Military News

July 11, 2009
The federal government confirmed Wednesday it will spend $5 billion to purchase new combat vehicles and maintain the existing fleet for the Canadian Forces. Defence Minister Peter MacKay made the announcement at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., after word of the new funding leaked out on Tuesday.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-203465917.html

Canadian military's role in torture coverup in Afghanistan

 A scandal erupted last week in sleepy Ottawa with the revelations of Canada’s chief diplomat in Kandahar in 2006-07, Richard Colvin, who told a House of Commons committee on Afghanistan that Afghans arrested by Canadian military and handed over to Afghan authorities were knowingly tortured. His and others’ attempts to raise the alarm had been quashed by the ruling Conservative government and he felt a moral obligation to make public what was happening.

A pervasive and impeccable hypocrisy

There are a few things most certainly true of torture. The first is that once a country or society opens the door it becomes the proverbial greased pig, a very slippery and insidious creature to deal with. Secondly, where we undertake torture we grant the so called terrorists who haunt our world their greatest victory. Where we willingly collapse hard won human rights and civil liberties- supposedly the very things we hold sacred-and among the things we are defending -we grant the enemy his greatest victory for he has ripped the fabric of our society. It is also in the greasy nature of torture that where it is detected its practitioners simply make it an even more covert activity.

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from February 12-28.  It will be the largest security operation in Canadian history.  Military planners will undoubtedly use it as a template for securing future high profile events.  Canadian security officials continue to work closely with their American counterparts in preparation for the test that the Games will pose to the security of its shared border. 

On the eighth anniversary of the United States declaring a global "war on terror" this September, America's continental neighbors - Mexico and Canada - have had enough.

When President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001, the nation - and much of the world - was still in disbelief that Islamic terrorists had successfully carried out the greatest attack on U.S. soil since Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor.

One of the most frustrating features of observing American foreign policy is to see the gap between the encapsulated thinking of the national security bureaucracy and the sensible unfettered observations of the experts outside. In the case of Afghanistan, outside commentators have called for terminating current specific American policies and tactics – many reminiscent of the US in Vietnam.

American commanders are planning to cut off the Taliban’s main source of money, the country’s multimillion-dollar opium crop, by pouring thousands of troops into the three provinces that bankroll much of the group’s operations.

The Canadian military is reorganizing its priorities to suit a “post 9/11-world,” by creating reservist units for each area of the country that would be tasked with providing “domestic security,” and involve roles such as the mass internment of citizens in the event of a terrorist attack.

“The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats,” reports the National Post.

“The remodeling of the reserves will see the development of specialist units in four of the military’s regional divisions — Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and the West.”

http://www.infowars.com/canadian-military-units-to-undertake-%e2%80%9cdomestic-security%e2%80%9d/

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.

Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen struck government buildings at three sites

The brazen nature of the attacks was certain to influence the debate among administration officials over the strength of the Taliban, who control much of the countryside and have steadily encroached on Kabul.

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will be ordered to attack opium traffickers and drug facilities when there is proof of direct links to the Taliban, CBC News has learned.

The new order follows a heated debate among NATO allies over whether the attacks could be declared war crimes.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told CBC News soldiers would indeed target drug traffickers and their production facilities.

More Joining American Military as Jobs Dwindle

As the number of jobs across the nation dwindles, more Americans are joining the military, lured by a steady paycheck, benefits and training.

The last fiscal year was a banner one for the military, with all active-duty and reserve forces meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals for the first time since 2004, the year that violence in Iraq intensified drastically, Pentagon officials said.