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Fri, October 8, 2004
Grits' sad record of underfunding
Liberal governments dating back to Pierre Trudeau have sold our armed forces short, says Bob MacDonald
By BOB MACDONALD -- For the Toronto Sun
A man appearing to be in his early thirties glanced at the front page of my Sun yesterday as he walked past me in an east-end Toronto coffee shop.
He read the headline aloud to a friend walking behind him: "HE GAVE HIS LIFE SERVING HIS COUNTRY."
"Oh, it's just a guy on that submarine -- I thought it was someone important," he said to the other as they walked away.
Ah yes, just the guy on the submarine.
His words stuck with me all day as I thought of the death from smoke inhalation of 32-year-old Canadian submariner Lieutenant Chris Saunders. His lungs had been lethally damaged helping to fight a fire that raged through his newly-acquired, second-hand submarine -- HMCS Chicoutimi. Six other injured crewmen remain aboard.
A 14-year naval veteran, New Brunswick-born Saunders, father of two, was described by colleagues as a young officer destined for top leadership roles in Canada's armed forces.
"He was a shining example of everything that is good and right about the military," his sister-in-law said.
I mention the callous comment by that young man in the coffee shop because it reflects what has become too often the view of some Canadians about our armed forces. And one of the worse culprits has been the Liberals -- the ever-governing party that's built a sorry record of weakening our military and saddling them with dangerously obsolete equipment.
'Bargain price'
The four used British subs acquired by the Liberal government for the "bargain price" of $750 million is just the lastest chapter in that nasty story. Especially when the government has stuck with the deal despite a never-ending litany of rusted hulls, rotting electrical wiring, leaking pipes and torpedo tubes, etc. And now lethal, crippling fires while at sea.
In fact, that sorry record of mistreating Canada's armed forces goes back to the reign of Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Soon after grabbing power in 1968, the left-leaning Grit PM tried to pull Canada out of the NATO and NORAD mutual defence pacts. That was at the height of the Cold War and would have suited the Soviet Union just dandy.
However, with our allies and most Canadians objecting, he was forced to pull back from that move. So, he did the next best thing: cutting Canada's troop strength and dragging his feet on replacing Canada's aging, obsolescent equipment.
For instance, I remember in the mid-1970s covering Canadian Forces operations in NATO's annual fall manoeuvres in Europe. The Canadians were stuck with 30-year-old Centurion tanks that required three days to replace an engine in the field. Time for modern U.S. tanks: three hours.
Under pressure from NATO allies and the opposition Conservatives, the Trudeauites finally bought German-made Leopard tanks. However, they were the old Mark I type that would soon become obsolete -- instead of the latest, much more formidable Mark II model.
Allan MacKinnon, then the Conservatives' defence critic, told me at the time that the Tories had to be low-key in their criticism because they feared Trudeau would simply cancel buying the new tanks entirely "if he becomes miffed."
Down through the years, this thinking continues. Liberal PM Jean Chretien's cancellation in 1993 of the contract to buy badly-needed Cormorant helicopters cost taxpayers $500 million in penalties. It was a political decision that left the forces with increasingly dangerous 40-year-old Sea King choppers. Today, the Liberals have finally awarded a contract to replace the choppers to a rival firm for what some critics say is an inferior helicopter.
On and on
And so it goes. Chopped budgets, obsolete tanks, rusting, used submarines, plus sending troops off to Afghanistan with bright green camouflage battle dress. And stuck with 40-year-old Hercules transport planes and aging CF-18 fighter jets.
Will it change? Based on the sorry record, no way. And that's why Conservative leader Stephen Harper must demand that there be a full inquiry into the submarine mess -- and the continuing mistreatment of Canada's armed forces.
Submariner Saunders should not have died in vain.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The bold highlight is mine :crybaby:
Maybe it's just the fact that it's downtown Toronto.... but I can't help the feeling that we're losing the battle for public support. After all, people are well aware of the problems faced by the CF now - underfunding, overextension, lack of equipment, quality of equipment. These stories certainly get wide play in the media... Just in the last two years, press has covered - in great deal and with great rhetorical rage - lack of desert-pattern CADPAT, the unsuitability of the Iltis, the Sea King crash on a CPF....
At least the deaths in Afghanistan this past year could be attributed to enemy action. This can't.
It just is a heavy blow that now, when a soldier/sailor/airman dies, people are so used to the problem that it doesn't matter anymore. After all, although the problem hasn't been fixed, the sky hasn't fallen on the average Canadian. Buddy in the article probably went his merry way without thinking about the CF's problems again, because it didn't deny him the Starbucks coffee he bought immediately thereafter or interfere with the satellite TV show he's watching as I write this.
Our cry of frustration used to be, "Is someone going to have to die before these problems are fixed?" It saddens me that, well, now they are, and yet some people don't care enough to read about it in the paper. I fear that this guy is typical.
What IS it going to take to not only get Canadians' attention, but to motivate them to change things? Ground Zero in Toronto and 20,000 deaths? I wonder what this guy would say then....
Maybe if a Sea King crashed on HIM, and widowed HIS wife and orphaned HIS kids, he'd care. But it would be too late.
Just like it was for Mrs. Saunders and family....
Rant ends. Let me have it, guys.............. :crybaby:
Someone please reassure me...
Grits' sad record of underfunding
Liberal governments dating back to Pierre Trudeau have sold our armed forces short, says Bob MacDonald
By BOB MACDONALD -- For the Toronto Sun
A man appearing to be in his early thirties glanced at the front page of my Sun yesterday as he walked past me in an east-end Toronto coffee shop.
He read the headline aloud to a friend walking behind him: "HE GAVE HIS LIFE SERVING HIS COUNTRY."
"Oh, it's just a guy on that submarine -- I thought it was someone important," he said to the other as they walked away.
Ah yes, just the guy on the submarine.
His words stuck with me all day as I thought of the death from smoke inhalation of 32-year-old Canadian submariner Lieutenant Chris Saunders. His lungs had been lethally damaged helping to fight a fire that raged through his newly-acquired, second-hand submarine -- HMCS Chicoutimi. Six other injured crewmen remain aboard.
A 14-year naval veteran, New Brunswick-born Saunders, father of two, was described by colleagues as a young officer destined for top leadership roles in Canada's armed forces.
"He was a shining example of everything that is good and right about the military," his sister-in-law said.
I mention the callous comment by that young man in the coffee shop because it reflects what has become too often the view of some Canadians about our armed forces. And one of the worse culprits has been the Liberals -- the ever-governing party that's built a sorry record of weakening our military and saddling them with dangerously obsolete equipment.
'Bargain price'
The four used British subs acquired by the Liberal government for the "bargain price" of $750 million is just the lastest chapter in that nasty story. Especially when the government has stuck with the deal despite a never-ending litany of rusted hulls, rotting electrical wiring, leaking pipes and torpedo tubes, etc. And now lethal, crippling fires while at sea.
In fact, that sorry record of mistreating Canada's armed forces goes back to the reign of Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Soon after grabbing power in 1968, the left-leaning Grit PM tried to pull Canada out of the NATO and NORAD mutual defence pacts. That was at the height of the Cold War and would have suited the Soviet Union just dandy.
However, with our allies and most Canadians objecting, he was forced to pull back from that move. So, he did the next best thing: cutting Canada's troop strength and dragging his feet on replacing Canada's aging, obsolescent equipment.
For instance, I remember in the mid-1970s covering Canadian Forces operations in NATO's annual fall manoeuvres in Europe. The Canadians were stuck with 30-year-old Centurion tanks that required three days to replace an engine in the field. Time for modern U.S. tanks: three hours.
Under pressure from NATO allies and the opposition Conservatives, the Trudeauites finally bought German-made Leopard tanks. However, they were the old Mark I type that would soon become obsolete -- instead of the latest, much more formidable Mark II model.
Allan MacKinnon, then the Conservatives' defence critic, told me at the time that the Tories had to be low-key in their criticism because they feared Trudeau would simply cancel buying the new tanks entirely "if he becomes miffed."
Down through the years, this thinking continues. Liberal PM Jean Chretien's cancellation in 1993 of the contract to buy badly-needed Cormorant helicopters cost taxpayers $500 million in penalties. It was a political decision that left the forces with increasingly dangerous 40-year-old Sea King choppers. Today, the Liberals have finally awarded a contract to replace the choppers to a rival firm for what some critics say is an inferior helicopter.
On and on
And so it goes. Chopped budgets, obsolete tanks, rusting, used submarines, plus sending troops off to Afghanistan with bright green camouflage battle dress. And stuck with 40-year-old Hercules transport planes and aging CF-18 fighter jets.
Will it change? Based on the sorry record, no way. And that's why Conservative leader Stephen Harper must demand that there be a full inquiry into the submarine mess -- and the continuing mistreatment of Canada's armed forces.
Submariner Saunders should not have died in vain.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The bold highlight is mine :crybaby:
Maybe it's just the fact that it's downtown Toronto.... but I can't help the feeling that we're losing the battle for public support. After all, people are well aware of the problems faced by the CF now - underfunding, overextension, lack of equipment, quality of equipment. These stories certainly get wide play in the media... Just in the last two years, press has covered - in great deal and with great rhetorical rage - lack of desert-pattern CADPAT, the unsuitability of the Iltis, the Sea King crash on a CPF....
At least the deaths in Afghanistan this past year could be attributed to enemy action. This can't.
It just is a heavy blow that now, when a soldier/sailor/airman dies, people are so used to the problem that it doesn't matter anymore. After all, although the problem hasn't been fixed, the sky hasn't fallen on the average Canadian. Buddy in the article probably went his merry way without thinking about the CF's problems again, because it didn't deny him the Starbucks coffee he bought immediately thereafter or interfere with the satellite TV show he's watching as I write this.
Our cry of frustration used to be, "Is someone going to have to die before these problems are fixed?" It saddens me that, well, now they are, and yet some people don't care enough to read about it in the paper. I fear that this guy is typical.
What IS it going to take to not only get Canadians' attention, but to motivate them to change things? Ground Zero in Toronto and 20,000 deaths? I wonder what this guy would say then....
Maybe if a Sea King crashed on HIM, and widowed HIS wife and orphaned HIS kids, he'd care. But it would be too late.
Just like it was for Mrs. Saunders and family....
Rant ends. Let me have it, guys.............. :crybaby:
Someone please reassure me...
