Reduce Armed Forces

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?
This is either an editorial to the Toronto (Red) Star or an article by one of the top writers for the Star but lately, I can not tell the difference. This article is nevertheless typical of writings of liberal authors in Toronto and more recently, major urban centres of Canada. I have chosen this article specifically because it exemplifies such liberal rhetoric and should be discussed. Changing Canadian values and shoving it into our faces is the task of this article as well as criticize Canada's military as to abolish it completely. This is a typical liberal fantasy which I am glad Bilal Abdullah has mentioned because this is a fantasy at the back of every liberal's mind. By trying to eliminate all Canadian values of the past, the Canadian Armed Forces are one of the few Canadian institutions left that stand that symbolize a Canadian culture and value that have not been tampered yet. This bothers progressive thinkers who want to move Canada into a direction of no symbolic value that eventually leads to unity problems in the country such as with Quebec and most recently Western Canada. Let us attempt to break down Abdullah's argument. "To spend money on the military is akin to tossing this money into a bottomless pit. Canada is not a war-like nation. We enjoy one of the the highest standards of living in the world and should use precious resources to further enhance Canadian lives." This leads to the previous case that was discussed that showed that liberals view enforcers of values as immoral and not human. The lives of the Armed Forces are just as important as any other. I guess liberal penny pinching of the Armed Forces is justified in this case. "We need a force that is perhaps as small as one-fifth of the present number." Military expenditures count for only 1.1% of Canada's GDP. Let us do the math. The author is proposing a $2 billion budget for the Armed Forces. To put things into perspective, this is the cost of the current gun registry. Not a lot of money for a functioning unit of people is it? How a bloated, bureaucratic mistake such as the gun resistry can be equal to a proposed budget of fighting, honourable Canadians is another topic in itself. "A truly Canadian force would be dispatched within Canada to aid victims of natural disasters and abroad to aid humanitarian efforts." Even if the Armed Forced are "forced" to only do humanitarian work, a C-130 Hercules, used frequently by The Armed Forces for specifically humanitarian work costs around $48.5 million. With a $2 billion budget, I am sure the author has this all though out. Are we to reuse all of our old equipment and have more of these atrocities? I guess the old liberal adage of reduce, reuse and recycle applies to our Armed Forces as well.