Guest Column

A Canadian military with teeth

As terrorists become more and more daring, vile and vicious, we would be wise to shed our complacency and put ourselves on alert before they strike here. The comment by councillor  Howard Moscoe that terrorists would have to find out where Toronto is before they could attack us is the height of stupidity. Al-Qaeda has already published its hit-list of "infidel", read Christian, countries, and Canada is 5th on the list. The top four have now been hit so for Christ's sake let us wake up to the danger all around us before it's too late. 

We should start with turning our military into a world class fighting force. Ever since the "Evil Empire" disintegrated, signaling the end of the Cold War, we have disgracefully neglected Canada's Armed Forces.  Then came the recent SNAFU by the U.S. Air Force, in Afghanistan, in which their "Friendly Fire" killed and wounded Canadian troops who were helping them to hunt down Al Qaeda terrorists. 

This tragic event turned the media spotlight on our weakened military, but it didn't take long before the light was turned off again.  Every poll shows that after health-care, our wish list ranges from education to infrastructure to the homeless, with little or no interest in the military.  This is a shame, because our armed forces have a proud tradition in war and, since the 1957 Suez crisis when the late Lester B. Pearson initiated it, U.N. peacekeeping in some of the most dangerous places in the world. 

Incidentally, it's never reported that Pearson also said that a U.N. peace- keeping force should also have enough muscle to impose peace. That piece of advice is conveniently overlooked by our anti-military peaceniks. To get the kind of military that's needed for the coming battles, we should forget about setting up the usual Canadian committee to study the subject, and instead order our top military commanders to come up with a plan for the complete restructuring of our land, sea and air forces. 

After some of the federal surplus is put away for the inevitable rainy day, and some of it is used to reduce the national debt, a big chunk of what's left should be earmarked for the military.  And we must make sure that the money isn't wasted on crap like leaky, diesel powered second-hand submarines.  Here are a few un-solicited suggestions for a modern military that the feds might like to consider: 

The Navy would consist of the following:  Cutters to police our coastal and large inland waterways. Helicopter units for search and rescue operations at sea.  Light missile cruisers for actions such as the recent Gulf War, and Ice breakers to show the flag in our Arctic waters.  The navy would also absorb the Coast Guard. 

The Air Force would consist of a state of the art missile wing and helicopter-gun-ships.  

The Army would be comprised of three distinct divisions. The First Division would be deployed for home service, i e, to assist the civil authorities in any emergency, including the use of its medical personnel in the wake of a terrorist attack, and to train the Militia.  The Second Division would be specially trained for international peacekeeping operations.  The Third Division would form, along with crack air force and naval units, a rapid deployment strike-force, which would be used for conventional combat anywhere in the world.

With all the useless weaponry, such as tanks, artillery and diesel submarines, discarded, we could expand the military to one hundred thousand personnel. In order to alleviate the chronic unemployment problem in the Maritimes, Ottawa should install as many land, sea and air bases as is feasible in these provinces.  

Finally, if we really want to play with the big boys, we'll have to get bigger toys; so I suggest that we buy two nuclear-powered submarines armed with ICBMs from the U.S.