by Klaus Rohrich
November 25, 2004
a recent report in The National Post states that the Canadian army is in grave danger of having some of its troops killed or injured due to faulty hand grenades. apparently the grenades, manufactured in (surprise!) Quebec are failing to explode at over 10 times the rate as similar U.S.--made grenades. The Canadian Military has been (surprise!) ordered by The Government of Canada to purchase the Quebecois grenades, despite the fact that at about $40 each, they cost significantly more than grenades made elsewhere.
Sean Henry, a former Canadian Forces Colonel, is quoted as saying that the Canadian Forces are directed by the government to purchase its equipment from specified suppliers located in various parts of Canada. In order to satisfy these directives, the military is forced to pay a premium for what often turns out to be inferior materiel.
Canada’s armed forces, already strapped for cash through numerous Liberal government cutbacks on military spending, is forced to pay for the more expensive, made-in-Canada provisions out of its regular budget, demonstrating once again the shameless way the Liberals in Ottawa distribute largesse (also known as bribes) to pet industries in favoured parts of the country.
I have a personal stake in this matter, as one of my sons is a member of the Canadian armed Forces and will likely in his career come into contact with these sub-standard made-in-Quebec grenades. as the father of a young soldier, I find it unconscionable that our government would put the lives and health of our troops at risk to acquire political capital. as a citizen, I am outraged that the rest of us are letting them get away with it.
For the past three or four years we have been hearing the Liberals and specifically Prime Minister Paul Martin pledge to increase military spending. Numerous announcements of cash infusions to the Canadian Forces have been made, yet little has really changed. Our so-called doctrine of wielding "soft power", while a joke to the rest of the world, is deleterious to Canadian soldiers who put their lives at risk at the behest of a government that doesn’t have a real foreign policy. In today’s world the only peacekeeping that can reasonably be done will emerge through the threat of deadly force. The belligerents in afghanistan and other places in the Middle East do not subscribe to the concept of soft power, as they see it as weakness.
On October 2, 2003 a patrol of Canadian soldiers encountered a landmine in their Iltis vehicle, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers, Sgt. Short and Cpl. Beerenfenger and the injury to a third, all members of the Royal Canadian Regiment. after an extensive Board of Inquiry and a review by the Department of National Defense, a number of "reasons" emerged for the soldiers’ deaths.
Speaking at a press conference on august 24, 2004 Brigadier-General Christian Barabé, Director General Joint Force Development concluded that the incident was really no one’s fault. I think this is called CYa. Speaking of the incident, the Brigadier pointed out that "the patrol in question was well planned and properly authorized; the minestrike was not preventable; the Iltis was an appropriate vehicle to use for the mission and task at hand;"
Interestingly, the Brigadier noted that "The issue of the use of the Iltis is one area where the Review Team and ultimately the DCDS and CDS disagreed with the assessment of the BOI." This means that the so-called review team and the Chief of Defense Staff insisted that the Board of Inquiry was wrong in its conclusion about the Iltis.
Ultimately, the Brigadier concluded "No Canadian Forces member is to blame for the deaths of Sgt. Short and Cpl. Beerenfenger." It seems important to the military bureaucrats in Ottawa to make sure that nothing sticks to the soles of their boots when incidents such as these happen.
But let’s look at what some others are saying about the Iltis and its suitability in threatres such as afghanistan.
a visit to the Canadian american Strategic Review web site provides some information that Brigadier Barabé failed to disclose. The Iltis, a vehicle originally built by Volkswagen in Germany, who ceased production in 1981 was built under license by (surprise!) Bombardier of Quebec at a cost of $27,200 per unit. Of course, the order was placed by the Liberal government of the day. The web site concludes, "…the Iltis is regarded by CF personnel as being too small and underpowered (its 75hp, 1.7 litre gasoline engine was identical to that of the lighter Rabbit car). It goes on to say that the Iltis is a …'thin-skinned’ vehicle…hardly ideal for operational roles". The meaning here can roughly be translated as "the Iltis is a coffin on wheels". But then, who cares about the lives of our troops, so long as we can continue to bribe La Belle Province to ensure that the Liberals remain in power.
I think I am beginning to understand why the National Firearms Registry is such an important part of the Liberals’ ideology. Keeping guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens will ensure their longevity.