Leadership is paramount. I read somewhere that one of the American SecDefs (can‘t remember which, maybe Powell circa DS era) had the idea that he wanted to walk through the Pentagon and ask every single person employed there to answer two questions: Who do you work for, and what is your job/responsibilty/function? Anyone who couldn‘t answer those questions in less than two sentences, without breaking out the flowcharts, graphs, and PowerPoint mission statements, got the pinkslip. It never happened, but d@mn, what a brilliant and audacious strategy. I think if the MND and CLS really wanted to cut the waste, they would take that strategy and apply it to NDHQ, Area HQs, and brigade HQs. It will never happen, but I can dream.
Mind you, I firmly believe merging the miltary and civilian sides of the defence equation with NDHQ‘s formation was what really lead to the breeding of the beauracratic monster child that keeps us twisted in useless knots. Cival servant mentality and perks dangled too close to senior officers was a bad idea then, and still is now. The Echelons Above God now look far more late Roman than they do Spartan. Looking after the troops and taking a stand on the disarmament and betrayal of Canada‘s military became a distant second to staying close to NDHQ and playing with the influential and being an "important person". Much like the Romans found the hard way, trading discipline for decadence and turning proud service for citizens into paid work for mercenaries (the rest of the Anglo Alliance) is the surest road to being replaced by the next new thing.
"I wouldn‘t say we are one of the "highest" military spenders of the world - we aren‘t even near the top 10. Also, having a reasonable budget doesn‘t mean the government put it in the right places where it‘s needed." Est 2003 we‘re about 12-14th thats pretty close to Top 10 providing theres alot of countries out there
