Canada after Afstan: Demilitarization?

After the--for many if not most Canadians--unhappy and disconcerting experience of actual war, I suspect the US defense secretary's remarks will be quite applicable chez nous:

Gates: Europe's demilitarization has gone too far

Europeans' aversion to military force is limiting NATO's ability to fight wars effectively, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

In remarks to a forum on rewriting the basic mission plan for the NATO alliance, Gates called for far-reaching reforms in an organization that was created 61 years ago as a political and military bulwark against the former Soviet Union and its Red Army...

"The demilitarization of Europe - where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it - has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st," he told an audience filled with uniformed military officers from many of NATO's 28 member countries...

...[Secretary Gates spoke of] the real world conflicts NATO is fighting today - with about 120,000 troops, including U.S. forces, in Afghanistan, and the prospect of staying there in some numbers for years to come [not us or the Dutch]...

One suspects a clear sign of our future demilitarization will be in coming budgets. As I wrote a month ago (end of post):

...I think it pretty unlikely any Canadian government will send the Army into really serious combat again for some time to come...