Yet more Tory "Support"

Given the Harper government's actions with respect to the military here, and here; the additional news of further financial strain on our nation's military make one wonder about the jingoism Harper and Co. have been spewing the past two years. When they took power, the Tories would badger anyone who questioned our participation in the Afghan mission as "not supporting the troops," making themselves to be the defenders of what was good and right with the military. Their actions of the past two years belie this however, with cuts to military programs and aid to military members. This final fund it within your budget missive to the military is sending the message that the Tories really don't believe in the mission either, or in the Tories' own words, they don't support the troops.

That being said, the Tories have given modest increases to the military's budget. Most of that is earmarked for some of Harper's special projects such as buying icebreakers and making northern bases; so the increases don't really amount to enough to maintain a, for Canada, large combat force overseas. In previous wars, the Government of Canada has used specific budgetary line items to fund the expeditions, leaving the regular defence budget for the immediate defence of Canada. I can see why the Tories would be reluctant to do that, as the alarming financial cost of the war would suddenly come home to roost. Their reluctance to pad the defence budget to allow for the war is a bit alarming though.

With preventing DND from asking for more money to fight the war, the military has to get the money from somewhere else. The only other place is from within the current military budget. This is why we've seen the cancellation of weapon system upgrades and the reduction of salaries. At some point training will start to suffer. First it will be non-combat training. Though not specifically needed for combat, the non-combat training for military personnel does improve logistical efficiency and in the long term combat efficiency. If that doesn't get the funds further cuts will happen. Weapon replacement will be put off so aging systems like the Sea Kings will have to soldier on even longer. Functions such as disaster relief and search and rescue will suffer as well. Combat training may even become affected, seriously reducing the efficiency and safety of our troops abroad. All because the Tories want to use the troops to show how patriotic the Tories are, but don't actually want to spend the coin to actually give them the support the troops need to be in the field fighting a war the Tories love so much.

Of course the main reason the Harper government is trying to hide the financial cost of the war in the military's budget is so that people don't find out how expensive fighting a war really is. For example, it's costing the Canadian taxpayer around $112 000 per day just to feed the 2500 uniformed personnel that are over there, not to mention any civilian staff sent over to support them. That's a cost of over $40 000 000 per year, just for food. When you consider the salary costs, the cost of uniforms, fuel, weapons and ammunition, it adds up pretty quickly to a lot of money the Canadian Forces has to come up with from somewhere. I suspect the Tories are concerned that if the true financial cost of the war were to be known to the general public, the war would become an even tougher sell.

Which brings it back to the troops simply being caught up in the whole Tory PR machine. It would seem that our brave men and women fighting overseas are simply to be used by the Conservatives for partisan purposes, to allow Harper to wrap himself in the flag and show how tough he is to his supporters. For as their actions show, the Conservatives when it comes to supporting the troops are, as we say here out west, all hat.