Canadian Influence

[Army_brat99]

One of Paul Martin's most prominent, loudly-made points during the election campaign was that he wanted to "renew Canada's position as a world leader" in several respective fields, one would assume also militarily. 


I believe Canada could make small, yet incredibly useful deployments of military forces throughout the world, even now as we're entering into a gradual slow-down of operational tempo, which would not only make a huge difference physically and literally, but would also command the respect of the rest of the world, and perhaps encourage them to follow suite.

For example, the de-mining of Laos.  Laos is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, with hundreds of millions of tonnes of UEO dropped during the Vietnam war.  Although not officially involved in the war, Laos still had more bombs dropped on it than Iraq did in GW1 and GW2 combined.  (Think of how long the Vietnam war lasted to give you an idea, combined with the lack of precision guided munitions like we have now.)
  If middle powers like Canada contributed perhaps a company or two worth of engineers, and a few platoons of infantry for security - Canada could make a huge, positive difference in the lives of many people in Laos, while encouraging other middle powers to do the same.  A modest deployment in terms of both money and troops could still yield huge results, and command the respect of many other nations to perhaps look at doing the same in other countries. 

Another example would be B-H.  Although we are pulling out the last of our 650 troops there by December, a company or two worth of engineers and a repsective number of infantry for security could still vastly improve the domestic security situation in that country, even without the full range of activities a battlegroup would conduct.

I can think of other examples too, but I'm sure you all have an idea as to what I'm talking about.  What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Torlyn]

Pardon me for being cynical (and don't get me wrong, I applaud the ideal) Laos is not a hot spot right now.  There is no media or global attention focused on Laos.  Thus, our glorious sub-commander in chief is probably unlikely to re-allocate the resources required to make an impact in Laos.  The PMO is having problems enough paying for the current deployments to politial hot spots, much less finding the money to fund an excursion in Laos...

  Begs the question, what is Laos doing about it?  I realize that they probably don't have the money that we do, but why should we be forced to take care of them?  Why don't they pony up the dough, train their own military to de-mine, and have at `er?

  I think it would be brilliant if the CF were able to do such things.  I am also of the opinion that Canada spends WAY too much time helping other nations while ignoring our own issues.  I think that before we can go out and save other countries, we should get ours fixed first. 

B.N.S.

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

Thanks anywy Army Brat, but I'd rather have a competent self-deployable, self-sustainable force of 5,000 we could put into Darfur right now.  

The fact that the world is once again turning a blind eye to an ethnic cleansing is truly dispicable....

The biggest problem with Canada's growing impotence is I think as good-intentioned people at one point we were able to drive others nations to commit to multi-lateral operations.   Now that we have let our forces erode as far as we have, I think our motivational speeches to international bodies ring hollow which takes the impetus off others to act.

"We want you to help us _________________" versus "You know you guys really should ___________________"



CB.   :'(

 

[pbi]

Demining is, in my opinion, best left to the dozens of civilian companies like MineTech, etc who now do it. It takes forever, is extremely dangerous, and attracts relatively little attention. The investment of tying down our few and precious sappers isn't worth it.

IMHO we need to keep working towards a joint force that is rapidly deployable and packs a solid (if medium-weight) punch. By joint I mean we also need the naval and air assets that can project, sustain and protect the force. We should be among the first into high profile hot spots, and get out as soon as we reasonably can, then re-cock and stand by. We should avoid these endless Rotos that do more to cause institutional rot than anything I can think of, despite some residual benefits.  I think we are, as usual, victims of our good old Cdn belief that "we've always done it that way".

We need to build a reputation of being reliable, capable and ready to go. Sounds cynical, even mercenary, but if you want to get influence you need to earn points first. Cheers.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

The last two comments are dead on.  The engineers are fairly busy as it is and I'd rather have them ready to get my ass out of the fire if need be versus any other country.  I believe countries such as Laos are using private companies to do the admin stuff while employing locals to do most of the de-mining.

 

[HollywoodHitman]

Again it's very difficult to argue common sense. I agree completely with the last couple of posts. There exists certain aspects of opsec when dealing with a civvy run mine cell such as in BiH, however the civilian demining companies are best left to do the bulk of the demining work. The Engineers should be there and available to work with friendly forces as an asset and very welcome safety net for troops on the ground.


TM

 

[Dreadnought]

Thanks for recognizing Laos on this forum.  I am from Laos and it was weird to see someone speaking about the country on here.  This is a reply to Toryln, and your ridiculous post about Laos ponying up money to demine their own country.  LOL it's a third world country buddy! you think they have funds in a semi-communist republic to demine the country, I don't think so.  Have some more respect for other countries and their plight to end disease, poverty and famine. Some countries in southern Asia will almost never enjoy our standard of living in our lifetime.(Exclude Thailand)  I do agree there are many other "hot spots" in the world today that should be looked at before Laos though.  But you know what I'm 100% percent sure that Laos would be more welcoming of our help then the rebel north of Darfur in Sudan.