Martin's Defence Policy Dilemma

I never saw much difference in these two parties especially on this issue. The BMD is another issue which will be agreed to no matter which party is at the table!

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

A white paper on military affairs certainly would be in order. A well researched paper would find that while peacekeeping has that feel good media appeal, the reality is that it's an abysmal failure and hasn't done anything except exacerbate or entrench the conditions that created the conflict in the first place. A more robust peacemaking force has the potential to do some good, but that means actually shooting people and taking casualties, an obviously hard sell to voters who live comfortably and in peace, Canadians are apparently not too willing to do the hard work of being our brothers keeper, so to speak.
Canada should regain a modicum of force in order to be at least a little respectable in world affairs, presently no one really cares what we think because we don't pony up with military or foreign aid dollars.
Private corporations are now sending people into space and it's technically much easier to lob a bomb through orbit, so signing up for a missile defence program that we will hardly pay for, just like we hardly pay for NORAD's expenses, makes good sense. The program will go ahead regardless, the question is wether we want to know and have Canadian input into what's going on or not. China is working full steam ahead on the militarization of space and because space is becoming so much more accessible, others are not far behind - that's a genie that can't be put back in the bottle no matter how much wailing Canada might do. Canadian geography, history, culture and politics mean that we're not going to be too far apart on basic security issues from our traditional allies and it's worked out well for us.

Anonymouse your full of **it! Go sell your propaganda elsewhere. The people running this country are, at best, criminally negligent. Their arguments for increased military spending are aimed at giving more money to Bombardier and CAE and Raytheon etc, it has nothing to do with protecting us. So run back to your arms industry employers and tell them that you can't sell your propaganda here.

perhaps they're criminally negligent for not providing the security we pay them to provide. Chinese, Iranian, Russian defence contractors and others are all working on more lethal weapons systems that they will sell to the highest bidder - if you can successfully lobby them to stop developing offensive systems, then I would agree that we wouldn't have to fund western contractors. Unfortunately, they wouldn't give you or any 'peace' group or whatever the time of day. They want power and absolute authority to shape the world after their own brand of culture and most westerners wouldn't care to live in caves with Osama or under religious dictators or in autocratic China. You can keep your Ivory Tower propaganda.