Our amusing peacenik neighbors to the north.

When discussing Canada, I always have to laugh at how they eschew anything to do with military force yet they reside comfortably next to us and sleep safe under our nuclear and conventional arms umbrella. I have to wonder if they'd have the same anti-military views if they were a country in the middle of Europe of the mid-east instead of having us as their only neighbor in a situation where Geography compels us to be their big brother whether we really care to be or not. Heck, if we weren't right next door to them, maybe they'd even have a real navy and one that didn't draw half of it's fleet from the old Boblo boat line.

This comes up this morning due to an interesting article on The Shekel blog about how the Canadians want to lease twenty--that's right, just twenty--Leopard battle tanks from the German government for use in Afghanistan because the Leopards that the Canadians currently own don't have air conditioning. And apparently the Canadian left is all in a tizzy, claiming that tanks won't make the Afghanis like them. I guess those Canadian leftists never read Machiavelli's essay on whether it is better to be liked or feared:

Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Italian dramatist, historian, & philosopher (1469 - 1527)

Me, I'll always advocate for armor and greater force, if only to prevent a repeat of what happened to our troops in Somalia when President Clinton refused to allow them to have armor when our local commanders requested it. But hey, I'm not Canadian, after all. I'm not so pacifistic that I consider John Lennon to have been a war-monger, and I realize that peace and security comes through strength and the resolve to use it. (Can you hear me, British navy?)

That said, in related news, there is reportedly a movement afoot to change the Canadian national anthem from "Oh, Canada" to "Why Can't We Be Friends?"