CBC Radio Broadcast 'Rethinking the Canadian Military'

[Pieman]

I found this radio show on CBC podcast. Right click and download the mp3 file to listen. Some very thoughtful people talking about the CF and shedding the 'Peace Keeping' image. Most interesting is the discussion about the Canadian public understanding and views of the CF.

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/ideas_20060619_508.mp3

 

[pbi]

I listened to it last night. Excellent. It's 53 minutes but I recommend it.

Cheers

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

Good to hear others speaking about this.  We're not peacekeepers, it's just a role we have.  Spread the word!

 

[Blue Max]

Definitely a good listen. I found some of the comments especially interesting.

I will paraphrase;
- DART is an expensive waste of time. Better to use CARE-Canada for the same purpose and in parallel use the military for security and transport to places the NGO's can not get to easily (of course you need helicopters and ships for this to work).

- The procurement process has long been broken with no apparent fix on the horizon (no suprise hear except that no-one is looking at fixing it. Does no-one get it?)

- Military equipment does not need to be cost effective (as the Liberals tried to spin), only needs to be the right equipment that works when we need it. A great analogy used hear was that frigates do not need to be leased for fishing when there is no war on.

- As per the editor of Jane's (who is a Canadian), we only need to get our own strategic airlift instead of begging for a ride to get instant international respect.

Not everything was eye opening but certainly some parts were informative. Can we tape this and send it to all the NDP and Liberal MP's, especially Mr Dosanjh.  ;D

 

[pbi]

DART is an expensive waste of time. Better to use CARE-Canada for the same purpose and in parallel use the military for security and transport to places the NGO's can not get to easily (of course you need helicopters and ships for this to work).

I'm all about this. I never liked the idea of DART from the get-go. No disrespect to those who serve in it, but just because good people work hard and try to do their best does not make a  bad idea right: it just makes it a more wasteful bad idea. IMHO it was a misguided use of military resources for a "feel-good" that is actually venturing into the turf of competent civil agencies. IMHO it also plays directly into the hands of those who would divert military resources away from "nasty" and non-PC things like combat readiness into "nice" and PC things like providing humanitarian aid.

I liken DART to another idea I hate: raising HUSAR (Heavy Urban Search And Rescue) units in the Army Reserve. Ask any big city fire service that operates a HUSAR (or even a conventional heavy rescue squad) and they will tell you that it is a very special organization that requires high levels of initial training, then constant upgrading and currency. It must also be able to respond within minutes. This is a job for people who know what they are doing and train for it. If we want more HUSAR units, give more money to fire depts.

IMHO our job is to create stability, secure the scene, and lift the GOs/NGOs that need to get there. Anything else is peripheral and of short duration, and IMHO others can usually do it much better.

Cheers

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I never liked the idea of DART from the get-go.

PBI- +1