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My Grandfather, all of his brothers, and three of his sisters enlisted in WWII.  By the end of that conflict, Canada had a huge mass of conscript soldiers who were totally undeployable, some of whom were even mutinous.  There were conscripts who fought hard, won honours, or fell where they...

You want numbers in the CF?  Scr#w conscription, try incentives.  Offer up a years paid tuition for every two years service (with honourable discharge) at eligible trade schools, colleges and universities and you will get people who are willing to work hard to build a future.  Do you want the...

To bring this discussion back on topic, mandatory sentences for other than first offences do work, and are a good idea.  Poverty, addiction, and abuse are not licences to committ crimes, nor should be factors in sentencing in other than first offences.  To say that these factors excuse criminal...

Looking for sense from the personnel policies of  NDHQ is like looking for integrity in Cabinet.  I suppose its remotely possible, but quite unlikely.  The information that NDHQ collects and archives it seems completely unwilling to access and evaluate to meet its own needs.  If you are asking...

If you can find 50% of the Canadian public that can identify a Canadian uniform, name a weapon system in current use with the CF (or more recent than WWII), name any mission the CF has done in the last ten years except Somalia or Afghanistan then I would probably die of shock.  To expect a...

    Pike, I truly hate to break this to you, but many of the people living and dying on our streets are doing so because of their choices.  There are some street people who are not on drugs, but they are the minority.  The majority are drug users who choose to live on the streets as...

The most important thing General Hiller said, was his intention to buy "off the shelf".  Why do we have to wait years to receive an outdated product that will only be used by us, cannot be supplied by our allies logistical chain, and end up costing more to produce as Canadian specific, than any...

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA170012004 http://seclists.org/lists/politech/2002/Dec/0059.html     Britney, I should have included these links in the original message.  When I said that internet searches could result in your summary imprisonment and possible death, I was actually...

    2.5 Million men under arms, 15% yearly increases in their military budget without any external threat to justify the increase, an arms race not against an external rival, but against some perceived need for unopposable military superiority.  You can Google to search out China's military...

    You could always go to Tibet and ask them what he means.  Or you could enquire of the rust coloured smear in Tienanmen Square.  You could perhaps wander to the shores of Tiawan where the watch nervously as their neighbor eyes them with unconcealed avarice and ramps up both its rhetoric and...

      What values make a real Canadian?  Tolerance for the religion and culture and neighbor, and the corollary expectation that your own will be respected by them.  Expectation that all people will be treated the same regardless of race, creed, colour or orientation at their conduct and...

After WWI we went home, and left Germany a failed state, in economic and social collapse.  Accordingly, we went back in WWII and left a second generation of Canadian dead atop the same fields.  Choosing to avoid the cost in blood and treasure of rebuilding your fallen foes is the quickest way to...

    This is the necessary balance.  Judges can have their crack at alternate sentencing, rehabillitation, and possible mitigating circumstances leading to an initial encounter with the law.  If a person choses to come back for a second round, then minimum sentences to protect the public from...

There was a series of articles in the Vancouver Province over the last year, one was about our top drug dealers, and another about our car thieves.  Now these articles were in response to a waive of drug related killings and home invasions (often of the wrong home), and deaths as the result of...

Take a good look at who is picking up the pieces in Africa, now that the cold war no longer has NATO/Warsaw pact arming training and supporting the regimes of Africa, China has started to play a large role.  Africa has the resources, and represents the potential market that China needs. India...

Best wishes to the wounded!  To all of those who are looking for a failure here, taking casualties against determined attackers who are willing to accept casualties, and willing to endager any number of innocent civilian bystanders to get a shot at one of ours, is inevitable.  We could shoot the...

We sent troops to Afghanistan because it was the source of an attack against the people of North America, and we take seriously our responsibility as an ally.  We took part in the overthrow and removal of a terrorist sponsoring regime, and are now committed to cleanup and rebuilding efforts.  We...

The problem with fighting extremist organizations in Canada has everything to do with the political process in Canada.  Half of the groups that CSIS wants to put on the list of supporters of international terrorism cannot be so listed because their lobby groups have bought dozens of seats for...

As I read the reports of our troops in sunny Afghanistan, I keep running our ambush drills through my head, and asking myself which weapons would yield what result.  There is no question that a .50 HMG lays down a heck of a beaten fire zone, and will turn walls and masonry into shrapnel with no...

What effect does having women in the ranks have on fighting soldiers?  Honestly, it helps.  I remember during an infantry ex back in basic in '88, we had three women with us, one was your classic cheerleader type, and there was a lot of lip from one of the he-man athlete types about if they were...