[.ca] Who Killed the Canadian Military? (ISBN 0006394752)

An important read:
Jack Granatstein has captured the culprit who has seen the demise of the Canadian military... it was the Canadian public aided by a succession of elected officials and some careerist members in uniform. Mr. Granatstein does an outstanding job of explaining his choices of reasons why the Canadian Forces (CF) has fallen into a state of disrepair. Peacekeeping vice training and equiping the military for general combat has lulled the Canadian population into thinking that we have a ready band of do-gooders in uniform instead of a cohesive fighting force. Diefenbaker, Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien - the latter being the worst of the bunch - all destroyed the foundations required to field a capable military force. Mr. Granatstein does not espouse the need of a million person military nor does he say that the military requires all the bells and whistles our friends south of the border employ. His argument is simple: give the small military we have direction (through REAL leadership) and equip them with the tools they require to get the job done, whether it be supporting a coalition effort or an aid to civil power operation domestically. It should be noted that the book is not a collection of woes and complaints, it also provides some viable solutions to the issues faced by the CF. The only caviat he had placed on these solutions is that something has to be done NOW. All in all, the book was an easy read and well argued, I urge all Canadians, whether they care about the military or not, to read this book and feel the pulse of the current state of the CF before it flat lines.

On the right track ... most of the time:
Granatstein hits most of the right targets when assigning blame for the neglect, bordering on outright sabotage, of the Canadian military. Pearson-era Defence Minister Paul Hellyer's bizarre unification experiment gets (almost) the scathing criticism it deserves, as does Trudeau's neglect of the military. And the morale-sapping myth of Canada as a nation of "peacekeepers" is exposed in all its fraudulent glory. But Granatstein, like many of his opponents on the left, goes on to make that classic Canadian mistake of confusing a strong defence posture with greater continental integration. Make the military bigger, he says, while at the same time start cooperating more closely with Washington. Granatstein seems not to consider the possibility that Canada needs a stronger military to safeguard Canadian interests abroad and sovereignty at home on its own terms, rather than to blindly support U.S. foreign policy. His critique of Jean Chretien for keeping Canada out of the U.S.-led blunder in Iraq, for example, now looks particularly ill-chosen in retrospect. While sharing Granatstein's disgust at the damage and humiliation that politicians and bureaucrats have forced on Canada's military, one still can't help but wonder whether he really wants to save our military and restore its pride, or just set up a local recruiting depot for the U.S. military. Even most of the new equipment he suggests acquiring comes from the United States, with very little from Europe or Britain. Nevertheless, this is a book that every Canadian should read. And let's hope Canada's army stays Canadian, complete with the regimenal system, "leftenants" and a chain of command that ultimately stops in Canada. Or we could add Jack Granatstein to the list of those who helped kill Canada's military.

Not history:
First thing to know about this book is that, the Eminent Canadian Historian pedigree of the author notwithstanding, this is not a history. It is an extended polemical essay by a political lobbyist who happens to be a historian by day. The obvious purpose of this book, hammered slowly into the skulls of readers, is to bolster Granatstein's public calls for greater military spending and automatic acceptance of the call to arms from the US. Second thing is that this a fast, fun read. Granatstein's agreeably light style is ideally suited to the task he sets himself here. That said, this book falls flat. Granatstein fails to prove one of his central contentions - that Canadian anti-Americanism is widespread and has a serious impact on Canada's interests. Both positions are simply asserted as facts. Lots of other little weaknesses. Bizarrely for the current holder of the "Great Canadian Historian" mantle, he gets some pretty basic facts wrong, claiming, for example, that Canada has only fought wars in defence of liberty, freedom and justice (Boers a century ago or Russians circa 1919 might have disagreed). More seriously, he works hard to have readers accept that the military's decline is a function of the transparently irrational (or just plain stupid) ideas of a few politicians, then zooms out to blame Canadian society for voting the bums in. He doesn't try to put any of this in a serious context, e.g. could it have been possible that for a country like Canada, it was a supremely rational choice to let an expensive and underutilised state service - military force - atrophy over the course of decades of declining external threat? He treats the US as a unified actor which will mete out rewards and punishments efficiently and precisely to match its assessment of Canadian behaviour. The good guys are ultimately the military; the bad guys are everyone else, from the idiotic Canadian voter to the diplomats in their "striped pants" to the dumb and cynical politicians. Not a particularly enlightening book, but still worth reading as a study in how to write a political essay.

Lets kill some people !:
This is the typical right wing, dead, view of the world that the current American administration has. The idea that Canada is worst off because we are not a big military power anymore is stupid, we made all the right choices in keeping away from militarizing ourselves, look at how much money the U.S. spends on weapons compared to the welfare of its people, look at how paranoid and how psychotically nationalistic americans are. Canada has been a progressive country for years now, Trudeau recognized that we didnt need a big military and that infact it was a detriment (again look at the U.S.), with the world becoming more and more connected on a daily basis we do not need the archaic ideas of military might anymore, its in more countries interest to work out problems with other countries rather then bomb them because we both have lots to lose. If we had a military it would have been hijacked by corporations long ago and we would be as messed up as the U.S., instead we are progressive and intelligent, this book is an insult to ever forward thinking individual in the world, rather then wasting money on used military equipment we should actually take another step forward and work on a small local military without many heavy arms and we should realign ourselves as peace keepers (one thing we have declined in over the past decades). Waste your money on this book if you need something to burn in your fireplace and your out of wood.

Appreciation for our forces and the bitter truth finally:
This book is Canada's bitter truth, we do not need a mighty military like the States, Britain and despite a few of the reviewers here this book does not advocate this, he simply says we should have a small, capable, and well equipped military with a reasonable budget that is capable of supporting itself, deploying itself in missions to provide security to the world. Canada has very much fallen way behind in being important internationally, Peacekeeping has infact time and time again proved ineffective. So you know I consider myself in the middle of the political spectrum, but I find some of the leftists just as repulsive as the right wing hawks, this "We need no military" wake up and smell the roses 1100 people were killed in the states from terrorists flying planes into buildings, its not a cop out because it is news from five years ago its the truth. Just about everything the author claims in this book seems to be true, there is a bit of a distaste for the Canadian politicians but on good reason they waffled the countries security as unimportant for decades. This book is great and not "Food for the fire" infact Leave it to a granola eating peace protesting "activist" to of all things promote book burning, seems that comment made you the dirty opposit side of the same coin. This book is informative and yes biased, but the author makes no bones about this. If you have pride in Canada's military, and you "Support the troops" with stickers on your car, and or bracelet, pick this book up and realise full well how much "Support" our men and women in uniform need. John Halifax NS