After seven years of counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan, the ranks of the Canadian Forces are exhausted and retiring, its armoured fleet is bruised and battered, and its senior officers are looking forward to the mission's end in 2011.
Such was the message from Canada's top brass after two days of straight-talk on the state of Canada's military at the Conference of Defence Association's annual general meeting in Ottawa.
Stumble It!
It's not hard to believe their exhausted. Canadian troops have done a helluva job in Afghanistan, but there are far too few of them.
They have, haven't they!
"Right now of the over 600 vehicles in the fleet—and I'm not going to tell you how many are deployed overseas, or specific performance characteristics—but somewhere between 30 and 40 per cent are off the road."
Right now, all of our M113 APCs are on blocks, 30 - 40 of our brand new Leopard 2's are sitting in warehouses . . .we only have 100 or so Bisons in working order . . they need a serious overhaul.
The Soldiers and their Equipment.
Face the fact. We are fighting the wrong war on behalf of the wrong people.
Coyote