"For many years I have believed that Canada needs to revamp its military. Not to make it more of an expeditionary force, but to make it serve Canadians better. The main arm should be the Navy, supported by the Air Force, so we can defend our territorial waters. As for our army, they should be trained in insurgency/counter-insurgency. Officially, of course, the military upgrade would be so we could fight the colonial wars we keep getting dragged into by our entangling alliances. Unofficially the real reason would be because after Iraq, only a fool thinks the US isn't one demagogic politician and one disaster away from invading anyone it pleases, whether there's any good reason or not. Sound ridiculous? Well, 8 years ago would you have thought that if country X attacked the US, the US would use that as an excuse to attack country Y? Ridiculous is no longer a valid counterargument. The US was a rogue nation under Bush, I can see no reason to think it couldn't happen again. And Canada has a lot of oil." -- Ian Welsh, 2009-03-22