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Oddly enough, I just contacted my MP with my own recruiting/Component Transfer problems. No idea how it might turn out, but it could not go any slower, so I see no harm in my particular case. The recruiting system - all of it - is monumentally bad. Recruiting, processing, component transfer...

Interesting debate - and well worth resurrecting the thread. True, German factories were operating at high effiency in 1945 (as an aside, one theory/anecdote I've read is that effiency increased as bombing disrupted ties to central HQs, allowing individual factories to get on with business and...

"UN Sponsored" and "Internationally approved" are two malleable and ambiguous terms. The invasion of Kosovo was neither - what does this mean for Canada? I'm pretty sure in 1983 the USSR could have drummed up a long list of nations that support what they were doing in Afghanistan - Bulgaria...

Equating the political actions is not the same as equating the ways and means - the politics may be the same, but the morals are not. I don't believe Infanteer is suggesting the US/NATO mission in Afghanistan is morally the same as the Soviet occupation, but the grand political scheme is...

True, to a degree - the modern era has created a spectrum of causes, responses, and levels of force that are appropriate. We still have the "Kill Everything" card in the back pocket, and are more than willing to use it when necessary - Total War. But, thankfully, those moments are rare...

I believe that's called genocide, and is generally what we fight against. I recall the Germans trying it a few decades back... Mixed results. I'm not entirely sure that killing all Iraqis to save them from Saddam or Islamists quite makes sense. Also, the threshold of pain for societies is also a...

Perhaps the military should re-think the policy of forcing all officers to learn Quebecois French, and offer other languages? However, beyond teaching a few mjaor languages - Spanish, Arabic, French - I fail to see how the CF could be expected to prepare for possible missions. Too many...

I'd agree with a Army presence in BC... but not at an air force base on an island. Chilliwack seems like an obvious choice. Rectifying DND's fascination with incredibly horrible real estate (Wainwright, Shilo...) would be a positive step for training and retention. Territorial defence units...

Exactly, Infanteer. China/Cuba/North Korea/Luxembourg lands in the high North. Give them a week, and then go pick up the bodies. War cannot be waged at those latitudes, the conditions are simply too severe. No one tries to maneuvre serious forces that far North - if nothing else, there's...

I still haven't seen any proof it's possible to monitor the entire Far North in a meaningful way. The US can't control all of its borders, and the USSR was never able to control it's entire Far North and coastline. Too much land and water. The more I see Conservative defence plans, the more it...

Is it even possible to cover the entire Arctic region? Is it feasible to attempt to monitor all Canadian borders, perimeter, and coast? The US spent 40 years driving subs around Soviet waters, and rarely (if ever) got caught... I'm not sure how we're supposed to do a better job at...

Newfoundland Regiment was part of the British Army when it was wiped out in WW1, as Newfoundland was part of the Empire, not Canada. I'd also suggest that some excellent British officers did some very good work building up and directing the Canadian Corps in WW1, and that the lack of trained...

The following is hardly exhaustive (I just got tired of copying and pasting from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/5902.htm) but I think Palestinian terrorism has gone international a few times... Attack on the Munich Airport, February 10, 1970: Three terrorists attacked El Al passengers in...

If we did that, Israel would have owned Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in 1956. It was outside intervention that saved those countries in every war - it was US, Russian, and UN pressure that kept Israel from occupying Cairo and Damascus. Only recently has Israel been a large recipient of foreign...

Are you trying to organize an exchange?

Cal High's wouldn't be 11th Battalion. They would be B Coy, 4th Battalion, PPCLI - Eddies could be A Coy. Or, even better, Cal High's could be D Coy 1VP, and Eddies D Coy 3VP. We've bashed this horse before though. Tomahawk6 - is it really a matter of making "super regiments"? I understood...

Oops. That'll teach me not to Search first. Sorry Mods!  :-[ I wonder what his old troops are saying now...

Really? I expected that unhappy title to belong to the Infantry, or Bomber crews. (or the poor bastards in the U-Boats....) I agree that the MN got a raw deal after the war.

I wouldn't hold my breath - its been 40 years and they haven't done that for Vietnam yet.

Why? Doesn't the Aussie Army have sufficient airborne forces already? 4RAR, 1CDO, and SASR. Why a third light infantry airborne formation? Given how often combat jumps are done by the Aussies (any in recent history?) and by Western forces (few, but some very notable ones) it seems like...