Minister of National Defence seeing the light?
Perhaps Gordon O'Connor will ditch some of the sillier Conservative campaign promises (full text not online).
Worried about the cost of the Conservative government's plan to build armed icebreakers for the Arctic, military officials are trying to convince Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor to instead use less expensive hovercraft or small patrol boats to monitor the entrances to northern waterways.
Resistance is building inside the Defence Department toward some of the Conservatives' military policies, particularly those involving the Arctic as well as the stationing of a new rapid reaction army battalion in Goose Bay, N.L...
The army also has concerns about the Conservatives' plan to station troops in Goose Bay. The army is focused entirely on its ongoing mission in Afghanistan and there are questions about where troops for new army units at Goose Bay and other locations would come from...
Note that the reporter, David Pulgiese, manages to put in a gratuitious jab at the Afstan mission. What would the mission in Goose Bay be?
Another jab: Afstan or the Arctic?
...University of Calgary defence analyst Rob Huebert said...Mr. O'Connor is going to "have a huge battle on his hands" in moving forward significant parts of the government's Arctic agenda, particularly with the Afghanistan mission scheduled to continue until 2009. At the same time, there is a pressing need to re-equip the military with billions of dollars worth of modern gear...
Now some good sense:
Mr. Huebert said if the government is serious about protecting Canadian sovereignty in the North it could do the job with a combined force of military personnel, RCMP and members of the coast guard. He said the coast guard is recognized as one of the most skilled in the world when it comes to icebreaking operations, but various federal governments have severely cut that its funding...
David Rudd, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, said the military leadership is also concerned about the government's plans to station a rapid response battalion in Goose Bay and other units in places like Comox, B.C.
He said there is "absolutely no military reason to station troops in Goose Bay."..
Nor in Bagotville and Trenton, also promised regular battalions during the election.
And another Great Moment in (Deceptive) Canadian Journalism. Mr Pugliese describes the Polaris Institute as a defence think-tank. Here is the Institute's motto:
...retooling citizen movements for democratic social change in an age of corporate-driven globalization.
Draw your own conclusion.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
Worried about the cost of the Conservative government's plan to build armed icebreakers for the Arctic, military officials are trying to convince Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor to instead use less expensive hovercraft or small patrol boats to monitor the entrances to northern waterways.
Resistance is building inside the Defence Department toward some of the Conservatives' military policies, particularly those involving the Arctic as well as the stationing of a new rapid reaction army battalion in Goose Bay, N.L...
The army also has concerns about the Conservatives' plan to station troops in Goose Bay. The army is focused entirely on its ongoing mission in Afghanistan and there are questions about where troops for new army units at Goose Bay and other locations would come from...
Note that the reporter, David Pulgiese, manages to put in a gratuitious jab at the Afstan mission. What would the mission in Goose Bay be?
Another jab: Afstan or the Arctic?
...University of Calgary defence analyst Rob Huebert said...Mr. O'Connor is going to "have a huge battle on his hands" in moving forward significant parts of the government's Arctic agenda, particularly with the Afghanistan mission scheduled to continue until 2009. At the same time, there is a pressing need to re-equip the military with billions of dollars worth of modern gear...
Now some good sense:
Mr. Huebert said if the government is serious about protecting Canadian sovereignty in the North it could do the job with a combined force of military personnel, RCMP and members of the coast guard. He said the coast guard is recognized as one of the most skilled in the world when it comes to icebreaking operations, but various federal governments have severely cut that its funding...
David Rudd, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, said the military leadership is also concerned about the government's plans to station a rapid response battalion in Goose Bay and other units in places like Comox, B.C.
He said there is "absolutely no military reason to station troops in Goose Bay."..
Nor in Bagotville and Trenton, also promised regular battalions during the election.
And another Great Moment in (Deceptive) Canadian Journalism. Mr Pugliese describes the Polaris Institute as a defence think-tank. Here is the Institute's motto:
...retooling citizen movements for democratic social change in an age of corporate-driven globalization.
Draw your own conclusion.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 8:19 a.m.
1 Comments:
Mark, I sometimes think that you are hypersensitive to jabs that aren't there.
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