Thursday, January 26, 2006

You and What Navy ?

The incoming Conservative Party Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Stephen Harper, no doubt seeking to burnish his nationalist credentials, and prove he’s not a US lapdog, stated today that he would stand by a campaign promise to make more use of the Canadian military to patrol the Northwest Passage, which Canada claims as territorial waters. The US disputes this claim. The US uses the Northwest Passage at times to shift submarines around in the northern wastes, to keep an eye on Russia.

Okay Mr. Harper, you’ve made your ritual demonstration of national independence. Hopefully you have the good sense not to be serious. German Prime Minister Prince Otto von Bismarck was once asked what he would do if the British Army invaded Pomerania. Bismarck responded that he would “send a policeman and have it arrested.”

Given the sorry state of the Canadian military, if the Canadians want to play footsie, possibly we could take a leaf from Bismarck’s book and get away with sending a harbor police launch. On second thought, if all this interest in the frozen tundra resulted in the Canadians getting serious and rebuilding their military, we could sure use some help elsewhere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes. More boats less peacekeeping. Christ it's cold.