Money from Social Programs for the military

[Armymedic]

I just came off the Global news website where there was a poll asking if we should take money from social programs to help fund the military. Surprising to me after I answered negatively to the poll, the response "yes we should" was at 63%or so.

I was slightly shocked.
While I do agree we as an army, as a military need better equipment, more soldiers, less deployments, etc, etc....I would rather have an older model rifle in my hand over seas in some hole, knowing that my children are being well educated and the health of my family is being well taken care of. We as a country have for the most part have important priorities right, more money spent on taking care of families and children then for the military. Our countries problem isn‘t that its not still a great place to live, but there is a gov‘t regime on the way out, thats padding its exsistence, and knows there are elections coming up which are vital for it to stay in power. The military to them is just a tool for them to look good. Leadership is not only the ability to direct and control in a crisis, but good leadership is also the ability to forsee and formulate plans against crisis (of all types, not just terror or natural disasters). We as a Canadian people understand that we are the best place on the world to live because we understand that all people should be equal, educated and taken care of if we are too poor or too sick to take care of ourselves....Thats what makes us Canadian.

Thats why after 15 yrs of putting up with this crap, I still do it and am a proud Canadian.

 

[nULL]

CanWest Global owns the Global website (www.canada.com) and the National Post. It‘s Canada‘s right-wing news source. Watch CTV, or read the globe and mail to see what everyone else is thinking.

 

[rolandstrong]

I think there is capital floating around in government "social programming" to allot to military endeavours. Remember that there is a good deal of wasted capital (can you say "gun registration"). But this is always the case. The social programs that mean the most to canadians (medicare and education) will not be threatened. The voting public would never have it. The reference is to other social spending. Sounds to me like the poll is just to induce controversy.

 

[Armymedic]

I checked the poll again today,

and glad to see that it was now 60% no....
so alls good in the world.

Maybe the PC, or Alliance (hevean-forbid, the NDP) might make a difference if people from Ontario can get thier head out of thier butt the next fedral election....

 

[Danjanou]

Hey Army Medic, I agree our social programs are important, but trust me the ammount of, empire building, waste, duplication of efforts, nepotism, political expediency, and just plain incompetance, and mismanangent in them at all three levels (municipal, provincial, federal) makes the CF and DND look like rank amatuers
(hey I work in the field and see it everyday).

In a real world the surplus funds, which do exist, could easily be diverted to DND and actually be used for what it‘s needed for as opposed to say redecorating a deputy minister‘s office, or stress relieving bongo retreats.

What will probably happen if the money was redirected though (which I doubt) will be that it is taken from frontline social services and health care leaving the beaurocratic fiefdoms intact, and tossed into DND general revenues where it will be squandered.

But hey at least it will give us something to discuss about here.

here endeth the rant.

 

[Redneck052]

The program last night was called "Foreign Fields" on Global. I must say that it was really well done. However, as it was mentioned above, Global is supported by the Rightwing.

Regardless of the political associations or allignments the program stated that 60% supported more spending to the Military. That is 60% of Canadians saying "enough is enough, give the Military more money".

Should social programs have cutbacks the Military has experienced. No, however, the money needs to come from somewhere. Should certain programs have funding freezes for a short period? Perhaps.

The same program stated that the majority supported the CF as Peacekeepers and would support Non-UN operations. Internationally we are reknowned as Peacekeepers, with our soldiers on the ground.

The question should be asked, should be proposed, if a country sends its soldiers to country ‘X‘, should the same country send funds aswell. Why is it a sign of goodwill to send both funds and troops.

Just some thoughts.

 

[nULL]

Good points. I think however that as a whole Canadians need and deserve adequate social systems. All this call from the right to privatize things such as healthcare are really just counter productive - it frightens people into not wanting to change ANYTHING. Somehow, the line between effecting greater efficiency and radical change got blurred. Don‘t think that a change of government will fix anything either - both the right and left have bungled things horribly.

 

[nex]

They do need to do something for funding with the armed forces. It‘s kinda a strange choice, social programs (something Canada is world famous for) and our military but I guess if you want to choose something that‘ll get an extreme reaction for a media piece that‘ll do nicely. In reality Ottawa would never cut a social program for the Armed forces but they would find the money out of the slush or surpluses they‘ve been building up.
I think most people agree that Peacekeeping has always been one of our strong points and we‘ve built up a lot of goodwill regarding it from the past. However goodwill does not last forever and people are beginning to realize that.

I wish I had seen the piece though.