POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Did readers catch the anecdote yesterday about Peter "peanut brain" MacKay meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger, out on a good will tour, in B.C.?
Peter's public words included the praise for the fact that B.C. and California share a border.
Arnold is reported to have looked perplexed but said nothing, knowing that the states of Washington and Oregon separate California from B.C.
Pure George Bush or Sarah Palin.
God, what a thin bench of talent the Conservatives have.
This is the man we entrust to make multi-billion dollar decisions and to deal with a very smart cookie like Gates?
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The F-35 is an expensive clunker for which Canada has no need.
From the Pentagon's point of view, Canada and Australia and others are providing a subsidy to try improving the thing.
A strong country begins with a strong economy.
It truly is the height of folly to be making a gigantic and wasteful expenditure like this at this time.
People with genuine conservative instincts - those who pay their bills and believe in balanced budgets - will agree.
The trouble is Stephen Harper is an ideologue, an ideologue of American right-wing persuasion, and not a conservative at all.
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"The bigger issue down the road is what are the aircraft choices down the road that will be competitive against the Russian T-50 PAK, the Chinese J-20, and the joint venture Russian/India 5th GEN fighters."
That is only an issue for American Pentagon worshipers.
One thing is certain, we should not foolishly subsidize the anxieties of such people.
Even were the F-35 a good plane, which it decidedly is not, it is not needed by Canada.
We have no genuine use for it, and any modest number we could afford would be absolutely militarily ineffective.
It's a bad idea from every point of view, unless you are a Harper who sits smiling dreamily at the base of a giant American Bald Eagle statue in his rec-room.
