Customer Reviews

Who Killed the Canadian Military?

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Jack Granatstein has captured the culprit who has seen the demise of the Canadian military... it was the Canadian public aided by a succession of elected officials and some careerist members in uniform. Mr. Granatstein does an outstanding job of explaining his choices of reasons why the Canadian Forces (CF) has fallen into a state of disrepair. Peacekeeping vice training and equiping the military for general combat has lulled the Canadian population into thinking that we have a ready band of do-gooders in uniform instead of a cohesive fighting force. Diefenbaker, Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien - the latter being the worst of the bunch - all destroyed the foundations required to field a capable military force.
Mr. Granatstein does not espouse the need of a million person military nor does he say that the military requires all the bells and whistles our friends south of the border employ. His argument is simple: give the small military we have direction (through REAL leadership) and equip them with the tools they require to get the job done, whether it be supporting a coalition effort or an aid to civil power operation domestically. It should be noted that the book is not a collection of woes and complaints, it also provides some viable solutions to the issues faced by the CF. The only caviat he had placed on these solutions is that something has to be done NOW.
All in all, the book was an easy read and well argued, I urge all Canadians, whether they care about the military or not, to read this book and feel the pulse of the current state of the CF before it flat lines.

A very nice, readable volume. Grantstein's years of research in the field (not to mention his own military experience, which comes to the fore for the first time) have culminated in this very well done survey of how the Canadian military has evolved in the last 100 years.

The book is straightforward, written in simple language, and is logically laid out into several distinct "eras". He discusses both the military atttitudes of the time, and the policies of the government. He is even handed (for instance, he concedes many of the positive aspects of integration while at the same time identifying the harmful effects of Unification) and at the same time ruthless.

Unlike many critiques, Granatstein ends up with some constructive suggestions. Readers might like to compare and contrast his conclusions with those in TARNISHED BRASS, which also has a prescription for reviving the military.

The latest version of this book carries us up to Paul Martin's election victory and is therefore rather current.

Recommended, probably moreso than Bercuson's SIGNIFICANT INCIDENT which also covers the same topic, and much less muckracking that TARNISHED BRASS.

Granatstein hits most of the right targets when assigning blame for the neglect, bordering on outright sabotage, of the Canadian military.

Pearson-era Defence Minister Paul Hellyer's bizarre unification experiment gets (almost) the scathing criticism it deserves, as does Trudeau's neglect of the military. And the morale-sapping myth of Canada as a nation of "peacekeepers" is exposed in all its fraudulent glory.

But Granatstein, like many of his opponents on the left, goes on to make that classic Canadian mistake of confusing a strong defence posture with greater continental integration. Make the military bigger, he says, while at the same time start cooperating more closely with Washington.

Granatstein seems not to consider the possibility that Canada needs a stronger military to safeguard Canadian interests abroad and sovereignty at home on its own terms, rather than to blindly support U.S. foreign policy. His critique of Jean Chretien for keeping Canada out of the U.S.-led blunder in Iraq, for example, now looks particularly ill-chosen in retrospect.

While sharing Granatstein's disgust at the damage and humiliation that politicians and bureaucrats have forced on Canada's military, one still can't help but wonder whether he really wants to save our military and restore its pride, or just set up a local recruiting depot for the U.S. military. Even most of the new equipment he suggests acquiring comes from the United States, with very little from Europe or Britain.

Nevertheless, this is a book that every Canadian should read. And let's hope Canada's army stays Canadian, complete with the regimental system, "leftenants" and a chain of command that ultimately stops in Canada. Or we could add Jack Granatstein to the list of those who helped kill Canada's military.

Wow! What a spectacle! Granatstein's book takes us on a non-stop thrillride of political bungling, misallocation, misinterpretation, and ultimately neglect of Canada's armed forces. The sad thing is he's right on most accounts - Canada has willfully neglected her armed forces for a myriad of reasons over an extended period of time. This in itself is regrettable and I agree with Granatstein that it has seriously eroded the ability of Canada to defend herself and her interests, at least as a political entity. This neglect has likewise eroded Canada's importance as a peacekeeper nation.

But you'll have to forgive my idealism when I reject Granatstein's assertion that we need to kowtow to the United States in order to assert our sovereignty. Since when was it dependent on how well we conform to the imperial ambitions of our neighbours to the south anyhow? The "War on Terror" is turning out to be a total sham, wreathed in lies, racism, imperialist hubris, religious zealotry, and the seemingly inexhaustible capacity of the current US administration to be stupid. Furthermore, armed forces don't necessarily need to exist to "fight wars". What's wrong with relegating Canada's armed forces to a constabulary role? We have never fought wars of aggression or retribution, opting instead to come to the aid of those whose fates dictated their involvement in just such conflicts (Russia and the Boers notwithstanding). And much like the rousing of the sleeping giant, we've always managed to muster the resources necessary for the task at hand when it came to hand. The questionable spectre of Islamic terror is a poor excuse to gird for battle, especially given the fact that as of this date, we, at least directly, are in no way affected by it. Certainly the economic fallout is there, but neither bomb, nor anthrax, nor body count, nor "terror alert level" has made its way into the vernacular of daily life in Canada as yet.

Coincidence? Perhaps. Or is it something else? Perhaps it's our connection to Europe that has entrenched in us a love of social progress, or maybe we're just naïve. Whatever the reason, this is not, nor has it ever been, a nation of belligerents. It is a nation of the reticent - of people who love the fact that they can travel abroad without fear of recrimination, who can walk down streets without fear of gun-toting reactionaries at every doorstep, and who don't rely on weapons to settle our differences be they internal or external. That kind of national character is one I'd sooner project and foster globally than what Mr. Granatstein espouses.