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Has anyone ever really listened to the opinions of liberals on the Canadian military?

"Canadians don't need a military," they say.

Well, we sure needed one in 1899 and 1914 and 1939 and 1950. Heck, we even needed one in 1991 and 1999. Doctors and diplomats make for poor peacekeepers, and sending wads of cash and a lot of love to the world's hotspots hasn't exactly proven a successful method in the past. But Rudyard Kipling said it best when he wrote:

<I>For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!</I>

"Canada is not in danger of invasion," they say.

The Russians, Spanish and American fishing fleets would love to find our coasts undefended. So would Chinese snakeheads.

"We need the money for social programs," they say.

Taking the pittance currently spent on national defense would hardly make a difference in the money vacuum of health care and welfare. Perhaps the money currently spent on the navy might pay EI for ALL maritime fishermen once they are put out of work by foreign overfishing, or perhaps the money currently spent on the army would make a great aid package to clean up after the next big African war. But then, old fashioned conservatives like me would take an ounce of prevention over a pound of cure.

"Let the private sector fund the military," they say.

Oh yes, we've had brilliant success with that in the past. Remember the GTS Katie? Canada's cache of military equipment held hostage by a handful of disgruntled Russians? It boggles the mind to think that the left would ever dream of privatizing national defense, but recoils in horror at the slightest indication of for-profit involvement in health care.

"Babies before bullets," they say.

Tell that to the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda. Tell that to the Kosovars and Serbs. Tell that to the countless children saved by Canadian peacekeepers and anti-mine specialists.

All these things the leftists say to the military, all these barbs and arrows and calls for their disbandment. And yet, it escapes them to say the one thing that any self-respecting, patriotic Canuck should say to the men and women who make up our Thin Red Line:

"Thank you".

--ProPatria--
[email protected]

"Be a scribe, so that you may be saved from being a soldier,"
-Anonymous Egyptian Scribe

Besides, how do we know that a war would bolster public opinion of us needing a properly funded military. What if it tuned out like Vietnam and only re-enforced those who want to get rid of us entirely. And any war with significant Canadian casulties would probably not have a large support among the populace. If Natzi Germany were to arise today I think there would be many Canadians who would believe that we should keep out of other countries buisness.

It make's me sick though how we don't train properly. We need to train more for war to be more prepared for peace. The peacekeeping crap is all fine and good but generally we get to much of a serving from the higher's political agenga and CYA. I would like people to know us as soldiers who SOLDIER, not tiptoe around as not to offend anyone.

AIRBORNE!

I suggest the author touches upon a theme very close to this thread (and, the colour illustrations are gorgeous):

Title: "Hey, I said c'mon!"

The Canadian Forces needs thousands of new recruits to survive. Too bad the great causes (and great posters) of the past seem to be gone forever

James Cudmore
National Post

Any day now, the Canadian Forces will unveil its latest recruiting campaign in a bid to flesh out the ranks in the face of skyrocketing attrition and plummeting morale.

The problem, apparently, is a diminished desire among Canada's spiky-haired youth to heed the call to service. Indeed, the Canadian Forces' insufficient ability to attract and retain new recruits has already begun to have an effect on operations.

In December, the perennially cash-strapped Canadian navy announced it was forced to take the proud ship HMCS Huron off sea duty due to a pressing lack of sailors to crew her.

At the time, Lieutenant-Commander Chris Henderson, a navy spokesman, said the move was the result of lacklustre recruiting efforts that have left the Pacific fleet with 267 fewer sailors than it requires.

"It's something we have to do," he said. "We don't have enough people to sail the other ships in our fleet and you end up moving people from ship to ship just to keep the fleet going."

The problem is not limited to the navy: Last year, the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry lost 90 of its 650 soldiers to attrition. Lieutenant-Colonel Marv Makulowich, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, said he is expecting that number to swell to as many as 200 soldiers in the coming year.

In an effort to stave off these defections, the Canadian Forces over the last two years has launched a series of initiatives designed to improve the quality of life for our overworked, underpaid troops and staunch the outward flow of its highly trained soldiers.

It's a far cry from the old days, when Canadians took the Queen's shilling without a second thought to quality of life -- choosing to serve the nation come what may.

During the Second World War, Canada had more than a million men under arms, and that number was even greater during the First. Today, we have fewer than 60,000.

Obviously, recruits are more likely to sign up when there's a well-defined bogeyman (Hitler, Communism) threatening us good guys. The trick is to attract recruits now, in 2001. And so it was with fanfare that the Canadian Forces announced a campaign this year to recruit as many as 7,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen -- a program the Forces admits is critical to its survival.

But in the age of sporting gear advertisements that shout "No fear" and "Just do it," it's hard to believe that such slogans as "Working together to build our team" or "Diversity: Your pride, your future, your move" will prove to be the rallying cry our youth will heed.

Gone, it seems, from the recruiting sergeant's vocabulary are the military action words that at turns enticed and shamed two generations of young men to risk their lives on the killing fields of Fortress Europe. Gone, too, are the striking images that fired a nation to rally 'round its flag and offer her sons in its defence.

The historical Canadian recruiting posters shown here stand in stark contrast to the modern crop of recruitment ads. In a current poster (see the bottom right corner of the opposite page), two officers peer through binoculars from the bridge of their ship as an empty sea stretches out behind them. The poster claims there is "Adventure, challenge, career ... as an officer." Another officer is depicted climbing into the cockpit of his CF-18 Hornet jet fighter, as another peers squint-eyed through a sextant.

They are military images, as the streaking, artistically rendered war planes atop the poster attest, but they have nothing on the recruiting posters of wars gone by.

The most striking image on this page -- the one that most caught my eye -- is that of a Second World War soldier rearing on his motor bike as he races up a hill. He is headed, we know, into battle, racing two others on their mechanized steeds to be the first to the punch.

Soldier of Fortune