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You might be onto something here: Heyyyyyy....how come all these  s***hole foreign countries have great big goosestepping parades with lots of tanks and rockets and stuff, and the Great Leader up on a big shiny reviewing stand, and I don't?  Even those French, even after we beat them in two...

The more I see of that person, the more I wonder if he is actually a "conservative" in the vein of, let's say Churchill, or Mulroney, or Eisenhower, or even  Bushes One and Two.  Or McCain. I get it that "conservative" Americans felt that they had nowhere else to turn in the last race, and...

I want to go on record as having no intentions of starting a police-bashing thread.... ::)

Seen. But I think you see where I was trying to go with that. Just because I want to ask reasonable questions or challenge positions held by a certain group or community, doesn't mean I automatically side with their opponents. For example, if I question corrupt, disgraceful, stupid and brutal...

Yes: they used to call the Indonesian-based enemy  "Mesaurians".

Last year I was part of a team from CASC which delivered a Campaign Planning Course at several international locations, in support of the Directorate of Military Training and Cooperation. One of the places we did the course was at the Colombian Army's Combined Arms Centre in Bogota. I had the...

Good catch. The 1950's produced some very odd military thinking, some of which obviously seeped into the water in Ottawa. Interesting to see that the US services didn't follow McNamara's lead. "A prophet is not without honour save in his own country"

Or stop recalling our exploits in the War of 1812 because that will offend...That Unnamed Country That Didn't Conquer Canada.. :tsktsk: On a similar dismal note, a well-known pub downtown recently renamed itself from "Sir John A's" because that might offend people (there was actually some sort...

I'm a bit torn on this "monument removal" business, but in general I don't agree with it. On the one hand, I understand that no public figure of any significance is painted with one brush, and that people who did great things for our country may also have done negligent or even harmful things...

You and I arrive at the same basic conclusion, but by different routes. Some of the arguments you bring forward have been advanced before as "truths" of the day, but found wanting because human behaviour is not always what we think of as rational or predictable (although it makes perfect sense...

We Canadians should be careful about glass houses. The next time I hear a Cdn GOFO open his (or her) mouth and spew out the latest collections of buzzwords, corporate-speak and catch-phrases, I will poke my eyes out. That said, when I served in a US CJTF HQ in Afgh, I was amazed at the American...

Exactly.

As far as the Defence of Canada goes, I agree 100% that it is primarily the job of the RCF and RCN. If the CA is doing it, it's too late. But, since the actual defence of Canada has really occupied so little of our military history in terms of combat operations, we can't abandon the other...

:goodpost: Both the UK and Canada would do well to remember this. If you read about the Canadian Army in 1939 to 1942 as it built up and prepared to go into major combat operations, the biggest problem was not the courage and skill of the troops, nor the ability of the leaders at unit and...

OK: I'll bite. :D And how many times have  we heard that statement, and how many ill advised force restructure programs or "economies" have been inflicted on (Western) militaries, only to have to be reversed or undone when reality rears Its ugly head. I would offer two examples:. The first of...

Roger all. And when we trained for Croatia in 1994, we went down to USMC Pendleton and Twentynine Palms and trained for combat, live fire, right up to having Marine Air dropping 500lbers in support. Thankfully our mission didn't get us in a fight, but if it had done, our chances of getting...

With you 100% on that. The wargame (which can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be) is such a powerful tool, and sadly so often neglected, or conducted in such a rushed, watered-down form as to be almost useless. IMHO a plan is just a piece of paper until you run a good wargame...

I bitterly resist the school of thought that tries to depict peacekeeping as some kind of military black art requiring that the initiates partake of the grail of "Specialist Peacekeeping Training", or something. IMHO (and after three UN PK Ops in the Good Old Days) this is just rubbish. But, of...

Yes, quite true. My point is that while the AARs and adjustments should be built in to the exercise plan (such as ensuring the time is allocated), we should equally be prepared to have a re-do when something has gone sufficiently wrong that the PTA needs to demonstrate competency. And, sadly...

From what I have understood about both the Schlieffen Plan and the causal factors that led to WWI and Germany's role in it, two things seem to come out. First, as noted above, Schliefffen already had doubts about whether it would really work, before he died. As the General Staff tinkered with...