A broken promise

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Harper made a big deal about announcing 3 new Navy supply ships back in 2006. The announcement was made by then Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor who said:

"These ships are an essential component of our maritime forces," said Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier, who attended Monday's announcement along with Public Works Minister Michael Fortier."

On August 21st of this year the plan was cancelled along with 12 badly needed patrol ships for the coast guard.

"Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced last year that $324 million had been set aside for the purchase and maintenance of six new vessels for the coast guard fleet. The plans included the purchase of 12 new mid-shore patrol vessels."

I find this interesting in the sense that Harper is big on all the various dept's/services that make up the military, wanting to beef them up & promising funding & then suddenly taking it away. And this announcement, like so many other backtracks, is released quietly on a Fri. evening, as usual, in hopes that the media will make little play of it & have the weekend for it to disappear off the radar.

In this day & age I do believe that the patrol vessels are badly needed for our protection It's been 7 years since 9/11 & from what I have heard it takes the Al Qaeda about 7 years to plan some kind of larger attack. And don't think we are immune. With our "mission" in Afghanistan we are part of the Western culture that this group, & others, abhor. We are a part of the NATO coalition that kills civilians, not just Taliban, & we are hated for it - & rightly so. We are sheep following the U.S. on all things "war". If Harper had his way when the U.S. invaded Iraq we'd be in Iraq as well as that is what he wanted while in opposition. Let's make him the opposition again in case we end up in Pakistan, or even Iran, fighting alongside U.S. troops there. There have already been U.S. forces making invasions into Pakistan chasing after Taliban, & others, & the U.S. is about to take over the entire NATO operation in Afghanistan & I feel sure that Harper will be very happy to extend operations beyond Kandahar no matter what he says about withdrawing in 2011. I don't believe him. Nor should you. All of his broken promises are proof of that & there are many of them.