Heres something that corresponds with that last post.
[quote:3d210]
General pleads for budget increase
Underfunding of military puts unbearable burden 'on backs of our people'
Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
The government must boost defence spending because Canada has been riding "on the backs" of its overworked soldiers for long enough, says the former commander of Canada's anti-terrorism efforts.
"Of course, I'd like to see more money," Brig.-Gen. Michel Gauthier told the Citizen yesterday in an interview. "But if we aren't going to see more money, then everything else has to be in balance, so we're not doing this as a military, we're not doing this on the backs of our people. That really has to stop."
Brig.-Gen. Gauthier ended a six-month term this week as commander of Operation Apollo, the Canadian contribution to the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition headquartered at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida.
Brig.-Gen. Gauthier said he's proud of the continuing efforts that Canada's navy, air force and special forces, the elite JTF-2 commandos, continue to play in Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. anti-terror campaign. Though Canada is still the fourth-largest contributor to Enduring Freedom, the army pulled its overworked troops out of Afghanistan earlier this year.
For two years prior to his posting to Tampa, Brig.-Gen. Gauthier was the Canadian army commander for Ontario. As preparations were being made to send Edmonton's 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry to Afghanistan late last year, Brig.-Gen. Gauthier was in Petawawa telling soldiers in the Royal Canadian Regiment they would be the next into Afghanistan once the Patricias' six-month tour of duty ended. The RCR soldiers were "all fired up to go over there and serve their nation," Brig.-Gen. Gauthier recalled.
But they never got the chance.
The government did not replace the 800-strong Patricia's because it said the Canadian Armed Forces were spread too thin and could not afford to send another battle group.
A contingent of 500 Romanians replaced the Canadians in Afghanistan.
Since then, Brig.-Gen. Gauthier said, not a week has gone by that U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of Enduring Freedom, or his deputy hasn't asked whether Canada will send more ground troops. "Every week, they would punch me in the arm and pat me on the back and say: 'Hey, Mike, when is Canada going to contribute another battle group to Afghanistan?' "
Despite the scaling back of ground troops, Brig.-Gen. Gauthier said Canada remains the fourth-largest contributor to Enduring Freedom with 1,250 troops. The navy, he said, is taking a leading role patrolling the Arabian Sea for fleeing al-Qaeda terrorists.
But Brig.-Gen. Gauthier agrees with the government's rationale for not continuing the deployment of ground troops. Though the RCR was eager last December to go to Afghanistan, they had just returned from the Balkans two months earlier. That would have meant two foreign deployments in less than a year, a pace the military views as too intense. Brig.-Gen. Gauthier said one officer is currently on his ninth foreign mission in 15 years. Many others are on their sixth, seventh and eighth.
"The people of Canada are getting clearly as much as they conceivably can out of their military ... out of the people part of the military," he said. "I don't think those individuals will want to continue to do that in the future without some indication that they have support from the people of Canada. We can't press them that hard. They're human beings. They have families."
Defence Minister John McCallum is sympathetic to the concerns, said Brig.-Gen. Gauthier.
In Toronto yesterday, the U.S. ambassador to Canada renewed his efforts to persuade the Chrétien government to boost military spending.
"We will continue to make our case that the Canadian military is very valuable, plays an important role in defending North America as well as helping maintain freedom around the world," Paul Cellucci told reporters before a meeting with Ontario Premier Ernie Eves.
"We think that more resources need to be allocated so that the Canadian military has the troop strength it needs."
Mr. Cellucci also said Canada should develop "a lift capability that we think a modern military should have" -- a clear reference to the fact that Canada relies primarily on the U.S. to transport its troops and heavy equipment to war zones, which was the case with the recent Afghanistan mission.
[/quote:3d210]
http://www.canada.com/national/story.as ... 2A4BCC1AC6