Out of the woodwork I tell ya!
DoDBuzz came up with this post and the first thing I asked myself was who the hell are these guys! Well this is what Wikipedia has on them...
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1975. In its own words, it was established to "promote the common interests of the [Western] hemisphere, raise the visibility of regional affairs and increase the importance of the inter-American relationship, as well as encourage the formulation of rational and constructive U.S. policies towards Latin America." [1]COHA is dedicated to monitoring Latin American affairs, especially within the context of United States and Canadian foreign policy and its effect on the region. Working with a large number of unpaid research associates (undergraduate and graduate interns) and a small core of professional research fellows to improve hemispheric relations and advance the public good. Cohistas, as COHA staff is sometimes known, constantly analyze a number of ongoing themes including social justice, equal rights, anti-corruption measures, and the enhancement of democratic rights.How these bubba's wound up talking about the F-35 is beyond me...read the whole thing but here's a tidbit that raised the hair on the back of my neck...
Although the F-35 is a remarkable aircraft, it is unsuitable for the Canadian military. According to Steven Staples from the Rideau Institute, the current CF-18 fulfills two important roles of the Canadian Forces: surveillance and control of the Arctic, along with expeditionary operations including “air-to-air combat, precision guided munitions/bomb delivery, and close air support of the ground.”[xviii] The traditional Cold War concept of Arctic sovereignty applies to defending Canadian airspace against Russian bombers. Yet, supporters of the F-35 still maintain that this threat is real and that Canada needs the F-35 to protect Canadian and American airspace. Defense Minister Peter MacKay highlighted the Russian threat in 2010, when he praised two CF-18s for intercepting the two Russian TU-95 long range bombers on the edge of Canadian air space. However, critics like defense and foreign affairs analyst Eric Margolis, said that this incident was routine and that “it’s nothing to get excited about, [because] there’s much less to this than meets the eye.”[xix] In addition, Staples points out that if Russia were to go to war with the United States, “air defense would be irrelevant in any case, since the primary delivery vehicle would be intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.”[xx]The Russians and Chinese are forming "Arctic Troop" formations (The USMC should be first on this in the US military...we already have extensive training in Mountain Warfare, the next step should be to either copy the Brits and have Mountain Leaders/Arctic Warfare Specialist assigned to every Battalion or to have a SPMAGTF formed and positioned in Alaska. Either way we'd be in the race for the poles...and this should be a Marine Corps mission!) and the Canadians are using there Rangers to have a permanent force in the area. To say that sovereignty patrols are unnecessary is to ignore the obvious.
This is a left leaning group and this is a red herring. This debate in Canada is over. I smell a rat. An Australian based Think Tank rat.
