Flit

THE OTHER WAY TO LOOK

THE OTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THE ARMY REFORMS

Here's the other way to look at the recent army reforms (see below):

*2 of 3 regular armoured regiments reduced to half strength, for a 33% reduction in effective strength;
*elimination of 9 combat-capable infantry companies (the combat support companies)
*no measurable increase to compensate in the artillery or engineer arms, which you'd think you'd get cause they're now responsible for all the mortars and pioneer equipment the combat support companies are giving up. So you're still minus 9 companies (the equivalent of 2 battalions) somewhere in the system (to be fair, given the undermanning state, this isn't eliminating sub-units so much as consolidating undermanned ones, though).

If you want to be an optimist, it's a sensible way of managing today's and the future's reduced resources. If you want to be a pessimist, it's braking a bike going downhill.

UPDATE: My esteemed former colleague Patrick writes in the forum to remind me that the armour/recce reduction is in fact 11% (9 squadrons of armor and recce down to 8), not 33 as I state above. He also has a more optimistic interpretation of the army commander's intent for the infantry than I do. You can read it all (and my response) at Flitters.

IN HEATHER MALLICK'S WORLD... *Adults

IN HEATHER MALLICK'S WORLD...

*Adults "who will pay to see Spider-Man and stay to the end" are "hopelessly stupid;"

*Pim Fortuyn was a "fascist;"

*Only one in ten humans are "Smart, kind, literate and sustainable, can be trusted with heavy equipment, and can grasp a concept and carry it through to its conclusion;"

*Parents with small children are "too busy... to have a deeply felt interior life and a political stance;"

*All the men of Marseilles are homosexuals; Alsatians are all "dolts" and peasants;

*Anyone who votes for a conservative while sober is "an old fascist, a young racist or a pig-ignorant peasant."

Wow. If you ever wanted to see what the liberal elitist hatred of the masses really looks like in print, you needn't go any farther than today's Globe and Mail.