When will the Conservatives start putting money behind their defence promises?
In the forthcoming budget, I hope. But Gen. Hillier will not get those heavy-lift helicopters anything like as soon as he wishes.
...
[Minister of National Defence] O'Connor also told chief of defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier that troops in Afghanistan will have to wait for much-needed new helicopters because buying big-ticket military hardware takes a long time. Gen. Hillier had made a public plea for the choppers two days ago...
Mr. O'Connor said he expects Canada will stay in Afghanistan beyond its current February 2007 commitment, but he said the Forces also need officers and rank-and-file soldiers to train the 13,000 new full-time recruits and 10,000 reservists the Conservatives promised during the federal election.
He said the Forces are having no problem attracting new members, but there remain unacceptable delays, of as long as 12 to 18 months, to process and train them...
Guess who the real enemy is? The Minister of Finance:
Mr. O'Connor said he will be pushing for more defence spending in the first Tory budget, but hinted his government may be hard pressed to live up to its lavish military spending campaign promise.
"As I told the troops in Afghanistan, their opposition are the terrorists; my opposition is the finance minister. I have to try to make sure that from the finance minister I get as much money as I can possibly get. Our cabinet is aware of the needs of the military and what we have to have to achieve our plans -- so is the prime minister. Our overall plan is a five-year plan, but we have to start it this year," Mr. O'Connor said...
I wonder how long it will take Prime Minister Harper to ensure that real money follows on this pledge?
...
Harper said he wants to send a message to the military that what he called "years of neglect" by previous governments is over.
He acknowledged the Afghanistan mission has put a significant strain on the military but pledged that the state of the Canadian Forces will improve as it is built up over the next few years.
Part of that plan will include winding down smaller military deployments around the world to focus on bigger missions such as Afghanistan, he said [good!].
"Rather than placing a handful of soldiers here and a handful of soldiers there, we will concentrate our efforts in ways that we can show leadership . . . and make a real, notable contribution."
That could include both United Nations peacekeeping and other kinds of missions, such as the NATO operation in Afghanistan...
Meanwhile the Ottawa Citizen's reporters, Mike Blanchfield and Avi Saper (could they have, gasp, an agenda?), gratuitously regurgitate nonsense about Darfur in their story.
Mr. O'Connor's remarks mean that the Harper government likely will not be in any position to answer a United Nations call for troops to bolster the floundering and ineffective African Union military monitoring mission in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
An all-party group of MPs last week urged the government to lead an international charge at the UN to come to the aid of a three-year crisis in Darfur that has claimed 200,000 lives and displaced millions.
Please read this updated guest-post (at Daimnation!), Darfur update: Somebody please tell Jack Layton about this, for the real story on Darfur.
Update: Gen Hillier may have been muzzled.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
...
[Minister of National Defence] O'Connor also told chief of defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier that troops in Afghanistan will have to wait for much-needed new helicopters because buying big-ticket military hardware takes a long time. Gen. Hillier had made a public plea for the choppers two days ago...
Mr. O'Connor said he expects Canada will stay in Afghanistan beyond its current February 2007 commitment, but he said the Forces also need officers and rank-and-file soldiers to train the 13,000 new full-time recruits and 10,000 reservists the Conservatives promised during the federal election.
He said the Forces are having no problem attracting new members, but there remain unacceptable delays, of as long as 12 to 18 months, to process and train them...
Guess who the real enemy is? The Minister of Finance:
Mr. O'Connor said he will be pushing for more defence spending in the first Tory budget, but hinted his government may be hard pressed to live up to its lavish military spending campaign promise.
"As I told the troops in Afghanistan, their opposition are the terrorists; my opposition is the finance minister. I have to try to make sure that from the finance minister I get as much money as I can possibly get. Our cabinet is aware of the needs of the military and what we have to have to achieve our plans -- so is the prime minister. Our overall plan is a five-year plan, but we have to start it this year," Mr. O'Connor said...
I wonder how long it will take Prime Minister Harper to ensure that real money follows on this pledge?
...
Harper said he wants to send a message to the military that what he called "years of neglect" by previous governments is over.
He acknowledged the Afghanistan mission has put a significant strain on the military but pledged that the state of the Canadian Forces will improve as it is built up over the next few years.
Part of that plan will include winding down smaller military deployments around the world to focus on bigger missions such as Afghanistan, he said [good!].
"Rather than placing a handful of soldiers here and a handful of soldiers there, we will concentrate our efforts in ways that we can show leadership . . . and make a real, notable contribution."
That could include both United Nations peacekeeping and other kinds of missions, such as the NATO operation in Afghanistan...
Meanwhile the Ottawa Citizen's reporters, Mike Blanchfield and Avi Saper (could they have, gasp, an agenda?), gratuitously regurgitate nonsense about Darfur in their story.
Mr. O'Connor's remarks mean that the Harper government likely will not be in any position to answer a United Nations call for troops to bolster the floundering and ineffective African Union military monitoring mission in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
An all-party group of MPs last week urged the government to lead an international charge at the UN to come to the aid of a three-year crisis in Darfur that has claimed 200,000 lives and displaced millions.
Please read this updated guest-post (at Daimnation!), Darfur update: Somebody please tell Jack Layton about this, for the real story on Darfur.
Update: Gen Hillier may have been muzzled.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 10:29 a.m.
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