All matters Canadian / Canada

[AdamG]

Wonder if they just re-wrote the 'how to make a wheel' book?

March 9, 2007
Guerrillas' lessons lost
By PETER WORTHINGTON
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Colum...f-3719381.html

In the category of "better late than never," the Canadian army is publishing a 250-page manual to instruct troops on how to fight guerrilla and counter-insurgency operations.

According to the National Post, this is the first time an effort has been made to familiarize soldiers with this form of warfare presently being fought in Afghanistan.

The fact such a manual is only now being published in this first decade of the 21st Century, persuasively supports Gen. Rick Hillier's controversial view that for our military, the 1990s was a "decade of darkness." Hillier's bluntness has the Liberals in a tizzy, claiming he's parroting the Tory government's line.

What nonsense! As one who has paid some attention to the goings-on of our military, I'd argue that Hillier's "decade of darkness" is overly generous: Our military has been in a progressively darkening twilight zone since Pierre Trudeau became PM in 1968.

[John T. Fishel]

About a dozen years ago, I was invited to lecture at Canadian Forces College (CFC) in Toronto. Later, I worked with several Canadian officer colleagues at CGSC Fort Leavenworth, one of whom was then Major, now Lt. Col. David Last who is now the Registrar at the Royal Military College. Through that association, I was invited to evaluate the Master of Defence Studies program at CFC this past Fall.

I was very impressed with the difference and strides made by CFC in the last decade. Their program, patterned after Leavenworth's MMAS, is as rigorous but has a better complement of permanent civilian faculty, all of whom were chosen for their academic credentials and substantive expertise. The program can (and does) also draw on academic talent from RMC and other Canadian universities.

One of the outstanding young academics is Dr. Chris Madsen, whose article "Canadian Troops and Farm Burning in the South African War" in CANADIAN MILITARY JOURNAL, Vol 6, No 2, is an outstanding piece of historical work on "COIN" operations during the Boer War. In addition, Dave Last has co-edited a 2 volume study of SOF with reference to Canada, entitled CHOICE OF FORCE and FORCE OF CHOICE, published by McGill-Queens University Press.

I supect that the new manual is just part of this renaissance in Canadian Military thought and I hope it takes the best from British, American, and French doctrine and tempers it with Canadian experience in PKO and operations in Afghanistan. If it does that, it will make a superior contibution to the cross national military doctrine discussion and debate.

[Michael Shannon]

The so called 'decades of darkness" were the response of both Conservative and Liberal governments to the demise of Canada's only convenetional threat, the USSR. Given the realities of government financing and politics, they had no other reasonable option but to reduce defence spending. The military was still given enough cash to be the second most expensive force per man in the world with total cash outlays 6th in NATO and 16th in the world. The CF made choices on what to spend it's budget on. It could have had more soldiers attend US Army Ranger and SF courses. It could have taught more foriegn languages (it only offers Spanish) at the Royal Military College. It could of had a mountain school. It could have offered COIN as a subject on it's Master of War Studies program. It could of had COIN as a subject at staff colleges. It could of bought suitable aircraft. It did none of these things but not for want of cash and not from interferance from politicians. I suggest that it was because the officer corps could not imagine particpating in a "Viet Nam", found language study difficult (in the CF it still makes far more career sense to perfect French or English than to learn Dari or Pashtu) and found playing tank versus tank war games much more fufilling than thinking about politics, culture, reconstruction and police work.

[John T. Fishel]

Jed--

Thanks for the edit. Being able to locate the books easily will help anyone who is interested in the subject. But I am most grateful for your posting of Chris Madsen's article. It really is relevant to this site.

On the "for fun" aspects, the photo reminded me of the famous photo of the Pershing Punitive Expedition to Mexico in 1916. The US and Canadian uniforms of the era were practically the same; both armies used similar bridles; but they differed with respect to saddles. The US used the McClellan (which I have never ridden but some swear by it while others hate it); the Canadians used the British Universal Pattern (UP). I have a modern version that is supremely comfortable - of course it does use a modern gel cushion for my tired old butt!

John

[Culpeper]

Canada paid a heavy price during WWI. Was cautious and didn't have a hard time during WWII as opposed to the British and Americans. They lost their punch. It is taking nearly a hundred years to get it back. I did see the Snowbirds one time and they were awesome in their slower CT-114 tutor jets. But that group, type of aircraft, and choice of name is typical of Canadian military mindset.

[marct]

All I can say, is that this is typically Canadian

Native reference will not appear in Canadian terror manual

BILL CURRY
From Monday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — References to radical natives in the Canadian Army's counter-insurgency manual will not appear in the final version of the document, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced.

The use of "radical Native American organizations" as an example of insurgents in a draft version of the manual has outraged native leaders, who viewed the wording as a threat to their political rights to protest.

More...

There's also a larger version with more details here.

Marc

[FascistLibertarian]

The experince of the Canadian Forces with the natives (specifically Oka) is one of the main domestic examples of how the Canadian military responded. It is very different than what the CF is going now in A-Stan. Regardless, it is a great case study similar to the protection of the Olympics in Montreal and the FLQ October Crisis. It should be in there even if the term "radical" maybe is not used.

[AdamG]

I wonder if these Mohawks complied with Canadian law and had only five-round magazines? Check the photo, their spokesman looks like a real winner

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Nation...99262-sun.html

DESERONTO — A small group of angry Mohawk protesters made good on their threats to disrupt transportation in Canada’s busiest travel corridor on a national day of action to raise public awareness of native concerns such as poverty, health and land claims.

*

Earlier, the Mohawk protesters near Deseronto who threatened that they had arms and were ready to use them, parked an old school bus across secondary Highway 2, forcing a steady stream of traffic and heavy trucks to turn around.

“We’ve made no secret that we have guns within this camp,” protest leader Shawn Brant told The Canadian Press in an interview. “It’s our intent to go out and ensure a safe day. Unfortunately, previous incidents have shown that aggressive tactics by the police need to be met with equal resistance by the people that they’re bringing those against."

Later, the protesters closed the nearby CN Rail main line, using jumper cables to activate crossing barriers before moving another old school bus onto the tracks.

[FascistLibertarian]

Was cautious and didn't have a hard time during WWII as opposed to the British and Americans.

?

I dont know how we had an easy time...................
check out the casulity rates of Canadians during the battle of normandy.......
Find out which divisions took the most killed and wounded.......
we did not go all infantry of course, and we tried to only build up the forces we could replace, and we lost less people than we did in ww1.
But I disagree we had an 'easy' time.
I dont think you could say any of our major army operations were easy.
Hong Kong
Dieppe
Italy (including the island and mainland)
Normandy
NW EU

Doesnt seem 'easy' to me.

[Jedburgh]

SSI, 3 Aug 07: Shaping Commitment: Resolving Canada's Strategy Gap in Afghanistan and Beyond

Release of Canada’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) in 2004, followed by the International (Foreign) Policy Statement and Defence Policy Review in 2005, has publicly articulated Canada’s principal security interests for the post-September 11, 2001 (9/11), world. Nevertheless, the realities of Canada’s present engagement in Afghanistan have highlighted a gap between stated national security and foreign policy goals on one hand, and the Canadian military, diplomatic, and development effort in theater, on the other. National interests and values, articulated within the NSP and the International Policy Statement, are insufficient to frame the context for such a complex endeavor. Only a clearly defined strategy based upon rigorous analysis of ends, ways, and means and assessment of risk can enable informed national and political debate, provide the required guidance for campaign planning among government departments, and determine Canada’s preferred stake in the wider international arena, including the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Recommendations are provided with respect to resolving Canada’s strategy gap in both the immediate and longer term.