Flit on DART

A variety of commentators have snapped at the Cdn government's seemingly slow response time to the tsunami tragedy. This is an excellent explanation of the historic policy choices that serve to constrain our possible actions now. It also offers up an interesting dilemma for the Liberal party - historically, the Grits have been fairly anti-CF (dating right back to the decision to smush the arms of the military into one). This goes along with their theories about violence (they're against the state's use of violence - with the possible exception of using it against other Liberals). However, the downsizing of the Canadian military now serves to limit Canada's ability to 1) matter in the world (not a big deal to most Grits, who have managed to come up with a number of clever theories to get around the "feet on the ground" maxim, such as Axworthy's "soft power"); and 2) to have a humanitarian influence in the world - which is part and parcel of the Canadian mythology/iconology.

Anyway, worth reading. The nut graf is here:

Starting with the McCallum years, we officially became "hotspot" averse. (Regarding strategic airlift, his now famous line was "No one has yet been able to give me a single instance where the absence of this capability stopped us or significantly delayed us moving people or equipment from point A to point B." Well, we've got a single instance now.)

Unfortunately, as was commented on at the time, that mentality makes it now effectively impossible to deploy in natural disaster scenarios, as well. DART, an Eggleton "first-in" project, has atrophied to the point where it proved undeployable even to Haiti during the hurricanes last year. If all this makes you wonder how effective the CF might be if that earthquake had been off of Vancouver Island, instead of Aceh, well, you probably should wonder. It's certainly not encouraging. Hopefully the Americans will have an aircraft carrier free then, too.

The good people of Port Alberni might want to flinch.

If I have time, I might skim through the army.ca forums to see what the people who actually know think.

Similarly, I liked Paul Wells' evisceration of the media's fixation of cdn cabinet meetings as a viable response to this tragedy. I mean, do you really think that Joe Comuzzi is going to help the Sri Lankans? Will Liza Frulla want to defer this to the relevant Quebec minister (actually, given that Alberta, BC and Ontario have all beaten the feds to the mark - don't answer that)? Can Stephane Dion pen a stiffly worded missive to Mother Nature, reminding her of her statutory duties? Does this mean that Judy Sgro will now have Thai strippers working in her office and on her re-election campaign instead of Romanians? Can Ken Dryden get his Dad to send more sleeping kits?

Seriously, I realize that Blackberries are banned in Cabinet meetings - but one would think that they are still used outside the Langevin Block. Face to face meetings weren't and aren't necessary in this case.