking more like our enemies (I find this disturbing). I expect this from the French, not from Canadians.
I'm all for closer ties with Canada. I believe trade is in our mutual interests. I also believe Canada should build up it's military forces. The truth is, the Canadian military is woefully under equiped and by another article, undertrained. Canadians, I've observed, are very patriotic as Americans are. They certainly have a willingness to defend their country and are very proud but your pride shouldn't be based on hating America and then disguising it by saying you just hate Bush.
Of course, this is a blanket statement. Not all Canadians feel this way about us to the south but honestly speaking, I live in Washington and have never heard any bile from anyone of my neighbors about Canada and of the 3 Canadians I've known, 1 is a fervent America hater. Percentage wise this isn't a good sign.
9/11 an inside job? What else do you want to blame America for? The tsunami in Asia from nuclear testing? How about the Bam earthquake in Iran? Can you somehow spin the Katrina disaster into America's fault? We lost 3000 of our people in that attack, Al Qaeda claimed responsibilty, the hijackers were all Islamic terrorists and you say it's an inside job? Stop visiting those conspiracy theory sites. Or are you so Anti American that you'll believe anything that puts the US at fault?
Going back to the military. I'm all for the Canadian military spending. I feel that they should be given the best equipment and training money can buy. I feel this way because I was a soldier once (10 years) in the US army and have been deployed overseas many times in those years and 2 of those deployments were not peace keeping missions so forgive me for my bias for other soldiers but I believe it's criminal not to give your soldiers the best you can. I suspect this New PM is going to change alot of things and I'm looking forward to Canada/US relations.
Below is an article that was written by a Canadian on the differences between the US and Canadian armies. For those of my fellow Americans who are looking for an excuse to get back at the "Canucks" for whatever reason, try looking at it from a different perspective, they have helped us in Afganistan, they have helped us when we needed help in Katrina.
Poor and Rustic: Canada’s Army vs. the Screaming Eagles
by John Thompson
May 5, 1999
A short time ago, the author was a guest of the US government on a visit to the 101st Air Assault Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The trip aroused deep feelings of respect... and envy. Moreover, it served a grim reminder as to just how backward the Canadian Army has become.
The 101st, the Screaming Eagles, is one of America’s premiere military units and enjoys a splendid history dating from the Normandy Campaign to the 1991 Gulf War. It is a part of the XVIII Corps, and is available for rapid deployment to any trouble spot. The Division is airmobile and uses helicopters as the basis for manoeuvre and for much of its firepower.
Members of the formation also spend a lot of time overseas on exercises and deployments. They are as experienced in soldiering abroad as any Canadian soldier can expect, and are just as likely to be put into harm’s way. Moreover, when they are in harm’s way, they are prepared to handle it... much more than would be the case for Canadian troops.
Airmobile troopers are tough. They are also well trained... much better trained than Canadian troops (a distinct turnaround from the 1970s and early ‘80s). They are also very well equipped. They are not just equipped for modern warfare; they are one of the units that set the standards for how modern operations are conducted. Additionally, the Division’s personnel and leaders are, on average, far better educated than their Canadian counterparts.
Dropping in unannounced on the enlisted men’s mess-hall for the Division’s artillery brigade for lunch was an experience. Seated across from me were three young privates from California. All three were planning on re-enlisting once their 3-year terms were up. All three were high school graduates, and were gathering college credits whenever their duties permitted. (Nearby colleges and universities provide flexible time for troops from the Division.)
The tall corporal from Minnesota was working on a degree in sciences. One of his Master Sergeants occasionally managed his labs while working on a doctorate of his own. The NCOs also often run into their officers in pursuit of post-graduate degrees -- American officers rarely make it to major or beyond without continuing scholarship. The officers, like their men, are solidly professional and impressive in appearance. Some are the children of immigrants who feel they owe something back to America. Others can trace the deeds of their ancestors in the Civil War or beyond.
By contrast, the Canadian Army now seems to be a collection of the uneducated. Too many of our soldiers have not finished high school. Often our officers are not so well educated either. A study, which was part of the "Report to the Prime Minister" prepared for the Minister of Defence in early 1997, found that Canadian officers were badly under-educated in comparison to their US counterparts. For example, 39% of US 0fficers have a Graduate Degree, as opposed to only 6.8% of Canadian ones. Some 39.9% of Canadian officers have less than a BA; this is only true of some 10% of US officers. Moreover, given the necessity of a solid education in the Naval and Air Force environments, Canada’s under-educated officers would appear to be much more common in the Army.
The 101st’s personnel are bright. They need to be. At the cutting edge, warfare has become very technical indeed. For a start, every vehicle, crew-served weapon or squad in the Division is equipped with a GPS set. For those unfamiliar with the Global Positioning Satellite revolution, it means that you cannot be lost... ever. With a small hand-held receiver, you can always know exactly where you are on the map within seconds. Some Canadian soldiers are familiar with GPS sets too, but hand-receivers are few and far between â€" and are often privately purchased anyway. The radios that every Air Assault trooper knows how to use are a marvel as well. The SINCGARS system is light, easy to use, and has a number of features that most of our Army’s Vietnam-War era radios don’t share. All sets are frequency hoppers, with automatic encryption/decryption, and burst transmitters. Thus, their communications are safe and secure while still being easy to use. These radios can be plugged into a GPS set to automatically report position, and can also be jacked into one of the tough light portable computers that shares data throughout the division. Canada’s long delayed modern equivalent system is just starting to creep into service â€" years late and without the "plug-in" additions that the Americans enjoy.
With SINCGARs and the computer interface, a squad leader about to run a night patrol can download all the latest information and intelligence for his route and target. His situation and contact reports are also fed into the entire Divisional/Corps net. In this way, anyone in the 101st can find out in real time what is happening in any area. The computer system, a follow-on the highly successful IVIS system found in US mechanized formations, is still being introduced. Besides revolutionizing reporting and planning, it also automates much of the logistics and supply systems. The plodding Canadian command post system with china-markers, plastic covered maps and hand-written logs is definitely passé.
As the Screaming Eagles always know where they are and what’s going on around them, they also know what to do about it. But whatever they do, they will prefer to do it in darkness. As one young sergeant told me, "Any fool can fight in the day, but we own the night." [Original emphasis] Virtually every soldier has a set of AN/PVS-7B night vision goggles. The Canadian army does have the same item of equipment, but it is not issued nearly as widely. Night operations are the exception for Canadians, with the 101st it’s the rule.
This applies to all major equipment. The Apache and Black Hawk helicopters fly at night, and the Apache is an evil nocturnal predator. It is fairly quiet, quite agile, and sees everything in the darkness. It also bristles with armament. Yet it is perhaps the helicopter’s ability to flawlessly dump whole battalions of troops at night, on time and in the right place, that is an even more profound accomplishment.
Most of the infantry weapons used in the 101st would be entirely familiar to Canadian soldiers. In some cases, the exact same weapons are in use. However, the combination of GPS, SINCGARs and computers means that crew-served weapons are more likely to be used exactly when and where as needed. Laser ranger finders are also very common. Moreover, the wide distribution of "death dot" laser sights for many small arms are a small revolution in themselves. The laser is invisible, save through the night goggles. So a squad leader at night can come upon a road block in Lower Slobovia or Jihadistan, point out to his men who will shoot exactly whom and with what, and the gunmen at the road block will never know what hit them.
Finally, every individual soldier has passed the Air Assault training course, and knows how to load up any item of equipment in the division on any helicopter in its service. In the 101st, the women are expected to meet the same physical qualifications for Air Assault troopers â€" and I watched one going over a far more frightening obstacle course than anything I ever did on a Canadian base. For Canadian soldiers, loadmasters are very rare (and as like as not were trained by the US anyway), while a helicopter ride is a rare novelty on training exercises.
The Canadian Army has been rusting out for a while. While the 4th Brigade in Germany in the late 1980s was well trained and completely equipped, this was not true of the rest of the Army. Moreover, by the late 1980s, 4th Brigade’s Leopard 1 tanks and M-113s did not place it among the most modern of NATO formations. Things have worsened since. The only partly modern formation that was ready to participate in battle was already under strength in 1988, and has since been brought home anyway.
Since the end of the Cold War, Canadian troops have not been trained in a modern environment, have not trained in realistic large exercises, and have not received anything to speak of in new combat equipment. They have, however, been sent in operation after operation after operation, without adequate training and support. For troops at home, they lack ammunition for training, field rations, uniforms, and everything else that would properly train soldiers for anything more than "peacekeeping" â€" peacekeeping as the Federal Cabinet sees it, and not that which was the experience of those who served in Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia. Whatever success can be attributed to these operations largely exists off the expenditure of human and material capital that remains from earlier days.
The cri de coeur expressed in Jim Davis’s excellent book The Sharp End has resonated with many soldiers, and the bill of charges rung up in Scott Taylor’s Tested Mettle has yet to be answered. The wasting sickness that plagues the Canadian Army is a long way from being treated, and the patient may die.
In a word, Canada does not adequately train individual soldiers anymore. Therefore, it can not train sections, platoons, companies or battalions. The building blocks of combat ready formations no longer exist. The corporate memory of readiness for the operations of the 1970s and ‘80s is fast going, and Canada probably could not now assemble a modern battle-ready force without extensive foreign help beyond the provision of equipment.
By contrast, the 101st is in a perpetual training cycle. The Division’s three brigades constantly rotate through a standby slot (wherein a brigade ‘s leading party can be loaded on transport aircraft on four hours notice, and the rest can follow in 18). The other two brigades are either rotating out of a foreign deployment or are involved in extensive collective training. The unit on standby is constantly training as well. Training is tough, imaginative, and concentrates on the basics.
Actually, Canadian training is imaginative too. Our soldiers are used to training by making considerable use of pretended resources. Trucks have long been imagined as helicopters, the human voice has been making up for a perpetual shortage of blank ammunition, and Cougar "tank trainers" that were bought has substitutes for real armour have been criminally placed in that role anyway.
The 101st Division is the fulfilment of operational concepts that were only being discussed some 40 years ago. Even today, with the US military as disaffected as it is under the Clinton Administration, new equipment and techniques are constantly being provided to it. In terms of equipment and doctrine, it is already one long revolutionary step of what remains to the Canadian Army, and it is already entering the next revolution.
When the 101st moves in campaign (like it did in Iraq), it takes 150 km strides every day. Behind a curtain of co-ordinated firepower, another wave of helicopters drops a brigade in the enemy’s rear. The brigade then provides a lodgement from which Apache helicopters and heliborne artillery can spread mayhem and murder for miles about, while the next day’s giant step is prepared.
Each step can take place at night or in foul weather, regardless of such trivial conditions on the ground as swamps, rivers, minefields, traffic jams and other pedestrian concerns. The Division’s sensors mean that it can see everything in sight (with thermal imagers on Apaches and so many weapon platforms, there is no way to hide). Its communications system means all discoveries are instantly shared, and the appropriate instrument of firepower is tasked with dealing with a problem.
This combination of mobility, firepower, and co-ordination provides capabilities that have never existed before. The pace of operational manoeuvre afforded by helicopters was only guessed at by the pioneers of Blitzkrieg, and occurred very rarely in WW-II. (Historically such a pace was only achieved in the virtual absence of the enemy). Moreover, the division can fight faster than any conceivable opponent â€" thus always retaining the initiative.
When Canada got out of the modern loop, it was still back in a more leisurely concept of operations that would have been quite familiar in the latter years of the Second World War.
By way of a paleontological comparison, the Canadian Army is like Homo Erectus, fussing about with simple hand choppers and fire-hardened sticks compared to Homo Sapiens armed with bows and spear throwers. We have some evolving to do.
The smart fighting that the 101st engages in demands soldiers who are fit enough to do all the jobs of a soldier, and more besides. Equipment such as the SINCGARs, night goggles and GPS receivers are not that complex to use, but the changes they make to the way fighting is conducted are profound. Soldiers need to be smart, fast thinkers, and quick to recognize new situations. While Canadian soldiers have proven their adaptability and resourcefulness time after time throughout this century, this gift does need to be honed â€" and higher standards of education for our soldiery (and their officers!) are needed.
The Air Assault Division does have some weaknesses. Its chief of operations feels vulnerable to air defences and must either defeat or avoid them. He feels that is vulnerable to artillery (once landed), and has "significant" fuel and ammunition needs. Fine, but Canadians are in no position to sneer. Our helpless troops are vulnerable to everything in creation â€" even wild dogs, and our Army has no strengths to balances against all of its weaknesses.
Canadians might like to imagine that our supposed expertise at peacekeeping makes our soldiers morally superior to belligerent American troopers. In 1996, members of the 101st were busy keeping the world quiet in the Sinai, Panama, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bosnia. The Screaming Eagles know what the World is like too â€" and they are just as willing to be helpful, generous and accommodating. What’s more, when they deploy, they can expect the backing of their government. This is a luxury that Canadian soldiers have not experienced for a long time.
Currently, the World seems somewhat peaceful... much as it did a century ago. But any soldier who reads history knows how quickly things can change. The Screaming Eagles are ready to confront whatever comes in the future. The Canadian Army, now a shadow of itself, is still mired in the past. If the time comes to learn how to fight again, we may not even remember how.
Hoping for the lavish equipment and budgets that the 101st enjoys may be vain for now. But we can at least focus on the education and spirit that will provide a basis for a modern force to develop when it is needed. The Canadian Army may be poor, but there is no excuse for remaining ignorant and under-educated.
John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism.
This underscores the need for modernization and I believe your new PM will certainly accomplish this task admirably. Again, Congratulations on your new PM.
10 - zingzing
ruvy: "There is this unconscious strain in American thinking that that 4,000,000 square miles north of the 49th parallel should be part of the USA."
eh? where'd you get this? do i really unconsciously think that? naw... yer just bein silly right?
i like canada as it is. i love going up there and drinking with 19-year-old women. i love seeing full nudity at the stripclubs. i love buying pot in a shop.
you'd have to be crazy to want canada as part of the united states. crazy! the best part ABOUT canada is that is IS NOT the united states! der!
"And then there is the fact that for all the similarities the two countries have, you guys insist on being different from them.
How dare you!"
bah. canadians are nothing but americans with hardle nipples and a queen. just a joke.
you're just being silly ruvy. some theory you have. i would have to say that things might have been like that in minnesota... but they certainly aren't around here. the northern u.s. is cold enough. canada for the canadians! they can have it, as long as they let me in now and again.
11 - sapper
Tony? As a Canadian soldier I have to shake my head at your comments. Perhaps you should spend some time with OUR soldiers in Afghanistan and then tell us about how undertrained the CF is. It is unfortunate that due to consistantly poor management by the government much of our equipment leaves something to be desired, but this is nothing new...we have always had to "do more with less". As to the education levels of the officer corps, much of the statistic you cited is based on the fact that you do not have to possess a degree when applying as an officer but you will obtain one prior to a certain deadline. The training (both practical and theoretical) of Canadian officers is a long proccess, so many of the Officer Cadets and Second Lieutenants are still completing their FIRST degrees...it is becoming more common for them to possess more than one.
I am not sure what (if any) military background many commenters have, so I am unsure as to whether or not they have any REAL frame of reference, but I will say that Canada has a long and proud military history and anyone who thinks this is untrue should read a book or two.
As for anti-Americanism, I would tend to agree that there is a tendency in Canada for knee-jerk reactionism when it comes to our neighbours to the south, but it is perhaps no greater than much of the (often) baseless mockery that we recieve from the US. To see it as a symptom for some larger conspiracy or emnity is just stupid.
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...".
We, as nations, rely utterly on each other for the lions share of our economies, and to think that we are islands in a world of growing interconnectedness is short-sighted at best. There will always be issues between us, as there usually are between people who are so closely linked, but tossing juvenile insults back and forth accross the 49th certainly doesn't lend itself to reconciling any of our arguments.
12 - ozlem
who is canadas government?