Army Guy

2010 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/24/pentagon-china-closer-matching-modern-militaries/? 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/25military.html 2013 http://e-ring.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/08/unveiling_china_s_defense_budget According to the experts above, the "defense only" comment is debunked, they have far exceeded that. in fact they have exceeded every military in the world in growth, avg up to 10 % every year since 2010, while western nations have clearly shown a steady decrease. And as the experts have claimed, the Chinese have exceeded what they claim they have spent, each and every year. And while the whole topic does not require us to start digging bunkers, it is a topic that should be carefully studied, and taken into consideration to our own military future, and how this is going to effect us as a nation and as a member of NATO,NORAD, any other defensive pact we have signed .... Most of the experts have also claimed cause for concern , while China lacks the military punch to carry out deployments far from there own coast, it does have the punch to heavily influence it's region. including taiwan which has backing from the US, meaning it is a highly likely sitution Canada may become involved in. would they risk lossing all the marbles to expand, only china could answer that, but lets not forget history, and how far we let the Nazi's expand before we acted...and when we did it was to late for alot of nations... As for leading to the collaspe of the Chinese economy i highly doubt that, considering how fast that is growing as well...

Ok whatever, my sources say that the total costs will be double of a comparable plane. Also, I'm not so sure that we need 65 of them. And what experience do you base that outcome on, are you a retired airforce general, are you the current serving CDS. have you or are you privy to any military studies done on this ....if no....then back up this claim, and how you came across it. Well if you call playing war games while drinking glacier martinis in Hudson's Bay "doing something" then yes I do think we should do less. I am saying we should do less, spend less but get the same or even better results. Once again if this is all you think our military does then sir, i'm afraid you know jack shit on what the military does, nor are you qualifified to suggest how that dept spends it's money....kind of left your panties blowing in the breeze....

Paranoia is one thing, but it shouldn't be the basis for national policy. Just because you don't understand it does not make it false, how do excplain the Chinese massive build up in thier military....is it because military stuff is a cool to own, you've just said military equipment is a waste of money, could be used to feed the hungry masses....and yet they are the second largest spender when it comes down to military hardware, for what use i ask....i can tell you its not for feeding anyone... And if they could just buy a nation, then why are they spending all of this funds on military shit....but when i add it up, it means they plan to use it one day....

Yes she's a very pretty women...times a changing....wasn't that long ago when our hockey hero's did'nt have teeth, hair, or huge stashes....Much like the flyers team in the 70's 80's...remember bobby clarke...

Yes but it is driven by us the consumer, Yes the corps made a bundle,driven by our quest to save a few dollars....I don't think it is over, i think the big corps and our quest to save, will eventually have everything made in China....We have a large roll to play in this as well.... The question is "Is China to big economically to mess with" , because we would need a large event to change things the way it is going now....because everyone loves the almighty dollar....and is not willing to risk anything or everything in a big change.

Not sure they had a choice, WE as consumers wanted the products but at a cheaper price....One of the sure fired ways to lower prices was to find cheap labour....Now look at Chinas economy, growing out of control, while ours dwindles, right before our very noses...now we either have to live with it....or force change...

While everyone loves to piont fingers at our southern neibors (as it is a sport, with equipment and refs,) at being the worlds policemen and in doing that job ,yes they make some mistakes....But then again who else is going to do the job if not the US....Unless your saying we can live with Sadam, or the taliban, North Korea,the list goes on and on and on....Can we bury our heads in the sand and wait for it to hit our shores...... When do we stand up and say ok dick head, you've crossed the line....when is it we can squash them like a bug.....Someone needs to act and hold the line....and while we do not have to agree all of the time, deep down we are glad they did, and still do....Because reading some posts here it's like we would like the US to step down, stop being that policemen.... Frankly i really don't understand why they the US has done it for so long, with all the crap they get and take, and what little return they get from the rest of the world....i'd have told them to stuff it along time ago....forcing them to fend for themselfs...Have other nations put trillions into the war machine....and living high on the hog...

Gost: Nothing changes, and your right it means nothing in the real world except now our Aircraft, buses , posters etc will now have the addition of ARMED painted on them. Until the next time someone wants to change it all back....

Gost. There are many forms of Shia law, just as in the many forms of democracy. And while it maybe not a perfect form it is their form. Which was the piont was it not, oust the Taliban which took Shia law to the extreme....As for Freedom, well if you had been there under the Taliban , and what they have today there is a very measurable difference, night and day. As for the lenght of the War, well it has been a long struggle, Taliban are very determined people, And lets not forget Afghanistan has not always been the main effort. The supporting the Muhajideen excuse has already been debunked, The muhajideen of the time consisted of many different splinter groups including those in the north. It's main objective was to defeat the Russian....and they did...the fact that many years later the Taliban forms up and takes advantage of the conditions in the country can hardly be blamed on the US intervention. While the Taliban may still roam the country they control very little of it. NATO has bases and outposts through out the entire country....There man power levels still do not allow them to take NATO one on one on the battle field...instead forced to use terror tactics, slink around at niight to plant bombs threaten the people....Afghan army is now approach over 160 k. NATO will leave without completing the mission, it is leaving because that is what NATO's citizens want....over whemling presure from the people is forceing them out. There is still a job to do. Coming home in a bag use to scare the crap out of me,consume most of my free thought on my first tour....but when you see the difference in the lives of the Afghan people your making, it is worth the sacrifice hence why i did 2 tours after that....Soldiers have come back from this war and told the press and our citizens that we where making a difference, but it fell on deaf ears, most were worried about the bottom dollar...while we did loose a large number of soldiers, good soldiers some of those very close friends of mine. Their lifes were not wasted, and if they were here today many would do it all over again... Afghan has changed my life forever, i have many fond memories of the locals i'd met or inter acted with, i also live with many ghosts but i would gladly do it all over again, to achieve the same results.

No it was changed, it was changed on the side of the Aircraft, Buses, and recruiting posters. Why it was changed they did not say, but the Liberals had it done at some expense.

WOW, eyeball still twisted as ever, happy with the freedoms and pleasures you take for granted everday, and don't want to share them with the rest of the world.....Screw them let them eat cake, let them struggle just as we had to....it's my tax dollar and i don't want to share any of it...And while i do agree with you Afghanistan is a shit hole, but there are some of us that would like to change that....

Before crietiens term in office, DND was call the Canadian Armed forces, used to be on most Military aircraft,recruiting posters,Buses etc...But the liberals had it changed it was to "military" for them, did not present the image they want to project. So it was changed to just Canadian forces, much less Military, and projected a much gentler image.... It is what it is, those that serve in it understand , and frankly could not care what you called it, we know what our jobs are, regardless of what they called us.

I think your concept is a good one, but it requires alot more investment in the army, than what is currently there. And While the Army has got the lions share of funding in the last 10 or more years it is still well below what it should be. a good example of that is in a mech Inf Bn units are lucky to be able to field 2 full coys of lavs, with most Inf Bns only having one...Yes there is the LAV up project which will see our current LAV fleet rebuilt into new machines but there is only 550 of those...But the Inf is not the only unit that employs the LAV so they will be spread thin, supplemented with TPAV vehs , which are really an armoured patrol veh, not a mech battle taxi. So with reg force units barely holding on to the titles of Mech, adding one more Res company into the mix would really throw a wrench into the mix... As for training , again lack of funding, units struggle with the regular PCF cycle, keeping up with normal training requirements , and might get out once a year for a BN or Brig level EX if lucky.....I think it all comes down to funding , but the Army's turn at the trough is finsihed....

Having minimum attendence is the problem when A) your organization is only equiped with the minimum amount of gear, and it is not for the most part the same standard... Your leadership sees their jobs as a second job, and does not recieve 100% of their effort...In most cases because i've seen reservist in leadership postions that were damn fine soldiers....in fact the RSM of one of the Res Inf regts in Montreal, also teaches in the Reg force ALQ course... I think by placing them under contract , forming entire units, so they can train regularly....the Reg force has a hard time doing this just not enough funding....and for the sake of having a couple of pre form units in the wings might as well expand the Reg force by another Brig....fill those spots with those Res Soldiers that want to take soldiering seriously Converting them to reg force.... I do want to stress this that those 10 to 15 Res soldiers that do show up are normally the ones that end up getting call outs to reg force units....which depend on these numbers to accomplish our taskings....the res play a vital role...i know there is always tones of talk about how all the Reg force trades are full, and they have stopped recruiting, We've hit our numbers etc but in the real world there are shortfalls all over...Reg force units are not up to par....if they were we would not need so many res filling in the blanks..

I am with you on this one to a degree, we need Primary reserve which is contract based , a secondary reserve which is force generation as well as manning training establishments and it should be along the lines of the current primary reserve. Singing on the dotted line with the primary reserve be it navy army or airforce would mean that you get better pay than the secondary reserve, better set of benefits but also higher level of training and better equipment as well as that you could deploy as individual augmentation for a deployment or as a unit be it at the platoon, coy or battalion level. I disagree, want to sign a contract join the reg force, which is all contract based, and correct me if i'm wrong Reserves that do agree to deploy also sign contracts for a certain period of time. Once they agree they are a go unless they fail pre deployment training, or medical....what i mean they can't just quit and go home when the going gets tough, or their crack hurts. I think having reservists on contract, would hurt recruitment,besides if the balloon went up there would not be a problem with recruitment, Canadians have for the most part answered the call when they needed to... If you were going to put them on contract, the government should be forced to equip them to for the most part same standard, so training and experience would be the same ....and we all know that is not going to happen, Shit we are still strugling to outfit the regs, what equipment the reserves do get the reg force rapes.

If there is one thing man is good at it is killing each other on a mass scale, this model that you don't like has been developed over thousands of years and thousands of conflicts it is the best one out there, and i have no doubt will be here for thousands of more years. As for serving the tax payers interests, Nations are not forced to invest anything in their militaries, but that comes at a price or trade off does it not.... That trade off is your security,and freedoms that you enjoy everyday...that price you pay is your taxes...the more you taxes you spend on your military the more security and freedoms you will have available. Perhaps you should work on how our government invests those tax payers dollars , look at changing it's bussiness model on how it spends funding. and not how we conduct our missions and taskings.

Up until quite recently, most experts thought that drug money accounted for the bulk of Taliban funding. But even here opinion was divided on actual amounts. Some reports gauged the total annual income at about $100 million, while others placed the figure as high as $300 million still a small fraction of the $4 billion poppy industry. if i would to guess i would think it would have been alot higher, but local farmers did say their yeild out of a full acre was only 100.00 US dollars, Not sure how many pounds they got per acre not a whole lot.... However they did explain that the further down the chain you went the more money you made. it's the dealers in the west that are making the big money. But lets remember there is more to the drug trade than just Opium....And even a 100 mil buys alot of support, considering they ( Taliban soldiers) are paid less than 300 US dollars a month. More than what the Afghan Army paided out....Besides can anyone clearly tell me how much the Hells Angles made from the drug trade last year, and they are in our back yard, not like they are claiming it to the tax debt.

Gost: Not saying your reports are wrong, but i remember patroling down south, around Kanadar, on my second tour, Talibans home ground....and the fields were full of poppies...as far as the eye could see...and they belonged to the bad guys because we use to burn them, which stopped later on as they were taken over by war lords not sure this is the eradication they are talking about..But Taliban still control or force farmers along the border areas to grow poppies for them. Taliban also control large sectors of other drugs as well Hash, Coke, Heroin etc....The Drug trade plays a big role in their funding... I'm also not saying they are false, but the whole time we spent outside the wire, we never seen any UN or for that matter any Agency civilian related around. so i'm not sure how they gathered up that info...and like i said we spent months at a time outside the wire.

Opium production in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since US intereference. The Taliban had been cracking down on it. Another wifes tale, Taliban used the opium/ Drug trade to fund it's wars, and oppression on it's own people...Nato's beef is not with the drug dealers but with the Taliban, NATO stop targeting them to remove those warlords and their armies from the battle field...So NATO could concentrate on killing taliban...

Not attacking the idea, here. You are labeling me as someone who doesn't know about design of nautical and naval systems. They have not made good ships, for instance the US national security cutters were made to last only 3 years in their operating environment, that is what your... highly skilled people did. There is nothing in what I said indicates any of my plan is inoperable, you are spouting nonsense. I think torpedos rockets and machine guns are more than enough deterrent to stop illegal fishing. You are being nonsensical. Anything more serious can be met with helicopters and jets. Maybe that is the problem, your great at following future tech, but you've failed to understand what it is our navy does for a living, and why over 160 nations are not multi tasking thier militaries with other more productive services. let alone just arm their ships with some torps, MG,s. or doing just illegal fishing patrols But hey maybe you know something they don't i mean maybe your ahead of your time. Or maybe you just don't know what your talking about. Your military is only meant to drain money, that is why it fails and can't be supported without extorting from tax payers. You military design is stupid. Dedicated forces are ineffective in defence, they are only used for occupation and destroying foreign nations of lesser technological capacity. It serves no benefit for Canada to have its forces designed in that fashion. Again why is it 160 nations or more are following the same dotrine, could it be they are on to something.... As for occuping and destroying other nations have you read any of our history....Thats what militaries do, they provide our nation with means to deal with problems once the polictical process breaks down.....it's really that simple....

If combatants are breaking the "rules of war" then what is the issue with noncombatants doing the same? Then combatants should be charged with war crimes period, and most are....The media is full of NATO pers charged with breaking them, including Canadian Capt Semeau, along with a long list of US service pers. The Issue with Non Combatants is for their protection, get rid of the rules and you will open it up for armies to ethic cleanse entire nations....Civilians will have no protection at all... How exactly are people suppose to resist if the government has been destroyed by the invading country.. quite a bit of rhetoric here. People have the right to self preservation and defence against acts of lethal force directed at them. The rules are simple, resist and you become a illegal combatant,and face war crimes.... Want to resist join the F...ing Military....it's really that simple.... It just doesn't fly... kids playing by the road are a security risk so the humanitarian and law abiding west must blow them up with a missile to protect people... because the rules of war let invading countries blow up children that are standing near a road... uhm think again on your double standard here. No double standard, there is no age limit on illigal combatants period....., Understanding how the enemy thinks and works and you'll begin to understand why the Rules of engagement are what they are....digging a hole in the road is how they place IED's. The bad guys often use children in all aspects of their fight....Look an Omar as one example.... On my first tour in Afghan a small boy on a bike was peddling towards us, one of the guys noticed he was crying....we checked it out through our rifle scopes......One of the local terrorists had straped a explosive vest on him and told him to drive his bike towards our check piont, he would then detonate the device...at 200 meters out we noticed the vest, ...at 100 meters the Sgt in charged ordered us to engage him...all 4 of us reluctantly did , i live with that every night, one of the many ghosts that Afghan has given me..... , the blast wave flattened everyone, 2 out of us 4 were injured, but alive...the Boy was 5 same age as my son at the time...go figure.... Want to shed some tears pick another side , hey try something new shed some tears for our side....How about the little girl that i shared my lunch with, her father was exicuted in front of her, she had both arms cut off with a dull knife....her crime, going to school....she was 6 years old when the Taliban did that to her...she was 12 when we had lunch, and still going to school....want to know why...because NATO soldiers patrol that area daily....a blistering 15 km patrol in plus 50 degree heat,with over 80 lbs of kit which after our lunch i did gladly every day for 3 months.... War is hell, and if we did not abide by those few rules that are in place, hell would be a sunday picnik with the walton family....

It is if you are a combatant... There must be more to your quote than that, to put it into context.... ....But if you are a non combatant, or an illigal combatant, Murder is just that murder.....these rules are to protect civilians, pick up a wpn in a war zone means your a target, that can be legally engaged or arrested to face war crimes...Kadr was both.... But under the Genva convention can you or MR Kadr defense team show us or prove he was a combatant.....The convention is very clear, inter national law is clear, and so is our federal laws...Had his defense team had any proof he was a combatant they'd would have played that card. How'd they make out.... Non Combatant rules have been around since the first draft of the convention, it is nothing new...what is new is the illigal combatant rules.....and it was not just a lack of uniform the list is alittle longer than that...again spelled out in the convention..of who is and who is not a combatant....

Your right , Zombies is not the important part, what we should be concerned with is WHY we are planning at all for any National level problem, we we as a nation have already proven we have a major issue with localized problems. Such as Ice storm, etc...All one has to study is the US military response to Katrina to know anything on a national level would be way out of our government abilities to respond... A working group in BC had a plan for a major earth quake in Vancover BC, DND and others involved in the plan said the majority of responders and equipment would have to come from the US....As this size of event would quickly overwhelm our National resources...That was a all hands on deck event....and just one city... It would be nice to think that our government would come in riding on a white horse to save the day...But a plan is only as good as the people + equipment that carry it out....But lets be realistic...I think in this type of event by the time the government decided what to do, where to send it's limited resouces, and the time to move them....this whole thing would be over, and the glue that holds us together would be long gone....Meaning until order could be restored it would be like the wild west....that would have to be done on a city by city basis....and take more resources than we have...more than the US military has....Zombies, WMD, or any event for that matter....is way out of our league.

We don't do this anymore. There would be a great outcry if we did. Would there be, we have not been in total war for over 60 years. And yet most countries still keep WMD's Nukes, chemical ,bio, and some countries have used them , shit during gulf war 1 Britian threaten Sadam with the use of WMD's if he used his.....it should be noted that they are not controlable....once used they are designed for mass cas, military or civilian....would there be an outcry, sure, enough to stop a second attack with WMD's i'm doubtful. what would happen if Russia decided to Nuk Chechnya....would the world gasp...sure, would it be enough to start another war....I don't think so. What if the US decided to use one...Great out cry sure...anyone taking any action..or doing anything about it aside from what sanctions... Right, so we only hear about Muslim immigration policy on this board, for example. That tells us something. Not just this board, but in the media as well, we discuss what makes the news... ----------- So you're going to increase my taxes by how much so we still have hockey in 100 years ? Sorry, but I'm not into it. Just over 100 years ago, Canadians played Cricket in great numbers and that can come back again. Things change, we just have to get used to it. ----------- You asked me for an option, that is one yes, and while hockey may have been a poor example , is there any thing, value, morals,that are Canadian worth keeping. And that seems to be the another catch phrase we change with the times or get left behind....does that mean we become a nation with the same problems as say the typical middle eastern country....that is one huge ball of worms, why not shria law for those that want it, why not solve our Native Indian problems, settle those land claims,give them self government, i mean we say we are deverified, we acept everyone and yet we are trying so hard to hang on to our old ways....why not totally diversify. why is the glass only half full...