foreigncorrespondent.com
Canada's defense spending per capita, a paltry 1.3%, is the lowest in NATO, save for tiny Luxembourg, and is among the lowest worldwide, which proudly puts Canada in the same percentage league as Guinea Bissau, Papua New Guinea, and Paraguay.
Clearly, it is America's armed forces that stand on guard for Canada, and American taxpayers who foot the bill for Canada' defense. As the threat from cruise and ballistic missiles grows, Americans are going to increasingly demand their northern neighbor pull its weight in NATO and ante up for updating continental air defense, including modernizing NORAD.
Very soon now, Canada is going to have to replace or modernize much its military hardware. This will be the moment of truth. Canadians will be forced to decide whether they want true armed forces in this unpredictable, dangerous world, or more empty military tokenism. At minimum, they should act to stop billions in defense spending being poured down black holes in Ottawa with nothing to show for the effort but more desk generals and a bunch of uniformed social workers that Ottawa calls an army.
Political science teaches that the first role and raison d'etre for governments - and the primary reason for people to pay taxes - is to provide internal security and external defense. A government that blithely talks of spending $13 billion on state-run baby-sitting - 44% more than it currently spends on defense - has clearly lost its way, and its mandate to rule. It's not the CF-18's that are rotten. It's Ottawa. |
