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If that's what you choose to believe.  I don't pretend to be a legal expert when it comes to understanding in detail the decisions of the Supreme Court such as Sparrow, Delgamuukw and so on, but I do use them in my day job for broad guidance on how to deal with aboriginal peoples and their...

I think it just appeared without any specific doctrinal underpinning.  Frankly, "peacemaking" has Orwellian undertones to it...lots of things could be labelled "peacemaking" that involve not very peaceful people doing not very peaceful things. I'd rather that "peacekeeping" just got accepted as...

There are some very good reasons not to do this.  There will be enormous push-back from some potentially very influential stakeholders (Honouraries, Senates, Old Boys/Veterans Associations, etc.)  Also, if you actually eliminate a unit HQ, it's gone.  It's generally considered easier and better...

Part 2 (that is, Section 35) of the Constitution deals with the rights of aboriginal peoples in Canada.  In particular, subsection 1 says: The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions have...

Indeed.  We "enjoyed" our peace dividend as well.  However, it wasn't, as it turned out, much of a bargain.

But...what about our peace dividend?  You know, all that money and stuff that was supposed to suddenly be freed up at the end of the Cold War, when there was a "new world order" and "a thousand points of light" and all that jazz?  I thought when the Cold War ended, everything would be better...

Not only that, it's a waste of potential combat power.  In an era of "unrestricted warfare" or "asymmetric warfare" or whatever you wish to call it, we need to, as much as possible, divest ourselves of the "inside the wire" mentality.  Our army is too small to accommodate it.  It's as bad as the...

I was actually reasonably with you, right up to your final paragraph.  Unfortunately, you undermine your position by essentially equating all of Islam with those promoting and causing the suicide attacks in Afghanistan (where they really are an import) and the Middle East.  We are not "at war"...

Understood--and I fully agree with your last point.  Like any group in society, there are aboriginal people are good to the point of being saintly, there are those who are truly horrible human beings, and then there is the vast majority--generally decent people who want reasonably healthy, happy...

Perhaps.  But "perhaps" offers insufficient justification for proceeding with any sort of extreme action.  I certainly don't pretend to understand the legal intricacies in this case; my background is dealing with the northern Ontario Treaty Groups (Treaties 9/5, Treaty 3, Robinson-Superior and...

Indeed.  It's "maneuver warfare"...attacking your opponent (i.e. us) where he is most vulnerable, rather than attacking his strength.  Really no different than various other terror tactics employed through history, intended to erode the will to fight.

How about: d) Continue talking and work towards a peaceful resolution of the situation while containing it from a law enforcement point of view Oka involved heavily armed insurgents subverting the law through organized violence.  Caledonia is a long way from that, a few violent incidents...

A few have mentioned the fact that there ARE, in fact, opponents to the Canadian operations in Afghanistan who are thoughtful people with legitimate moral, ethical and/or practical objections.  It's really important that that fact not get lost in the general tendency to--quite rightly--deride...

Red5, you're right...at this point, it would be horribly irresponsible of us to focus our training on a generic, "what if?" enemy/security environment.  Our clear aim has to be training our soldiers to engage in our main effort which, I'm sure few would disagree, is Afghanistan.  My point...

There's a reason ships took to convoying during WW2, as did bombers (a formation of B-17s really being a "convoy" of bombers heading for a specific target/destination).  Mutual protection is a good thing; having all of your charges together also makes it easier for the escorts (be they...

By no means am I suggesting that we don't absorb the lessons from Afghanistan and incorporate them into our current training.  My point, which is fairly general, is that we don't get fixated on redesigning ourselves to fight that particular war.  However, within our current training environment...

Peacekeeping, in the "Pearsonian" sense, is an activity generally involved in interposing forces in a primarily observatory role between former belligerents.  The model that usually comes to mind is Cyprus, although Pearson won his Nobel Peace Prize, as I recall, primarily on the basis of the UN...

There has been some fantastic discussion, from the likes of experienced soldiers like boondocksaint, that highlight some lessons learned and applied in Afghanistan (incidentally, boondocksaint, I presume that you and your buds who have been in the Afghan dogfights are getting these lessons...

Well, Legless Marine didn't last long.  Unfortunate, too, because he actually came across as quite articulate, and reasonably intelligent.  Even more unfortunate is that he couldn't see the most fundamental flaw in his own arguments--that NATO is, somehow, interesting in "occupying" Afghanistan...

I'd also be interested to know if the usual mixture of messages shows up.  This is another interesting aspect of these rallies that, again, tends to undermine their cause-du-jour; what starts as a peace rally at the front of the parade soons gives way to more and more unrelated messages--gay...