Gentlemen
The idea is to have a well rounded army that can react in an appropriate manner. Sorry if I am old school & I do not wish to depend on the US for my security. My specialty is small unit tactics, & I am a very big proponent of them.
How ever they will not carry the day if you can not move them when you need them. At some point, is it not conceivable, that even with a decent RDF, that you will have to support them with some heavier backup. The Cold War models are definitly dated & I strongly advise ppl to dump them.
The military of today has to adapt a Helluva lot faster & I stand 100% behind Gen Hillier. At least something is happening.
Although the future is changing, some things linger. Look at the Coalition in Iraq. They have RDF's backed by MBT's, heavy Arty, etc.
Canada has a long history of neglecting the military until the crap hits the fan & then rebuild. Why is it so hard for ppl to expand their thoughts? My idea is to rebuild the CF back to a very capable force. The path we have been on for the last 40 yrs has been slowly pushing us to the point where if we do not recover soon, we will be a token laughing stock.
As for the US protecting us, I strongly urge you to rethink that comment. Lately I have been working close enough to the silos again. It reminded me that we are the sacrificial lambs. Sure the big brother will be there if the going doesn't get too rough. But if it does, the US will form their beachhead @ the border.
With all due respect, if the crap were to hit the fan, I have more trust in our selves for our defense. Sure to some point for the fore seeable future, we have to rely on Big brother, for some of our defense. I think defense of the homeland is a priority. Yes we have to get out of the box & help stem some of the crap thats happening.
If all you want is the gravy fine, but at some time you are going to end up with meat & potatoes. If the politicians want all the kudos, thats fine. But you at some time will end up having to back up the RDF, & you had better be ready for that. I guess it boils down to commitment. Our fearless leaders have a nasty habit of wanting to play with the big boys. It's time to ante up with the toys to do what they ask.
How many of our ppl are cross trained to a level that if they had to operate some one else's eqt, they could do it? If you look at what is happening now, the Western world is fighting guerilla wars using conventional tactics. I do not think we need the old style conventional force, what we do need is a force capable of deploying in weeks not months. It has to be adaptable to the theatre of operation.
Not sending troops into the desert in artic gear. We should not have to negotiate rail, air & ship space with foreign countries.
This means that a light RDF as the priority. But we still have to back that up.
As for large scale terrorism on our soil, it is just a matter of time. Hopefully not in my time, or my kids. The precedent was set on 9/11. As we buy into globilization, we are being tied more closely to our neighbour in the eyes of terrorists. If the radicals want to kick the US hard, they can easily take out power, oil & water pipelines, rail & roads in Canada as an opening salvo. How well do you think civil authority can respond to a well executed series of sabotage? Not taking anything from them, but they are not set up to handle that type of scenario. I personally know dozens of retired RCMP, that never took out their wpn except for the range & odd cleaning throughout their careers.
So in closing, I support an expanded military, with a RDF, RRF capability, but also I want to be able to back that force with a moderate sized heavy capability if it should require back up. There should never be a 1 size fits all approach.
Cheers