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Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

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Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#221

Post by jjk166 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #124
jjk166 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US invading Canada isn't a realistic possibility. Any attempt to do so would trigger a civil war within the US, to say nothing of obliterating the geopolitical system. Attempting to annex in any way shape or form is currently nothing more than the musings of an old man, the only way any territorial changes could happen are through peaceful, mutually agreed upon transfer. If the US were to seriously entertain the…

> The US invading Canada isn't a realistic possibility. Any attempt to do so would trigger a civil war within the US Ok, maybe, but then: > In a war between the US and Canada, the US would be able to launch large assaults with professional soldiers in multiple places with no natural obstacles over the short distance between their origin and objectives. Given your earlier claim, surely you must believe that if they de…

> Given your earlier claim, surely you must believe that if they defied your wisdom and chose this course of action, they wouldn't be able to do this because they would have to devote a substantial fraction of their military capacity to domestic counterinsurgency efforts, leaving far more limited combat power to actually execute the invasion?

That does not follow. First, my scenario for how an invasion of canada would go down fundamentally assumes that the conditions preventing an invasion of canada from happening don't exist. The world where Canada must defend itself from a US invasion is a magical, fictional world where the US has managed to launch an invasion.

Further, successfully invading Canada would not require the full force of the US military, and it is not established that the resources needed for the invasion of Canada would even be the same as those required for fighting domestically, nonetheless that the resources would be required concurrently. The men and materiel necessary for disabling the Canadian armed forces and seizing key territory would in general be useless in a domestic counter-insurgency scenario, and vice versa.

The problem with civil war is not its drain on your military resources, it's that the campaign to regain control over the rebelling regions requires you to inflict destruction on your own people. A victory is inherently pyrrhic, and if you aren't careful you may breed sympathy for the rebellion in even more regions. The US should avoid civil war because it's catastrophically bad, not because it would interfere with the canadian invasion effort.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#222

Post by asdff »

sandworm101 wrote: post #163
asdff wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

outside edmonton and calgary the vast majority of the canadian population is within 100 miles of the US border. now imagine the logistics of a land invasion from northern canada. Shortest distance would be 1600 miles of wilderness. If you went from alert it would be more like 2500 miles of wilderness and several water crossings. All while you are being absolutely pummeled by US air support. It would be a suicide miss…

Canada is not afraid of an invasion through the north. They fear an invasion of the north . They fear the north itself being taken, not that someone is going to drive south.

Same issue then. Elmendorf and Malmstrom are a whole lot closer than Murmansk and Moscow.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#223

Post by asdff »

throwway120385 wrote: post #102
asdff wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

outside edmonton and calgary the vast majority of the canadian population is within 100 miles of the US border. now imagine the logistics of a land invasion from northern canada. Shortest distance would be 1600 miles of wilderness. If you went from alert it would be more like 2500 miles of wilderness and several water crossings. All while you are being absolutely pummeled by US air support. It would be a suicide miss…

I think they might legitimately be worried about an invasion from the south.

I'd be surprised if they'd last longer than a week if the US were really committed.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#225

Post by wagwang »

qball wrote: post #136
wagwang wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you have a duty and obligation to the society that raised you.

The converse is also true, however. If, for example, society sees fit to deprive me of my right to security (for instance, perhaps it deigns to throw me in jail if I defend myself against a home invasion), then society doesn't get to demand I give my life for its security. In this way, it is society that has broken the contract with me, releasing me of my obligations to defend it. Most people who claim "duty and obli…

When did I claim otherwise. You can have multiple duties and they can conflict.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#226

Post by nradov »

cogogo wrote: post #218
nradov wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how it works in any NATO military. Truck drivers and other logistics troops generally never went through any sort of advanced combat training. They can be retrained for another MOS with sufficient time but not quickly enough for any sort of crisis. And in volunteer forces, the troops driving trucks are generally doing that because they specifically enlisted to do that job.

The largest volunteer army in the world is the US Army. Please provide evidence that enlistees can specifically be truck drivers if they choose to be.

What a silly question. I don't need to provide you any evidence. Just walk down to your local recruiting office and ask. If you tell them that you want to enlist but will only do so if they guarantee a truck driver MOS on your contact then they'll absolutely take you unless they've already hit their limit for that fiscal year.

HN is so weird sometimes. Like half the users seem to be aggressively ignorant of stuff that's common knowledge in the real world outside the tech industry. Or they expect to be spoon fed information that they could figure out themselves with a little research.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#227

Post by wagwang »

mothballed wrote: post #135
wagwang wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you have a duty and obligation to the society that raised you.

How much raising of the typical pleb draftee do you think is done by the politician declaring the war? Society is just a collection of people. Even if there is some original debt from being raised that forms a binding contract with a minor that never consented to it, which I don't take on face, it's hard to imagine how politicians declaring a draft trump the senior shareholders of that contract (the family that did t…

Drafting people to fight in pointless overseas wars is a blatant violation of the social contract and the people who made those decisions should be hung. That doesn't mean you don't have a natural duty to defend the society that supported your very existence.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#228

Post by asdff »

imgabe wrote: post #155
notatoad wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except they say the training will include firearms and drone flight.

Everyone in the military should be trained with weapons. If it comes down to it, even the guy who mops the floors is going to need to pick up a rifle if the situation is dire enough. It helps if he held one before at least.

That isn't really what happens. The unit would just surrender. That's how it went down in WWII early in the pacific campaign. Western nations don't go down to the last man.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#229

Post by wewtyflakes »

hollerith wrote: post #180
palmotea wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that is assuming a limited nuclear exchange is possible, without further nuclear escalation. I find that pretty unbelievable. > One Soviet war plan that was made available to Western scholars in the 1990s anticipated this invasion of Northern Europe (with conventional forces) starting immediately after the Soviets make a large nuclear strike on Western Europe. Note that tanks crew are basically immune to nuclear…

The USSR would evacuate its cities right before the attack. The officers who drafted this war plan would have estimated a large probability that NATO would attack the USSR with nukes -- probably thousands of nukes. Then after waiting for the fallout to subside (e.g., waiting 3 weeks) the people leave their fallout shelters in the countryside and start rebuilding the cities. (Locations a few miles in diameter that wer…

There has never been a situation in which any nation peppered with thousands of nukes has "bounced back", and nations have been flatly, permanently, toppled when faced with less than that hardship.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#230

Post by bdangubic »

scotty79 wrote: post #129
wagwang wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you have a duty and obligation to the society that raised you.

Your obligations are your choices. Only a slave has obligations without freely chosing them.

obligation and choice are antonyms :-)

(I do agree with what you are trying to say though)

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