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Originally Posted by jaguar
Am I the only one that thinks that's a good thing? Really?
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You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. That's also about what Switzerland spends (1.1% of GDP/$310 per capita). But, the point is not only that Canada spends less than $10B/annually on its military but also that it is not enough simply to keep its troops and equipment in "ready to deploy" mode. France, by comparison, spends 2.6% of its GDP on its military ($663 per capita) and France isn't exactly posturing for war.
So the real problem it seems is that Canada wants a large military (as evidenced by its materiel and manpower inventory) yet it is not willing to commit to fund it to keep it operational. That is the point I was making.
If Canada wants to downsize its military to a size commenserate with its budgetary allotment then no one outside of Canada really has any right to question it. I would suspect, for example, that I would be hard pressed to find one molecule of rust on any peice of equipment in the entire inventory of Switzerland's military or any soldier who lacks the proper training or any machine without skilled and able-bodied operators. All that says is that Switerland's military budget "matches" its desired military strength. Such is far from the case in Canada. And there is a lot of concurrance with that assertion coming from within Canada's own borders.