Aircraft Purchases - la folie d'ete

by Jim Miles

Quelle surprise, c'est l'ete, le temps quand le gouvernement de Canada depense beaucoup de notre argent sur les choses completement inefficace!
 
Bien sur, apres quelques jours en vacance dans les forets et les montagnes de la Columbie Britannique, j'ai retourne chez mois et trouver les nouvelles a propos d'achat de 65 avion de combat polyvalent, ca coute cher - 9 millliard pour les avions, peut-etre plus de 16 milliard avec l'entretien.
 
Vraiment la folie d'ete!

 

So who would attack us?
 
Not the Russians, they are more likely to trade with us, especially once the Arctic ice is gone each summer (sooner than most expect).
 
Not Iran or North Korea, that's just nonsense, the perpetual fear of the axis of evil perpetrated by various western governments.
 
Not China, they have already demonstrated they are perfectly willing to buy resources from countries without meddling in that countries internal affairs (unlike the U.S.).
 
Okay, who else has the military might to attack Canada?  Nuclear Britain, France, Pakistan, India, or Israel? 
 
Oh I forgot the U.S.!  They of course do not need to attack us as they already have us in their pockets via corporate business partnerships and the clauses in NAFTA that give the U.S. first rights to our own depleting oil and water and other resources.  But if push came to shove in the declining resources of the world, the U.S. would not hesitate to send in the troops - probably at the invite of some Quisling government - in order to "protect" the resources from...."terrorists".  Of course even that would not be needed as the Canadian government would do the U.S.'s own dirty deeds for them - as they are in Afghanistan.
 
Ahh, yes, the military wars in the Middle East where some still argue irrationally that we are bringing peace, freedom, and security to a region that just happens to be on the cross-roads of several if not many oil and gas pipelines that re strategically placed near India, China, and Russia - the three largest powers also wanting to control oil resources globally.
 
Perhaps the jets could be used there to bomb and pummel more civilians, to create more terrorists as families are dismembered by well-placed but ill-guided and ill-informed bombs, not matter how "smart" they are claimed to be.
 
A better solution....!
 
The U.S.'s own Foreign Policy Journal can see the future - drones:
 
Drones are taking over the U.S. Air Force

The U.S. Air Force will reach a milestone this year: For the first time it will train more pilots for unmanned aircraft than for manned aircraft. A decade ago, unmanned aircraft were hardly known. Now they dominate the Air Force's pilot training system, and it is very unlikely this trend will ever reverse. In fact, it is not hard to imagine that within another decade unmanned aircraft operations will dominate day-to-day Air Force operations, force planning decisions, and budgets.

According to the Government Accountability Office, $24.5 million will purchase a set of four MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer drones plus a ground station and satellite relay. (See page 117 of this report.) The latest guess of the price for a single F-35 fighter-bomber is $100 million.

So there it is - buy drones!  Then some computer jockey somewhere can bomb and maim without ever getting in harms way.  And there are lots of competitors out there, with Israel, Russia, China and who knows who else making this wonderful new toy for the military so those nasty death counts can be avoided (at least for our forces, not the civilians in other countries of course).

But their ultimate use?  Drone wars between the U.S. and Canada!  Nobody gets hurt as the fighters play their live video game above the almost empty prairies of Canada and the U.S.  Then we could initiate drone wars between all countries, just as the Olympics are held every year, they could become part of the spectacular.  What a boost to the economy - and the prestige - and nobody gets hurt!

Stupid idea?  Of course it is, but much more sensible than wasting 16 billion dollars on a fading, useless - to Canadians - technology that is all about killing and not about helping the environment, the unemployed, the health system, education system and any and all other social network systems that are truly the foundation of a truly cultured society (other than a military society like we are trying to become under the current government).

Enough said for now.  Have a happy summer spending our tax dollars without any competitive bidding, which is the least of the problem as you may gather from the above.

Amusez vous bien.