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Canada is suffering the consequence of being under a liberal government for too long, while the United States sufers from too much conservatism. The ideal place would be in between.

That being said, this article is full of shit.

Most of the military cuts were made to pay off Canadas debt, not to pay for social programs. See if you can figure out which of our Prime Ministers is most responsible for our debt, and what party he represented.

Second, Rwanda? Grab a clue! Canada could have done more, a lot more, but of all the wealthy nations was the only country doing anything! Disagree? Like I told you before, read Romeo Dallaires' book, that should clear things up.

We are no longer a peace keeping nation? ONE of the reasons our millitary is crippled is because of cutbacks. The other, we keep our millitary spread too thin with, you guessed it, peace keeping missions. Canada can not say no. If we hauled all our boys home for five years you would see a substantial increase in the quality of our millitarys equipment etc.

Here, Canada the peace keeper, defender of human rights. This thread is and oldy but a goodie.

And Iraq is a peace-keeping mission? The United States declared war (that's right, the red white and blue started it) because it's the only way they could get ahold of Iraq oil. Period. If you still believe anything else you are living a life of willfull ignorance and need to be put out of your misery.

You preach unfettered capitalism and, for some reason, the futhering of American power through force Godz. What makes a nut like you any better than the extreme Liberals you often attack? Of the two, you are deafinatly the most dangerouse. When have 'Libs' ever started a war?

I have the benefit of sitting on the fence and seeing the nit-wits at both extremes. I have no problem with traditional conservatives, I might even be one, but neo-conservatives are phsycopaths and I think you may be further right than most of them.

   

Are you even old enough to remember Trudeau?



Read the damned book, Godz. Maybe you'll learn something.



What planet were you living on from 1982 until about five years ago? Those of us who actually remember what happened saw the social safety be slashed to ribbons, costs downloaded onto the provinces, the tax burden shifted from corporations onto the middle and working classes, and Canada become a much more unfrindly country to live in.





Except that it's basically a lie.



Everybody here has been very tolerant with you. Tolerance has a breaking point though.



Technically it means "new conservative" although in most parts of the world the dogma of what we call neo-conservatives cling to is referred to as neo-liberalism because of its radical belief in unfettered capitalism backed by military intervention by powerful governments. It is really anything but a conservative outlook...although killing women and children for money is nothing new, it has certainly never been espoused as a mainstream belief in a democracy before.

   

Well first off, 4 percent of the current GDP would mean over 40 billion dollars which in turns represents approximately a fifth (20%!!!) of all federal government spending. The countries that spend this much on defence are the UK, Germany and Japan. I realize you want more defence spending but not the 4 percent but just giving you a glimpse of what the numbers mean.

Also, I don't know how that article first talks about defense spending in percentages not actual numbers then compare it to the mass of Luxembourg? Thats comparing apples and oranges. If you want to compare defence spending vs. land masses then you have to look at these numbers. Canada spends roughly 9 billion US on defence, Luxembourg, 147 million. There, now apples vs. apples.

On the survey 80%+ of Canadians recognize the military as important but then ask another question. If it is your choice, to spend money on health care or the military, what would you choose?

As for the subs, they were begged for by the navy and once all retrofits and repairs are complete, I don't think they're that bad. These things can be useful patrolling the coast too, if there is an illegal drug shipment or illegal immigrants or anything you want to track down stealthily, your not going to do it in a frigate but in a sub where you can remain undetected.

   

P.N.A.C. is what the neocons are all about.

I never said they were for unfettered capitalism, I HAVE said that YOU are for unfettered capitalism (you push the idea awefully hard anyway). I have also said you are further to the right than most neocons.

Catching up yet?

ps, I notice you've labled me a liberal... I am pro life and I think Canadas welfare is too generouse. Now where do I fit?

   

Perhaps you should do some more diverse reading.



Overall spending on social programs has been reduced drastically even while the tax burden has been shifted from corporations and the wealthy onto the middle and working classes who are less able to pay for privatised services themselves because of increased taxation and reduced real wages. n addition to that, spending has been downloaded from the federal government onto the provinces who, in turn, downloaded as much as they could onto the cities.

The daycare program is being called for because in most middle and working class families both parents need to work and single parents need to work as well. While you don't want to pay these people to stay home and raise their children and have espoused policies that have led to the degradation of the real wage, you also don't want them to have access to affordable child care. Are you saying that the kids should just go ahead and raise themselves?



Look at the facts and figures. Look at US foreign policy. Read the PNAC documents. Do some critical thinking of your own. Here's a better idea...mosey down to the local bookstore and pick up a copy of It's the Crude, Dude by Linda McQuaig. Read it. Maybe you'll learn something.



They are, in fact, very much advocates of unfettered capitalism. The only time they favour government intervention is to provide subsidies, contracts, and military intervention to benefit corporations. They put the well-being of corporations far ahead of the well-being of people, including their own citizens. This has been seen time and again in reduced health legislation, reduced environmental legislation, attacks on scientific data that may interfere with profits, etc.

The only part of government they favour enlarging is the military and security agencies such as the CIA and NSA. Even those agencies have been downsized. Many of their functions are now performed by private contractors (mercenaries) but the budgets have risen to cover the increased cost of using those mercenaries instead of government employees.

   

The Canadian Military should be Revanped. Janes called us: . They should fund the military before more people die. That 8 billion surplus could purchase that new SAR plane now... not in 10 years.


As of the mercenaries; I hope this is in the US only. I know for a fact that the US have hires mercenaries. Not actual mercenaries since they found a loop hole in the UN constitution. Neverless hire to "Police" in Iraq. When, not if, one of them dies, they simply don't make the news.

   

That depends whose numbers you use, child. I also said "tax burden" not "taxes." You need to learn the difference if we are going to discuss this. The GST was basically a shifting of the tax burden. Taxes on booze, cigarettes, and gasoline at the consumer level are a shifting of the tax burden.

Funding for secondary education, health care, employment programs, independent scientific research (i.e. not funded by corporations), the military, parks, transportation etc. have all gone down in real terms. You can diddle the numbers all you want, but the fact is that departments have been cut, their funding has not increased at levels anywhere close to inflation, capital expenditures have been slashed, and those departments have been asked to do more with less. That, my friend, is a cut.

Oh, BTW, Harper sure as hell wasn't screaming about the corporate welfare that Cargill took while it was robbing farmers. It was his party that kept them from being punished, protected them, coddled them. He can say whatever he likes, but his actions show a different reality.



That isn't the way the real world works, Godz. Besides, if your beloved corporations would have kept real wages where they were in the fifties and sixties, people could afford to have one person stay home and look after the kids.





Yes, let's. They have stated that the US should dominate the world militarily and economically. They have said that part of that should be controlling outer space and cyber space.

They sent a letter to Bill Clinton in the nineties urging him to take over Iraq as part of their strategy. A major reason that they gave for that was guaranteeing the security of the USA's oil supply. They've advocated over-throwing unfriendly regimes, including democratically elected ones, all over the world should those regimes block access to resources.

You cheer for these guys, Godz? Have you no respect for democracy, or even human decency at all?

   

The link I posted was not to their website. Geez man, do a little more research. Google the term PNAC and do some reading. And I don't mean the first and only thing you find in handy dandy point form.

   

Well... that's the sales pitch. And you are an idiot. Maybe dig a little deeper??

   

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