Army Guy

That is not deterrence that is a nightmare scenario, that ends with the destruction of the globe, so you , your family, and everyone of your country men and women, will be turned into nothing more than radioactive dust...and if your one of the unlucky ones that survive in some bunker or hole in some mountain, you'll emerge after your food runs out to find that everything on the surface is radioactive, you can't grow anything, or eat anything, they'll die of radiation poisoning,or starve to death... both are very painful deaths... Your conventional forces stand toe to toe with our nation's enemies, in all of their history they have never backed down they have never failed to stand for your freedom, they have always answer your calls for help...now i could right a book on how many times average Canadians have let their military down, how they have failed to answer their calls for help...just something to think about... There is much more than have a conventional force for just armed conflict, it brings you a seat at the table, UN, NATO, NORAD, 5 EYES, etc etc... which global decisions are being made, it gives your country a voice on the world stage, it brings in huge economical benefits, it also brings in technology trade offs, that also benefit our economy, it also allows our nation to assist our nations with disasters, or other crises, it allows us to be part of defensive agreements that protect others that can not do it for themselves... Canadians don't understand what exactly our military does...That's why they can not make a informed decision on any military matter...people don't like stuff they don't understand...and we as a people are to lazy to do some research on our military...Military is going to start playing more of a role in climate change, being it from fighting forest fires or evacing people out of their way..." maybe Air Canada can take over that part" and when the artic does open up it will be our military that patrols , enforcing our sovereignty and laws... That everyone seems to think is a drag on our economy...yes there is a huge investment that needs to be made...you put men and women to work, 50,000 reg force another 20-30 reserve force, then approx another 20 -30,000 civilians that work directly for DND...and we have not counted how many civilians are employed in our defense sector, making stuff for our military....all of them are paying taxes... Everyone and their dog has told anyone that will listen, "Our nation's military is on life support"...and if nothing is done urgently it will collapse...The current liberal budget does nothing to stop any of that .....today experienced soldiers are giving our Government and Canadians the middle finger...they have had enough abuse .....and leaving the only job they loved...because we the people are content to watch our military die a slow and painful death, thinking that man buns and purple hair is going to make a difference all it has done has turned it into a circus...... and now they are recruiting people with long term medical issues, that were once deemed unfit for military duty...Thats where we are right now....

Here in NB we have had 3 people die, in the waiting rooms...and all they can do is launch investigations...

We have lost a lot of things, a huge amount of capabilities the Infantry used to have were lost , some of them have come back like Anti Armor Plt...not completely but it is coming back, with ground mount tow launchers, and on the new side by side has tubes mounted...gone are the LAV III TUA's ...we have lost the Armor recce element, Mortars, Pioneers is just starting to make a come back, again no vehicle mounted stuff, Medics are gone, so are Rad Op's, do to shortages, Pipes and drums funding was cut back, Training is just a dream...

Because there are many ways to skin a cat, first off, how many Canadians even blinked an eye when the liberals spent well over 700 Bil in less than 2 or 3 years...no taxes were increased, no social programs shut down..so part of my concern is why did we not say anything then...and when the military is brought up people sit up and start talking not about do we need it, no it is about we can't afford that....I think it is because it is not a social program that dumps money into their pockets... Cutting the fat is one way to pay for a 2 % military...trust me their are many places the fat is thick...or does not serve all Canadians. It is not about miracles, it is about taking a good look at what we do spend,and do we really need to spend there.

Yes ancient europe as you continue to reference... why not NATO, it is a huge alliance , that has continued to act as a back up to the US, it has been used in the middle east, and pacific regions... Yes China military is expanding faster than any other nation on the globe, it's current navy is now larger than the US fleets, even the US industry could not compete in ship building with china as it stands today, and it is forcing the US to build more ,ships faster, and better...you need to do some reading...

It is easy to find examples of individuals that could not maintain the standards during deployment, as there it is easy to provide examples of females that have completed a deployment without any abnormal medical conditions... you could also find the same conditions that affected men....My point is in today's military females serving in combat roles have been accepted by our politicians, the military, and most Canadians...those that do not accept this line of thinking are no longer welcome in the forces, that was a quote by the current CDS...not mine, Changing this thinking is going to take some drastic changes in our new morals and values...much like this infinite genders thing that has somehow taken traction. I think EX flyer hit the nail on the head, every trade in the military especially the infantry depend on the dynamics of the section... we fight as a team, some will end up doing more, carrying more, etc etc...all contributing in different ways, those that don't contribute or become a drag on that dynamic normally end up being forced to find a new job...It is not perfect, but it does give those that want a chance to be an infanteer, or whatever else, that opportunity is there...

You keep posting these unrealistic numbers...PP has already told you how he is going to increase spending, and it is not through empty promises like the liberals... he is going to shave existing things already budgeted for...like the billions we spend on foreign aid...like UNRWA for instance... cut some of these excessive social programs...that would be more than enough to pay for any increase in military spending... Forces are in decline becasue Canadians let it happen period... more than 30 % of Canadians answered in a poll that it is a priority...and those numbers are climbing... Rebuilding our armaments is already happening thanks to the liberals it's a small start but atleast it is getting their...will the funding survive i don't know...

You don't have to be a PT god, to accomplish anything a infantrymen can, it's it's more mental than physical...you would be surprised what the human body can do when you force it...take those PPCLI guys in Afghanistan, they did not have a choice it was march or die...you could not just fall out and walk back...not everyone can keep it up for extended periods of time, some days you need your battle buddie to step up and give you a hand... There are lots of studies done, some say it is impossible, and then we have direct examples of women doing it...even excelling at it...the major hold back right now is the higher tier you go the harder the physical and mental standards are...so if 5 % of the females make it in the Infantry, corp, not many of those are making CSOR standards and i don't think there is 1 female operator at JTF 2. That female medic that picked up one of my soldiers weighed in at maybe a buck 40, she managed to race down 100 meters of narrow ally way, pick up a dude with his gear weighing in at more than 220 -250 lbs pick him up , and RAN with him back to safety...and she was not running in a straight line...lots of zigs and more zags... Everyone is forgetting there are also small framed men that are in the infantry as well, and they manage because they know what they can press their bodies to do... Look i used to be that guy, did not have time for any female in the infantry, it has taken years of convincing and i've seen females suck it up and do whatever is necessary to get the job done...i've seen it in unarmed combat classes, in the field, on the battlefield, those that could not make it did not last long as an infanteer, everyone in the Bn knows what is at stake...thats life's, no matter what the politicians or chain of command wants to do with wall charts, if you can't do the job, the Snr NCO corp will ensure standards are met or exceeded,or that soldier will be gone.......everyone else that made it, can push beyond what your mind thinks it an do..an infanteers career is all about finding your limits and then breaking those standards, doing it over and over again...

It is the largest piece on the battlefield, just look Ukraine for a second, most NATO countries can not produce arty shells fast enough, thats one theater of war...and yet they have to worry about beans, bullets, and fuel, not counting everything else, from toilet paper, spare parts, batteries, other equipment, the list is endless, supply trains run all day and all night...by road , air, and sea....it never stops...until the war is over...and the longer distances you need to cover then the larger the tail becomes...manning it all consumes more men and equipment than the fighting forces expend...

You misunderstood my quote, i said it only takes 5 lbs of trigger pull to send a round down range...anyone can do it...becoming a Infanteer is no simple task, not for the faint hearted, nor is it for the weak...

I think you misunderstood, i said i did not see any one use a bayonet while in Afghanistan, hand to hand combat i seen used many times be it to handle an unruly prisoner, or just taken a guy down, on a raid, or search...Afghanis were funney you could point a rifle at them all day and they would not blink pull a side arm out and they would become complaint quickly ...

There is no more sexual abuse in the forces than there is in the same population in civilian sector. Most government departments have reported the same scale and same offenses,take RCMP for instance... DND has gotten more media coverage, 99.9 % of the soldiers don't have a issue, serving in mixed units...Soldiering is a dirty sweaty job, who in their right mind would want to get sexual with all that going on... most of these cases have alcohol involved...That is the main culprit, mix some booze in with long deployments and shit happens....most of it consensual, but there are unwanted acts and fro the most part they are punished... you have a higher chance of sexual abuse in university than in the forces...

True enough, hand to hand combat has saved my life more than once,

No women have been used in armies around the globe all through out history...That's what they were expected to do, in a lot of cultures stay home in the kitchen...Russians used women to great effect, in all kinds of combat roles, they made very effective snipers as well. In Afghanistan, there was no front lines, every soldier was exposed to the enemy, regardless of job or task...when you left the camp it wasn't a matter of IF you were going to get hit, it was when...Taliban did not care if you were Infantry or not male or female...they would kill both all the same...and still we went out every hour of every day.... Sure there is, everyone is a soldier first...if females can make the standard then they should have the opportunity to serve, and few have....which means that the women that did serve in Canadian infantry or combat roles did exceptional well. You do know that there are small light wieght men with small frames in the Infantry as well, in Afghanistan ruck sacks started at 100 lbs and would climb to 150/160 depending on the mission ...try that in the mountains, and plus 55 degrees heat... While that was not the norm, it was for the PPCLI during the open phase of Afghanistan, during routine patrols my pack weighed in at maybe 50 to 60 lbs..mostly ammo and water...lots of water... I seen a female medic run down a narrow ally way, under heavy machine gun fire pick up a wounded soldier throw him on her back and she ran back to safety more than 100 meters...both ways...he was about 220 lbs with all his kit and weapon. sure she was motivated by gun fire, that day she had a set of balls the size of a C-130....Hero's come in all shapes and sizes...and sexs as well.

The Army is a separate element within the military ( Army, Navy, Air force)...not used to describe the entire military but one small portion of it...Here they are talking about the Army... My math is bad, but how many times does 50 K going into 1.4 million,,,a lot more than 3 times...over 28 times our military...we might have a ways to go.... Canada has had conscription as well, not since WWII.

Many women have served in the Canadian infantry, in combat without any issues...although in Afghanistan we did not face any hand to hand combat, but lots of close combat.ranges of less than 50 feet......It only takes less than 5 lbs of trigger pull to fire a 5.56 round into someone's fore head or center of mass.....anyone can do it.... but lets face it if it gets beyond that point everyone is on their own regardless, and yes men will be protective of women infanteers it is human nature, but don't think for a second, that any infanteer would not do the same for another brother in arms, it is who we are....I can not explain the bond that develops between members of the same section or platoon....deeper than brothers and sisters....most would die protecting another brother....even having been retired for years if one of my brothers phoned me today, and said hey i need help hiding a body....I would be gone before the phone hung up.... And what little issues there was got sorted out pretty quickly by an NCO...as for frat, sure it goes on, but it is punished severely while deployed regardless of rank...back in garrison it is frowned upon, measures will be taken to make sure your not in the same chain of command... other than that who cares really, life in the army is not very conducive to marriage, which is why a lot of army guys marry army women...

Army is an element which the Infantry is part of, When i retired in 2014/15 each Bn had 3 undermanned rifle companies,( TO&E states 150 men per Company peace time) maybe 400 troops plus maybe another 100 scattered across the BN...3 BNs to a regiment... 3 Regiments in Canada so maybe on a good day we are looking at 4500 soldiers...fighting infantry...but according to the last report only 50 % of those are able to deploy....so now we are down to 2200 troops..."not including CSOR, or JTF 2" Note this does not include any reserve numbers, but don't look for any miracles, their numbers are not that good either... On top of all this there is large equipment deficiencies as well, so even if they were at full strength there is not enough equipment.... not to mention that each Regiment as one light rifle company, like a PARA company...they are lite so no IFV, or anything heavy...except maybe some BV206, trucks, etc.... Today, these numbers are far below those that i gave, most likely by another 1/3 Normally it take s more than 10-20 support pers to service one infantry guy...thats your cooks,logies, mechs,admin,medical pers, etc etc... Armoured corp and Arty, Cbt Engineers are just as bad...

Boots on the ground are but one part of the total commitment we made, Canada scrambled to get ships to assist with convoy duty, during this struggle good men paid for the life's for sub par equipment....and the airforce, they had weeks of training and then shipped over to bomb germany during the night...during their time in the air they learned what it took to survive or were scraped out of the hull in buckets ...So young Canadians were paying the price from day one...and lets not forget that small Dieppe raid for the army, which seen a sizable chunk of the army gone in a blink of an eye... One just has to look at the all 3 elements before each of the great wars...there was not enough full time soldiers to train the amount we needed, not that it matter as the equipment they had at the time was relics...and with everyone around the globe looking for the same equipment, we got what we got... Ross rifle, and the rest of the junk we ended up buying...cost lifes, which is my point... The next conflict will be come as you are, it takes months to build main battle tanks, and aircraft, and years to build ships...so we won't have the time to get ready or build new...we will fight in what we have and what little we can build before the main fight...we'll run out of ammo in a week.....and when your your looking at just 40 main battle tanks, because the rest are training tanks, LAV 6 and now rebuilt M113...in a world were new IFV will tear us a new one before we get past the embarkation line...good Canadians will die, while the rest of Canadians will shrug their shoulders and say nothing....good thing it its not me...

I think your not listening to the facts, nor are you willing to look up the facts for yourself.. I respond becasue i think your conversations are interesting, but frustrating at times. Leave ancient european history in the past, it's not coming back, today according many smart people in NATO, most countries foreign affairs departments , any western intelligence agency if ask who was the new emerging threat all would tell you it is China, with Russia in second place only due to nukes...as an example look at the US marine corp is changing it's tactics and equipment to be better suited for island hopping, not the european plains because of china, a lot of funding is being spent to meet these goals...so it is not on a whim and pray...5 eyes and UK,A,US are defensive agreements for the pacific, that includes a large chunk of NATO fleet as well...all of this points to the pacific as the new problem for the world...

No , we defeated no one. The west out spent the warsaw pact, Russia decided to pull back and broke up the warsaw pact...if we had defeated them there would have been a surrender with conditions and stuff.... russia just packed up it's toys and went home, thats all that happened...Today they took their toys out for a drive into ukraine, and decided to stay a while....

Name some liberal spending programs that effect most or all Canadians....?

Cut it all in the first couple years and most Canadians won't even remember come the next election...

War in Europe just means more Canadian men and women will die...being unprepared just means more of them will die sooner and quicker....

Military procurement is a mess...the military places an order in based on specs, civilians search the market that some what meets those, in other cases major companies will build something hoping to meet those specs...the people with the most influence over what is purchased is politicians..what offsets does the manufacture offer, how many canadians does it employ, can it be built in Canada, all of those over ride what DND wants...and finally what is the cheapest shit available...DND does not have a great track record of purchasing either, Take a look at some of the Army equipment we bought....all the good stuff was a mistake in disguise...HLVW, is a good truck, nobody could figure out why we bought it...we would later find out it placed 3 out of all the competition...sometimes everything is a good choice...

Not only to Europe, but across DND and MDND, people have been stepping up and telling anyone that will listen, that we are in need of deep investment...Everyone already knows most of the globe has noticed our lack of participation, and have said politely hey your a loser time to step up...We are losing capability's along with the expertise in using them every year, once they are gone we will have to pay other nations to teach us the basics on all of these lost capabilities... Lets not forget there is 1/2 a dozen or so european countries that have stepped up to a war footing, are desperately thinking conscription,and boosting their defense budgets into the 3 percent range...We are one of the few that seems to be still riding the wave to the beach....as history has shown, we have always cashed in the peace bonds hard, and paid a price when crises happens in lives...history repeats itself over and over here in canada.