Canuck army has no teeth
When Prime Minister Jean Chretien meets U.S.
President George W. Bush today in Washington, he's going to get a more lavish
reception than he would, had not Canada been omitted from the president's speech
to Congress.
Whether the omission was by accident or design is academic
-- it illustrated our PM's flaccid response to the terrorist attack on America
and, by implication, on civilized people everywhere.
Chretien has said
appropriate words, "we stand shoulder to shoulder", but resisted following up
with anything substantial. Canadians, on the other hand, have mostly shown their
colours and stand tall, making our PM seem akin to Neville Chamberlain.
However politics now take over at the Washington meeting of George and
Jean. Bush will fuss over Chretien, smooth ruffled feathers, and we'll go on
from there.
But the fact remains that in Bush's well-crafted speech
mobilizing the free world against terrorism, citing those who stand with America
-- over a dozen countries mentioned and all regions of the world -- Canada was
left out. Deservedly.
A COMPASS poll shows 81% of Canadians
want our military involved in any coalition action against terrorism.
Sorry, that won't happen, because it can't happen.
In the past,
Chretien has pledged more military involvement in crises than we have troops
available.
This time he's pledged nothing. Nor has he said we will
tighten internal or border security. Nor anything about curbing tax deductions
for donations to groups with links to terrorists -- hence the observation that
we are the democratic Taliban of North America, providing a haven for suspect
terrorists.
As for military participation in any anti-terrorist
alliance, the sorry reality remains that Canada will not commit fighting troops
for the simple reason that we can't.
Our army is comprised of three
infantry regiments of three battalions each, three armoured regiments and
artillery. Every unit is under-strength without the equipment, weapons or
training to fight.
The Canadian army hasn't had a brigade exercise in a
decade. We are a piecemeal army, geared only for conventional warfare -- in
theory.
Rooting out terrorists and their training camps involves
unconventional warfare -- the sort that defeated conventional armies in Angola,
Eritrea, Afghanistan.
Yet, Canada never sent a military observer to
these conflicts to study how and why they succeeded.
Even the American
army is no great shakes at unconventional warfare, despite their Delta Force,
Rangers, and Green Berets. U.S. attempts in Somalia to capture warlord Mohammed
Aidid were a fiasco, especially when journalists had little trouble interviewing
him.
The best soldiers in the world for special operations are the Brits
-- SAS, Royal Marines, Commandos. For decades, Britain has waged unpublicized,
quick, decisive, effective actions wherever needed. Even now, the SAS are said
to be inside Afghanistan.
Canada supposedly has elite anti-terrorist
troops -- Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) that consist of maybe 250 fit and trained
soldiers. But they've never done much, except guard bigshots.
Even our
CF-18 aircraft aren't updated for today's warfare. Chretien vetoed getting new
helicopters eight years ago. His understanding of our army seems limited to
wearing a helmet backwards -- as he did in the Balkans.
Anyway, gone are
the days when Canadian soldiers served in the front lines in freedom's wars --
not their fault, but the government's.
And it's now too late to change.
Letters to the editor should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED].
THE END
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