Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Which appears to be exactly what Xi Jinping did:

"After more than two years without leaving his country, Chinese President Xi Jinping isn’t missing the chance for in-person diplomacy as he joins other world leaders at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, this week ... [and]... Mr. Xi had a highly anticipated meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday, and will meet with the leaders of Australia and Japan, as well as Indonesian President Joko Widodo ... [but] ... Not on the list, however, is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau."

Meanwhile....

 

[Eye In The Sky]

 

[suffolkowner]

‘Big Bonanza’ For Polish Armed Forces – Set To Acquire A Series Of Cutting Edge Weapons To Challenge Russian Hegemony

If the just concluded 30th annual International Defense Industry Exhibition (MSPO), held in the Polish city of Kielce (September 6-9), is any indication, then Poland, given its historical “Russian-fear,” seems determined to be one of Europe’s leading military powers. The country’s political...

eurasiantimes.com

going over what the Poles have been doing I found this article that had some good info
Honestly I doubt theres a country that could take Poland right now nevermind in 2 years. What Poland has ordered in the time that we actually reduced our defence spending by 14%

250 M1A2 v3
28 M1A2 v2 already in place
116 M1A1

180 K2's of which they have or are about to receive 10
820 K2PL

122 Krab 155mm of which 64 in service

212 K9 of which 24 already delivered
460 K9PL

122 120mm mortar on KTO Rosomak almost completed

288 K239 MLRS
220 M142 HIMARS (of 500?)

23 batteries of Sky Sabre on 400 trucks including 1000 CAMM missiles plus an interim UOR system

96 Apache
32 AW-149
48 FA-50 to add/complement the 48 F-16
32 F-35

6 more Patriot batteries to add to the 2 existing

Im sure Ive missed some in the flury of announcements. My perspective is probably skewed to our own environment where fighter jets probably provide a decent force due to the limited exposure to land forces

 

[Czech_pivo]

Meanwhile....

View attachment 75209

OMG - once you've seen this you can't wipe this from you memory. Dear God help me.

 

[Kirkhill]

I'd throw in the the Slovaks into that mix and quite possibly the Czechs. The Slovaks are still leary of the Hungarians and Hungary is not making many friends within NATO or regionally right now.
For certain the mini Baltic states will hitch their wagon to Poland (without ticking off the US of course) as well.
Poland and the Czechs (and on a smaller scale the Slovaks) still have a decent of amount of heavy industry available, along with solid engineering companies/skills (think Skoda) and a growing, maturing tech sector. There is alot that they can build/grow regionally for their military needs. Add into that mix the Swedes and the Finns and voila, a fairly self-sufficient regional block in terms of military hardware.

You're right enough. The Czechs and the Slovakians have both been solid in their support.

What is your take on the Romanians?

 

[OldSolduer]

You're right enough. The Czechs and the Slovakians have both been solid in their support.

What is your take on the Romanians?

Simple - invoke the spirit of Vlad the Impaler.

It stopped the Turks.

 

[daftandbarmy]

OMG - once you've seen this you can't wipe this from you memory. Dear God help me.

Funny thing, that's exactly what the guy who sent it to me said

 

[CBH99]

I'm pretty sure that the Poles and Ukrainians can equally rely on support from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. And the Turkish association looks to be interesting too, if they can sort out the Kurdish situation.

I agree with almost everything you said here…just not sure how much firepower Iceland will bring to the fight

When Turkey was more of a genuine ally compared to the current ‘guy we don’t want but can’t get rid of’ ally we have now (don’t even think that word can accurately describe Turkey now?) - then yes, perhaps.

But the modern day Turkey? I doubt they’ll sort the Kurd situation out anytime soon, unless the solution is to wipe them out entirely.

(This is the same country who’s president carried out a false flag coupe to declare himself president for life, that openly bought oil from ISIS as a extremely thin disguise at openly finding them, hired proxies to fight ISIS along its border…kinda/sorta…had its warships lock weapons on a French warship when the French wanted to board a suspected smuggling vessel, conducts air strikes within its own borders on its own towns, against its own citizens, floods Europe with refugees if it doesn’t get what it wants, is pretty cosy with the Russians these days, etc etc)


But all of the other countries listed, absolutely. Fantastic allies to have!

(Poland has been the next-door neighbour anybody could ask for in this current situation.)

 

[Kirkhill]

I agree with almost everything you said here…just not sure how much firepower Iceland will bring to the fight

When Turkey was more of a genuine ally compared to the current ‘guy we don’t want but can’t get rid of’ ally we have now (don’t even think that word can accurately describe Turkey now?) - then yes, perhaps.

But the modern day Turkey? I doubt they’ll sort the Kurd situation out anytime soon, unless the solution is to wipe them out entirely.

(This is the same country who’s president carried out a false flag coupe to declare himself president for life, that openly bought oil from ISIS as a extremely thin disguise at openly finding them, hired proxies to fight ISIS along its border…kinda/sorta…had its warships lock weapons on a French warship when the French wanted to board a suspected smuggling vessel, conducts air strikes within its own borders on its own towns, against its own citizens, floods Europe with refugees if it doesn’t get what it wants, is pretty cosy with the Russians these days, etc etc)


But all of the other countries listed, absolutely. Fantastic allies to have!

(Poland has been the next-door neighbour anybody could ask for in this current situation.)

I guess I am looking at Turkish-Ukrainian relations. The Ukrainians seem to have a better sense of the Turks?

 

[Czech_pivo]

You're right enough. The Czechs and the Slovakians have both been solid in their support.

What is your take on the Romanians?

That's a good question.
Quiet, that's the first thing that comes to my mind.
Quiet because of a number of factors - proximity to Russia (across the Black Sea), Orthodox, their Church hasn't split from Mother Russia like the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has, border with Moldova (Transnistria), large border with Serbia, large border with Hungary.

The Czechs/Slovaks geographically are almost wrapped in a warm embrace by both Germany, Poland and each other, they live in a less dangerous neighbourhood. The Romanians are not really in the best neighbourhood, almost as bad as the Baltics.

Hungary would love to have back Transylvania and all those orphaned Hungarians living in Romanian. Serbia/Romania have had a long, solid relationship for the most part but now are on opposite sides of friendship with Russia. Moldova and Romania are close, with the former concerned about their intentions.

 

[Kirkhill]

That's a good question.
Quiet, that's the first thing that comes to my mind.
Quiet because of a number of factors - proximity to Russia (across the Black Sea), Orthodox, their Church hasn't split from Mother Russia like the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has, border with Moldova (Transnistria), large border with Serbia, large border with Hungary.

The Czechs/Slovaks geographically are almost wrapped in a warm embrace by both Germany, Poland and each other, they live in a less dangerous neighbourhood. The Romanians are not really in the best neighbourhood, almost as bad as the Baltics.

Hungary would love to have back Transylvania and all those orphaned Hungarians living in Romanian. Serbia/Romania have had a long, solid relationship for the most part but now are on opposite sides of friendship with Russia. Moldova and Romania are close, with the former concerned about their intentions.

Thanks for that.

I don't feel that the Balkans and the South generally have moved much from 1913 and the Austro-Hungarian positions. Fractious and unstable?

 

[Edward Campbell]

"Canada, a country with a long history of involvement in Haiti, is the top candidate and favored by the United States, but Ottawa is weighing the operational risks of fighting an enemy embedded in civilian communities, as well as the challenges of doing so in a fraught political environment."

So says Foreign Affairs, this week.

In fact t, I'm told by a source I consider reliable, that was one of the specific messages Secretary of State Blinken delivered to Prime Minister Trudeau when he visited Ottawa in October.

I heard (less reliable source) that message was delivered to the CDS in September and that was, in some part, responsible for the Reconstitution thing. The CDS, I heard (same less than 90% reliable source) knows that the mission requires a larger force than Canada could muster, even if we pulled out of Latvia, and there is no way, none at all, that he could build such a force in less than several years and with less than several billions of dollars of new funding - year-after-year-after-decade.

The result is:

 

[daftandbarmy]

"Canada, a country with a long history of involvement in Haiti, is the top candidate and favored by the United States, but Ottawa is weighing the operational risks of fighting an enemy embedded in civilian communities, as well as the challenges of doing so in a fraught political environment."

So says Foreign Affairs, this week.

In fact t, I'm told by a source I consider reliable, that was one of the specific messages Secretary of State Blinken delivered to Prime Minister Trudeau when he visited Ottawa in October.

I heard (less reliable source) that message was delivered to the CDS in September and that was, in some part, responsible for the Reconstitution thing. The CDS, I heard (same less than 90% reliable source) knows that the mission requires a larger force than Canada could muster, even if we pulled out of Latvia, and there is no way, none at all, that he could build such a force in less than several years and with less than several billions of dollars of new funding - year-after-year-after-decade.

The result is:
View attachment 75231

Northern Ireland would probably look easy compared to Haiti.

Except the added dimension of of rich white first world colonialists, from another country, shooting Haitians on international TV would add a bit of spice to the whole thing.

 

[OldSolduer]

Northern Ireland would probably look easy compared to Haiti.

Except the added dimension of of rich white first world colonialists, from another country, shooting Haitians on international TV would add a bit of spice to the whole thing.

A terrible fit. Avoid it. If you go in bring a battalions worth of lawyers and PR types.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Northern Ireland would probably look easy compared to Haiti.

Except the added dimension of of rich white first world colonialists, from another country, shooting Haitians on international TV would add a bit of spice to the whole thing.

A few, actually quite a few, years ago an acquaintance, a former very senior official, who was well paid (by governments (not just ours) and foundations) to think both this sort of thing, said that Haiti would need three generations of colonial rule - trusteeship, he said - to be ready to assume a productive place in the world:

• In the first generation the mandatory power (his words again, shades of the League of Nations) would restore impose law and order and establish trust in the motives of the mandate;
• Two generations would be required, overlapping the first and third, to build institutions in which the people had trust and confidence; and
• The third generation would see the rise of a legitimate independence movement which would, eventually, form a home-grown government.

It would be, he said, the work of a century, and no responsible "white" nation would ever want to touch the problem ... and any one that did couldn't be trusted to do the job properly.

His candidate was India.

 

[Czech_pivo]

A few, actually quite a few, years ago an acquaintance, a former very senior official, who was well paid (by governments (not just ours) and foundations) to think both this sort of thing, said that Haiti would need three generations of colonial rule - trusteeship, he said - to be ready to assume a productive place in the world:

• In the first generation the mandatory power (his words again, shades of the League of Nations) would restore impose law and order and establish trust in the motives of the mandate;
• Two generations would be required, overlapping the first and third, to build institutions in which the people had trust and confidence; and
• The third generation would see the rise of a legitimate independence movement which would, eventually, form a home-grown government.

It would be, he said, the work of a century, and no responsible "white" nation would ever want to touch the problem ... and any one that did couldn't be trusted to do the job properly.

His candidate was India.

100% spot on -

 

[MilEME09]

Opinion: The Canadian Armed Forces are heading for a Titanic collapse

Canada’s military claims to be ‘mission first, people always.’ To deal with that contradiction – and its recruiting crisis – the CAF needs to reinvent itself as a modern organization

www.theglobeandmail.com

Catastrophe puts our situation mildly, we are in a state of collapse

 

[daftandbarmy]

Opinion: The Canadian Armed Forces are heading for a Titanic collapse

Canada’s military claims to be ‘mission first, people always.’ To deal with that contradiction – and its recruiting crisis – the CAF needs to reinvent itself as a modern organization

www.theglobeandmail.com

Catastrophe puts our situation mildly, we are in a state of collapse

As if getting rid of drill would help with all that.

All we need, of course, is a damned good little war

 

[Edward Campbell]

As if getting rid of drill would help with all that.

All we need, of course, is a damned good little war

Which is precisely what the government-of-the-day - any government, any day - doesn't want.

 

[Kirkhill]

1940 Bombers Blitz London
1940 Radar guided interceptors beat bombers
1940 Bombers beat Berlin
1944 V1 Cruise missiles terrorize London
1945 V2 Ballistic missiles terrorize London

1953 GBAD Nike missiles beat bombers
1957 ICBMs replace bombers
1957 Orbital missiles terrorize everyone - MAD - and there ain't nothing we can do about it.

1984 Reagan's Star Wars programme - laughed off because of difficulty of hitting a missile with a missile

But

1980 CIWS Phalanx
2004 C-RAM Phalanx
2011 Iron Dome

Why the list?

Fewer butts in seats
Fewer buttons
More automatic responses

The realm of the possible keeps increasing.
The need for people on parade keeps decreasing.