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My UN time was mostly in Lebanon, but I did a quick exchange on the Golan and our mission had a Golan aspect. The Civil War was raging (2014/15) so we tracked the situation very closely. You don't need to be a military genius to see why Israel took the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. It...

Israel has continued to occupy part of Mount Hermon since the 1973 War. I doubt they will leave the “A Line” portion. What remains to be seen is if they continue to occupy what they took this weekend (the B Line portion).

The Assad regime was drawn from the Alawite religion who constitute just over 10% of the population. Alawites are considered Shia, but I thnk its a little more complicated. The Assad regime ruled with an iron fist for decades. The population odds were tremendously stacked against them once the...

Our language can be quite confusing when we use abbreviations and numbers to represent something! DP in this case refers to Developmental Period (DP). DP1 is all the Individual Training (IT) required for somebody to be qualified to perform their role at the entry level in their first unit. For...

A couple of posts above you mention that senior leadership are handwaving away problems. Are you handwaving funding now? Is vision without adequate resources just fantasizing? I would rather see our BGs and Bdes with mortars (manned) and SP artillery before we get into the rocket business...

I am not understanding this. You don't think we have combined arms groupings in collective training and on operations? What is the complication you are referring to? Maybe you are defining some of these terms in different ways than I am used to? What do you mean by Cavalry? And regarding the...

CTV News is carrying the story.

I am not an economist, but I have read that the bulk of Canadian oil that is imported by the US in used in the MidWest for their domestic consumption there. The oil imports do not go into a central oil tank from which exports are emailed around the world. US oil reserves are primarily in the...

Most of our oil exports are from Alberta to the US mid-west. Where they don't have oil. The pipeline infrastructure exists and it makes economic sense for all parties. Our Atlantic provinces import oil because it makes more sense that shipping it from Alberta. Could long-term 25% tariffs change...

I avoid politics threads as a rule, but here I am. Its also pointless to discuss, but here I am. Its been over 30 years since my Economics and Political Science classes, but tariffs were generally seen as a bad idea. Some 2nd World countries (South America) tried tariffs as part of ISI (Import...

If these tariffs are about Fentanyl smuggling across the border, then the following numbers are a useful frame: a. 2024 US FY CBP seizures of Fentanyl from Canada - 43 pounds b. 2024 US FY CBP seizures of Fentanyl from Mexico - 21,000 pounds So either the Canadian Fentanyl smugglers are...

If I am reading the article correctly, this tariff is punishment for our having a border that allows a flow of drugs and illegal migrants into the US. Reasoning will probably not work here, so maybe some token concessions to allow all to save face?

Troops look good!

Leading the Multi-National eFP Latvia Brigade. SSE also talks about operating at CMBG level.

Its been a couple of years since I was in 6 CCSB HQ. The brigade's units were indeed intended as a house for enablers of a high-readiness CMBG, with some exceptions. The brigade was always going through all three cycles of the MRP, preparing and detaching out elements for the high readiness CMBG...

If you re looking at consumer prices then you have to think about all the components, including transportation and domestic taxes. I think that at least 20% of that UK price comes from a direct consumption tax. Its fine to say you would "buy" the gas at .50 cents, but you can't just e-transfer...

The Division has certainly returned to being the "unit of action" with the return to large scale combat operations, but having a whole Div in the field with an OPFOR would be very expensive and very constrained. I did see the benefit on TRIDENT JUNCTURE of having seven Brigades deploy into an...

I am not aware of much in the way Divisional Field Training Exercises (FTX) in NATO. We had seven Brigades in the field on TRIDENT JUNCTURE, but the fighting was scripted at the higher level and the emphasis was really on logistics. The vast majority of Divisional and higher level exercises are...

88% of our energy exports go to the US. You don't shift a number that big by rolling up your sleeves and trying harder. Tariffs on that scale would hurt everyone and would not last very long.

Its a fun little The Sun-never-sets-on-the-British-Empire map you have there, but we should look at some facts. Since Confederation our greatest trading partner has been the United States. Canadian trade and transportation links have always been more North-South than they have been East-West...