We should create a special topic to correct media errors, in hopes it might catch on, and even journalists might look at it.
Here is my candidate for today:
It is just a remark at the end of an article on another subject, but one C17 arrives and the $20 Billion rebuilding of the Canadian Forces is declared complete. We haven't signed contracts for most of the stuff announced last summer, and there will probably be an election or two before we sign contracts for the stuff announced this summer.
Here is my candidate for today:
NATO officers to wrestle with resource issues
Mike Blanchfield
CanWest News Service
Saturday, September 01, 2007
OTTAWA -- When NATO's top generals hold a major meeting in Canada next week, they will be discussing a major issue that is familiar in this country: how to meet infinite demands for military might when troops and their equipment are finite.
A senior NATO official in Brussels said yesterday that long-term planning issues will be top of the agenda when Canada hosts its 25 alliance partners for three days of intensive talks in Victoria and Ottawa next week.
NATO's credibility is at stake in Afghanistan, and although that mission faces significant challenges with the growing Taliban insurgency, the alliance's military planners realize they can't expect member countries to contribute significantly more troops and resources. NATO has increased the number of troops in Afghanistan eightfold in recent years to 40,000, the senior military official noted.
With 16,000 additional NATO troops committed to Kosovo, alliance planners recognize the importance of finishing the job there as that one-time Yugoslav province moves closer to full sovereignty.
The discussion by the generals will look at ways of better allocating existing resources as the realization sinks in that defence spending in member countries is unlikely to increase significantly any time in the near future.
The discussion will mirror the one faced by Canada's own military over the past decade as the Defence Department coped with shrinking or stagnant budgets.
Although Canada recently invested close to $20 billion in new military hardware -- including new transport planes -- that upgrade is now essentially complete.
The generals arrive in Ottawa on Thursday and move on to Victoria for two days of talks starting Friday.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
It is just a remark at the end of an article on another subject, but one C17 arrives and the $20 Billion rebuilding of the Canadian Forces is declared complete. We haven't signed contracts for most of the stuff announced last summer, and there will probably be an election or two before we sign contracts for the stuff announced this summer.