Canada Does Not Need Fighter-Bombers

Have we, as a nation of supposedly rational beings, gone mad? Have we so succumbed to Harper’s warmongering rhetoric that we blindly accept his decision to replace the military’s fighter-bombers?

I have heard or read nary a word from any Canadian, particularly any politician, questioning that decision. There have been recent letters to editors – one even claiming to have the “facts” – about the proposed new F-35 fighter-bomber. The content (and intent) of these letters merely reinforced the PM’s decision and attempted to prove to us – the great unwashed – that despite the multi-billion dollar price tag, we need these new fighter-bombers.

What disingenuous drivel!

One letter writer, in keeping with the Conservative script, quoted Canada’s need for “manned fighters” (as opposed to “unmanned aerial vehicles”) to “exercise control and sovereignty over our airspace in Canada, and to conduct operations abroad.” He proceeded to intimate that the military produced a Statement of Requirements (SOR) and the F-35 met the SOR. That’s it! Fait accompli! End of discussion!
Then there’s the ever evanescent cost. That same writer, repeating Harper, quoted $14.7B for a total 20-yr programme cost. The Pentagon brass says the cost may be more than double Ottawa’s estimate. A Director in the U.S. Government Accountability Office told the CBC that it will likely cost between $110-115 million per plane. This is wildly at odds with the figure of $75 million per plane that the Harper government has frequently given in its estimates.
Consider also: the multi-million dollar F-35 is a fighter-bomber (or “Joint Strike Fighter” as the military likes to call it) designed as an assault/ attack war machine to kill people, and destroy homes, livelihoods, and infrastructure. (For that purpose I would have to agree that it is well designed.)
OK, so let’s get back to that bit about exercising control and sovereignty over our airspace. From whom, exactly, are we supposedly defending our airspace? Those pesky Cold War Ruskies? Who would want to attack us? Who would use aircraft to attack us?
The more rationally minded might consider it boneheaded to purchase 65 multi-million dollar fighter-bombers for warding off incoming missiles (from wherever), and unbelievably farcical for fighting against a terrorist car-bomb, or a bomb on a subway, or a bomb in a garbage can.
Continuing on with the writer’s other fact: “and to conduct operations abroad.” Ah, yes, those benign, benevolent, democracy-inducing “operations;” which is, of course, political/ military doublespeak for aiding America in its imperialistic march around the globe.
So why does Canada – until recently esteemed as the world’s pre-eminent peacekeeping nation – need fighter-bombers? I believe because our puppet-masters in the White House/ Pentagon say so (for conducting those “operations” abroad); because our Prime-Puppet is obsessed with being seen as playing with the “big boys;” and because we have not a single politician – of any stripe – with the intellectual honesty, moral integrity, or political will to say “No! We are a peace-loving, peace-keeping people and nation, and we have no need for fighter-bombers.”
Lou Cassivi
Courtenay