New Ministers of National Defence in Canada

agreed...

we've seen and heard all this rhetoric before, and it will get worse before
getting better.

Chretien was no friend to the military. Personally, I'm glad he is history.

I can't think of a single PM, who in a space of 10 years, almost
single-handily brought the military to it's knees. Sure, there were
justified cuts throughout the post-WW2 era (front line
soldiers/sailors...etc), but nothing prepared us for the onslaught of cuts
in the 90's. It's one thing to say we went from +150,000 personnel to
90,000, but to go down to around 50,000 (of which 7000 were unusable due to
lack of training, sickness, retirement...etc), from almost a 100,000 and
retain our core capabilities with an increased operations tempo is (was)
near impossible.


dewey (glass half empty until proven otherwise)


" Well we already know the CAF are likely to lose their heavy armo(u)r.
I expect we'll see another round of cuts disguised as a
reorganization of some sort.
As I've said before, the CAF is evolving into a national gendarmerie
aimed squarely at peacekeeping, foreign and domestic.
Any residual military capabilities will be purely coincidental.

IBM

Dewey wrote:

agreed...

we've seen and heard all this rhetoric before, and it will get worse before
getting better.

Chretien was no friend to the military. Personally, I'm glad he is history.

I can't think of a single PM, who in a space of 10 years, almost
single-handily brought the military to it's knees.

I can, Trudeau and it took him less than ten years.

Actually it was Trudeau who started it.

Carter

Carter Lee wrote:

Dewey wrote:

agreed...

we've seen and heard all this rhetoric before, and it will get worse before
getting better.

Chretien was no friend to the military. Personally, I'm glad he is history.

I can't think of a single PM, who in a space of 10 years, almost
single-handily brought the military to it's knees.

I can, Trudeau and it took him less than ten years.

Actually it was Trudeau who started it.

I believe the credit properly goes to Louis St-Laurent, whose
government commissioned John Glassco (who recommended integration)
which was implemented, along with unification on Pearson's watch
(after Diefenbaker's "Turn in your pencil stub to get a new one"
period) then crowned by Trudeau with his "Defence in the 70's" White
Paper. Of these, I think only Pearson, a veteran of the CEF and the
RFC, understood the institution with which he was meddling.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

"Andrew Chaplin" wrote in message
...

I believe the credit properly goes to Louis St-Laurent, whose
government commissioned John Glassco (who recommended integration)
which was implemented, along with unification on Pearson's watch
(after Diefenbaker's "Turn in your pencil stub to get a new one"
period) then crowned by Trudeau with his "Defence in the 70's" White
Paper. Of these, I think only Pearson, a veteran of the CEF and the
RFC, understood the institution with which he was meddling.


Three words and a name tells it all.

DAMN THE TORPEDOES, PAUL HELLYER

I purchased the book around 1991. I mentioned it in a canteen one day
and got an earful, some were very unhappy about the author and what
happened, I put the book in a box and never read the whole book, just a
few pages. Probably a good read though.

Paul Hellyer - isn't he the guy who we all wanted to trade to the Israelis
as in

"Paul Hellyer + 10,000 bolts of green cloth for a One-eyed Jew"