Excuse me!!!

Canada needs to step up its military presence

Since 1945, there has been a pattern of Canadian reluctance to share the burden of defending freedom. If their shameful lack of responsibility were not bad enough, our neighbor to the north appears, at times, to take delight in subverting America’s attempt to deal with terrorism.

Canadians are justifiably proud of their quality of life without ever acknowledging that they can afford expensive governmental programs because they depend on the United States to spend trillions of dollars to protect them. In 2004, the U.S. population was 10 times greater than Canada (293 million vs. 30 million) but we spent about 50 times more money than they did on maintaining a viable military deterrent ($420 billion vs. $9.1 billion). America’s per capita spending on the military was $1,433, compared to Canada’s $303.

Excuse me but the fact that you guys are far far far more aggressive militarily doesn't make you the poster child for ANYTHING. The dollars you spend on the military could just as easily be spent improving your countries access to healthcare. I don't happen to think that dollars spent on a war machine designed to TAKE human life is better spent than money used to care for it.

My second point is .... protect us from WHAT exactly? Seems like the US is the target not Canada. You might like to ask yourself why that is. Even so we are willing to work with you to better our mutual security thru SANE efforts to increase border security and mutual cooperation. Just because we refused to join you in an ILLEGAL war of aggression does not mean we are shirking our duty to fight terrorism. We are just doing it without all the hysterics you guys seem rather prone to down there. Our support in afghanistan should not be maligned either you pompous jerkwad. It was thru our support over there that you were able to pursue your ill advised aggression against an UNARMED country. Feel proud yet?

Thirdly this statement really really galls me .... "Since 1945, there has been a pattern of Canadian reluctance to share the burden of defending freedom."

Canada has been involved and in a significant manner with MANY MANY peacekeeping missions since 1945. In fact we were in the Second world war long before the US deigned to get their feet wet. You might like to read this CBC News article - The history of Canadian peacekeeping
"For some background info.

For his vision of a world where countries would enter a conflict in order to bring stability and peace, Lester Pearson would receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since then Canada has been at the forefront of peacekeeping operations around the world. Soldiers, police and civilians have all played prominent roles in separating armies and in the resolution of conflicts in Cyprus, the Middle East, Haiti, Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador and Angola to name a few. Currently Canadian peacekeepers are serving in 14 operations in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.

But Canada's involvement in so many trouble spots has not come without a price. More than 100 Canadians have been killed while on peacekeeping duties around the world.

Fact is in Canada we put the emphasis on PEACEKEEPING as opposed to WAR MONGERING. You cannot spread freedom and democracy at the end of a gun.

Damn I am just so mad right now I fear I am not making any sense .... will go cool off and may try and edit this later to be more coherent .... or not. There is a LOT more crap in that article that I didn't even touch. Like THIS ...

What is most baffling of all is that hundreds of Canadians were killed in the 9/11 attacks, and Canada was perfectly content to hold a few memorial services for their murdered countrymen and then quietly get back to life as usual. How can a nation be so devoid of emotion that they are incapable of getting angry enough to at least try to fight back? Apparently, sending a couple hundred soldiers to Afghanistan is enough to assuage their guilt over the lack of a backbone.

One can imagine the humiliation of Canadian World War 11 veterans who recall an earlier day when their country could be counted on to stand in the breach against the depredations of tyrants in Germany and Japan.

You might imagine that asshole but we happen to be VERY proud that we STILL stand for peace and sanity whereas you guys seem to have gone insane with a lust for revenge. Sorry but that's how it is.

IA

[UPDATE] .... I just saw that Robert over at MY Blahg covered this story as well, and did a much more thorough job of slicing and dicing than I did.