The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Supporting the Armed Forces Late last year a committee of the Canadian Senate issued a scathing report on the state of Canada's Armed Forces, about which much has been written in this column and others since the Liberals took over in 1993. Readers will remember how Chretien reneged on Mulroney's helicopter contract, costing the country millions and endangering the air crews. More recently they bought rejected British submarines on the cheap, a fatal purchase for at least one crew member. In any case, the senators claimed Canada's Armed Forces are only slightly better than those of Luxembourg and Iceland (Iceland has no army, navy, or air force.) The Liberals claim they are pouring more money into the forces, and the Bloc claims the unelected Senate has no credibility. Paul Martin's first minority budget last month has all the appearances of rectifying the situation as he more or less adopted the Conservative policy and promised $12.8 billion in military spending (by 2010) but only $500 million to start with. What is really unclear is if it is new money, and they really will spend it all. After all, how many Liberal promises to the military have been broken in the past 12 years? It is obvious that the NDP, Bloc, and many Liberals have little interest in Canada's defence, preferring to spend our tax money on more and more social programs, relying of course on the powerful military of the United States to protect us from any threat. They are also counting on their perceived pacifism of the Canadian public who want peace not war, and do not care about the Canadian Armed Forces. Contrast this attitude with the Americans' support of their troops, even though the vast majority of them want peace not war. They do, however, recognize that sometimes armed conflict is necessary to achieve freedom. Their record is pretty good. In the last century they liberated France twice, defeated Germany twice, saved Britain's bacon, annihilated Japan, and allowed Russia to win one for Stalin. Their loss in Vietnam followed France's defeat in the region (the French haven't won a war since Napoleon), they liberated Kuwait from Hussein, then defeated the Taliban and Iraq after 9-11. They haven't been able to stabilize the country so far, but if anyone can do it the Americans will. Oh yes, the U.S. threat terrified outlaw Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafy into renouncing nuclear weapons and terrorism. His good friend is now Paul Martin who stopped by in December to thank the (former) financier of terrorist actions for changing his ways Some believe the U.S. Armed Forces is not representative of the peoples of the nation, comprised of minorities, the poor and rednecks, and are really made up of those who need a job. There may be a grain of truth in this, but how do you explain Pat Tillman and Patrick Daley? Tillman is the NFL football star who gave up his career and big contract to serve his country after 9-11. A Ranger in special forces, he was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire and awarded a Silver Star. His family and the President expressed their pride in his heroism. Yes it's that Patrick Daley, the only son of Chicago's Democratic mayor-for-life Richard Daley, and grandson of the even more famous Richard Daley Sr., 21 year mayor of the Windy City, who won the 1960 election for John F. Kennedy. Patrick is 29, has an MBA and a six figure income, and is giving it all up to train as a U.S. army airborne soldier with a salary under $20 thousand per year. He will almost assuredly be sent to a combat zone. Why is a member of the U.S. elite sacrificing himself? His youth was filled with violent parties and run-ins with the police. He also was a dropout out of West Point. Daley claims that his motivation is a sense of duty, especially after 9-11, and he wants to serve in the front lines. Mayor Daley and his wife are distraught, and will be probably the only famous American family to have a child in combat in this war. What part did Bill Clinton play in the pre-Iraq war? The New York Post claims he was at least partly responsible for the "Oil for Food scandal" now raging in the U.N. and the United States. Clinton made a number of highly suspect last-minute-in-office pardons, including a female terrorist Rosenberger and fugitive financier Marc Rich, who fled to Switzerland after being charged with evading $48 million in taxes on illegal oil sales. Rich's ex-wife donated $1.7 million to Democratic campaigns including Bill's wife's and gave a half million dollars to Clinton's presidential library. After his pardon, Rich, who has not set his foot in the U.S. since, apparently was the key man in buying up vouchers for Iraqi oil, selling it on the open market and paying off Saddam Hussein. He was joined by others from Russia and France and the U.N. who was mis-managing the programme. Rich has made a fortune, estimated to be as high as $8 billion, and is under serious investigation by both houses of the U.S. Congress, along with U.N. head Kofi Annan. How many still think Bill Clinton was a great President?
