When they say "The Arctic", you can often read that as being within the borders of Canada.

When you have something, and you lack the means to defend and assert that right - do you really have it? Canada has so defunded its military, that it's effectively an undefended nation.

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msie an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Canada has so defunded its military

Not anymore.

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switchbak an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I presume you mean the recent changes to finally get Canada up to 2% GDP for its military spending? (I'll put aside some of the accounting shenanigans going on there)

I disagree - literal generations of cutting to the bone and beyond cannot be turned around overnight. Defunding isn't just about the dollars, it's about the lost mindshare, training, culture, morale, equipment, stockpiles - everything.

It will take a generation of strong investment and actual commitment to get this force back to something it ought to be. And based on trends since the 80's, future governments will be quick to pull back on any recent allocations.

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Onavo an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Nah, they are essentially irrelevant unless they are operating as part of a coalition. Last I checked they are still waffling on what 5th generation fighter jet to procure while the rest of the world are starting to plan for the 6th generation.

	▲	switchbak an hour ago \| parent [-]
		We're quite literally flying the "Legacy Hornet" that was phased out of the US arsenal in the early 2000's. We bought the ones Australia retired so we could keep flying these ancient planes. We had such poor capability and data link compatibility that we've been passed over on recent NATO exercises. Their replacement has been a political football for the last ~20 years, extending so far beyond the rational lifetime of our original CF-18's that it boggles the mind. Those who've tried to keep rust buckets on the road know how high the cost can be for trying to keep something flying for so long. This extends to basically every part of the Canadian military - extreme delays followed by politically motivated (and extremely bad) decision making.

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testing22321 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you feel the same way about your personal property? Defend it at all times with force or it is effectively someone else’s?

What a horrible world you live in.

	▲	switchbak an hour ago \| parent [-]
		We're talking about nation states here, not houses in a policed region. That's not a valid analogy. Say you're East Timor and your neighbour wants what you have - if you don't have the means to defend yourself, you're pretty much screwed (and they were). It's the main reason we have a military - this is a harsh and unforgiving world at that level, and you need to maintain a given level of capability. We are not at the "end of history" as some thought in the early 90's, and this has been doubly re-enforced after the invasion of Ukraine. So what I'm saying is that by making such sustained and deep cuts to the Canadian military, that our political leaders have left the second largest nation in the world undefended and subject to the whim of its neighbours. And if you're paying attention, those are some pretty unsavoury neighbours. "What a horrible world you live in" - what a snarky and hostile thing to say, why not try to understand my message before typing out such a barbed and dismissive statement?

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throwaway5752 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you know how much hard power credibility the US has lost from the Iran War failure?

The US couldn't defend our bases in the area or our newly less enthusiastic regional allies. It couldn't keep the Hormuz open. The US wasted years worth of advanced munitions inventory defending against relatively cheap missiles.

The US couldn't annex Canada if it wanted to. Canada doesn't even need a military to destroy the US via assymetric tactics.

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switchbak an hour ago | parent [-]

"US couldn't annex Canada if it wanted to" - Truly, the state of our military is shockingly bad. The US Marines could annex Canada, and I honestly mean that.

I do agree that the US military's perceived preeminence has taken a big blow, but what you're saying is just outrageously false.

	▲	throwaway5752 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I do not think they could. It is not just a matter of seizing something as much as holding it, as everyone has plainly seen in Ukraine, or post-occupation Iraq or Afghanistan. Neither of those latter countries had a large shared land border with the US and ethnically similar populations that would make it easy to attack unhardened infrastructure.