To start, dumb idea. Paying the US to defend us. I'm a fairly left leaning underdog lover, but even I recognize that's a dumb idea.
Still though, lets take this idea of "outsourcing"{Soon to be a banned word} Defence to the US.
First, threats to Canada. What are they? Natural disasters, terrorism, internal dissent, nuclear weapons, invasion...
1. Natural Disasters. Apparently B.C. is overdue for a big earthquake. Maybe we could station a battalion in B.C. and beef up the Reserves. I don't think US help would be necessary. Besides, if Vancouver and area is dealing with a Big One, the US will be busy with Seattle.
2. Terrorism, in my own opinion, is a problem for intelligence and police agencies. The very nature of terrorists mean the frontline will be our own neighbourhoods. The heroes of September 11th, afterall, were emergency personal who helped evacuate the Twin Towers. The methods of September 11th also means there a repeat performance would be difficult to pull off. The passengers probably won't wait for the terrorists to fly their plane into a building. For Canadians, maybe we should have more fighter jets stationed closer to major cities for quick response. For terrorism, more money for the borders, and inspection of shipping containers would be useful. I doubt how the US could help their, because in general they seem to be having as hard a time as Canada, in getting our respective acts together.
3. Internal Dissent. I believe that the official term is Giving Aid to the Civil Authorities. This has happened in Canada. I put it down as Internal Dissent, to distinguish it from Natural Disasters where aid would be give to the civil authority{the ice storms}. The biggest deployments of Canadian soldiers since the Second World War, has been on Canadian soil. The FLQ crisis, Oka. on both occasions the CF performed magnificently , so for a future crisis, we probably won't need US help.
4. Nuclear Weapons. Okay, this is probably where we do freeload off of the Americans. We don't have nuclear weapons, even though there are probably nuclear weapons aimed at Canada in the Former Soviet Union. Still, in the event of another "great power melee"(Gwynne Dyer, his new book Future Tense), whether Canada has an extra 100 nukes to lobe at the other guy or not, the outcome is still the same, hundreds of millions dead. The threat of nuclear proliferation kind of goes under terrorism as we don't want terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons. As for rogue states {Iran, North Korea} we could join the US's missile defence and hope it will work in my lifetime{I'm 19 so it's a fair chance}. So one for outsourcing Canadian Defence. I think most Canadians, and the military, can live with the fact we don't have a nuclear arsenal.
5. Invasion. However much the media, people on this forum, and Canadians in general bemoan our Armed Forces, there isn't as single country in the world that could successfully invade Canada. Except, the United States, another democracy who we have good relations with, so they wouldn't invade Canada anyway. Everyone else, even Norway {You bowtie wearing d**k}, will have to reconcile themselves that either their geography or armed forces aren't good enough, and the CF isn't bad enough, for them to pull of an invasion.
*I know I could have added more examples and topics, but A) I'm doing this off the top of my head, B) I think I got the really big ones. Don't bother bringing more examples to my attention unless it would reveal a hole in my logic. Thanks.
What I'm getting to, is that for the purpose of defending Canada, the CF is more than adequate{like all things, there can be improvement}, so whatever people think, outsourcing our defence is neither a good idea, or even necessary.
But {there is always a but} for Canada to be real player on the world stage, we need a military that can go places. We need a military that can go halfway around the world, take the other guy's head off, and then patrol a city, or countryside. We need a military that could do that, and not have to beg and borrow for a ride their and back, and to ship over supplies.
I personally think Canadians are starting to wake up to this idea, that for Canada to shine in the world, we need a better military. I even think politicians are waking up to the fact, Canadians want a better military. Why else would Paul Martin make a campaign promise for 5000 more peacekeepers {semantics, in my mind the Canadian lexicon equates peacekeepers as soldiers}. Whether Paul Martin can carry this out is another question.
