My little guy says, "Wow, he's a good flyer!"

I love watching those F-18's whenever they are in the area. We've been lucky to see them every summer for a few years now as they fly through town. They sure are loud! I can only imagine how menacing they would sound in an actual war setting when they are really pushing those engines.

While I am impressed with a little air show as well it is ironic when the city has a person on staff to discourage idling of cars and just a few minutes of one these jets is more than any amount of exhaust from idling cars for many months

You got it right lunarbase/ However whats good for General Bullmoose is good for the Country.

God bless America! (where else could Canada buy a jet such as this?) Then again, if our armed services couldn't get one of these planes, they could build politically correct non-polluting kites to carry and remotely drop bombs. AND no carbon footprint on these kites either. How Canadian, eh?

Actually there is many countries we could have purchased such a jet. Given our obsession with trade and China maybe the next set of jets will come from there.

Little tidbit. 40% of all fuel purchased for the United States is used in a Military role.

Why are we not hearing about our CF18 jets softening up the Taliban prior to our ground troops engaging them?

Civilian casualties. Besides, everything has been bombed once already.

lostfaith,

Some of our other NATO allies have air power in Afghanistan which is available to the Canadian forces. I'm sure our troops call in tactical air strikes all the time. It's pretty much standard procedure for modern military operations.

harbinger,

Although you're right that the CF-18 and most of its weapon systems are made in the U.S., Canada is a major producer of military equipment. We make all sorts of helicopter engines, armoured vehicles and communications equipment for the international military market. It's just that the Liberals never bought our own troops any.

One thing I can say for Harper is that at least he's giving our soldiers the tools to do the job, not just sending them to fight with obsolete junk. We're one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we should have an effective armed forces capable of exerting our foreign policy overseas and protecting our borders. With Russia trying to steal the arctic out from under us, it's time we restore our proud military heritage. It's not PC to say so anymore, but from the War of 1812 onward Canada has distinguished itself as a country that can kick butt and take names. It's time to bring that back.

There is absolutly nothing wrong with having the strength to defend ourselves. Perhaps equally important, there is all sorts of genocide and human rights violations going on in Sudan, the Congo, etc. If we don't do something about it, then we're just as culpable as the guy swinging the machete.

yes it was great having the CF18 in town this weekend!! as Saturday was the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 60th Anniversary!! so it was a great treat to see!!

Arthur I agree with you that we need a strong military... but your argument that we are just as guilty as the guy swinging the machete in Africa if we chose not to get involved physically is a bogus argument.

Sounds like you must work for the Chinese or something... they fund a bunch of thugs in Darfur or Zimbabwe to hack a few innocents up so that we divert all our military resources chasing the spooks... meanwhile they make inroads in the Middle East, or worse yet get bold for Taiwan.

Canada can always act as a moral authority on the international scene, and do so effectively with out having to resort to using force of our arms. I'd argue that the moral authority is Canada's strongest asset (which Iraq involvement would have destroyed).

Canadian armed forces need two things IMO.

One is to be able to assist nations in distress through providing a secure environment to enable the nation in question to secure its sovereignty (setting international standards (for our own protection))... when it fits with a defined Canadian strategy of the greatest good for a limited resource. IMO the Afghan operation is designed to stop the Asian (China, Pakistan) powers from creating a failed state in the heart of Asia for use to create an under ground foreign policy of fear for their geo-political agenda. Afghanistan is the cross roads of Asia and is key to a future Asia based on trade (respecting sovereignty), and not distrust and fear of neighbors. Time will tell.

The other thing Canadian forces need to be able to do is to defeat any nation on Earth in a limited engagement (often Canada defines the turning point in global struggles), with the ability to go underground as a 5th column in the event of any possible American hostilities. I think Canadian forces on the battle field can deal with any foreign nation that challenged our interests if our will was there and the fight was right (we (Canada) are after all the only undefeated military in the world), but the real potential future threat is the Americans. I don't mean we have to worry that the Americans are coming or anything like that... but they do covet our land and our resources, and if they perceive us to be a push over they will not respect us, and even go so far as to just take what they want unless we have credible deterrence (I've talked with enough Americans to know this is what they think to themselves... a can of worms once opened thats very hard to close). So therefore, credible deterrence against America isn't nuclear weapons, or planes with bombs, but rather in the ability to resist and make difficult any transgressions to the point where they believe it is in their interests to respect our authority... rather than risk the mutual loss both nations would receive in any conflict. The job of the Canadian military is to have contingency plans in place and a force structure that can deal with it.

For example the war with the biggest implications for Canada's future was launched last week with nary a peep from Ottawa.

The Americans passed a law that would give the states the right to decide when they want to develop their own resources. This does two things. In the Americans mind it helps to bridge the gap between a Canadian province that has full sovereignty over its resources and an American state that sees the authority to develop (and the taxation powers of) resources held by the federal government. Bridging the gap is seen by strategic Americans as smoothing the road for an eventual assimilation of Canadian provinces into the American realm. The second thing this does is allow Alaska to start drilling for oil on its Pacific coast in the 54-40 area, while claiming it is state transgressions rather than a national transgression, but when push comes to shove it is the state that will receive American consent and not the Canadian province. This is why BC has had the off shore moratorium is because we still have a disputed boarder that is not settled and with the rich resource in the disputed zone... past administrations decided to defer settlement to a latter date, but GW Bush sees no reason to wait and wants to make a unilateral claim to the Canadian sovereignty of our off shore oil reserves off the BC coast.

How would our military protect or sovereignty then? this is a real example that will play out over the next couple of years especially if the price of oil doesn't come back down anytime soon. Americans in a recession will not give a rats ass about Canadian sovereignty arguments.