This letter to the editor was published today in the Globe and Mail. It was edited so I am attaching the original text.
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The title proclaims “a victory for PM”, and the article
implies recent Libyan events provide credence for Canada’s current massive military build-up; the largest since WW2. In fact the existing hardware worked just fine for this mission. Indeed it seems easy to argue that no-one that is likely to attack us has the planes that the new F-35 are designed to fight, least of all 2 bit dictators.
While I too celebrate the death of this dictator, I question the base premise that we should be sending our military half way across the world to fight in other people’s wars. The U.S. is close to bankrupting themselves fiscally and morally with their constant wars, and Mr. Harper seems intent of doing that to us too.
It was the fiscal restraint of Mr. Chrétien that allowed us to weather the
last economic storm better than most. Mr. Harper has already squandered
that with 5 years of reckless spending increases. Worse he now seems
unopposed to taking us down the road of increasingly interventionist foreign
policy, with all the moral and security risks that implies. This is not
to be celebrated. The military should be for the defence of Canada only.
