{"id":459950,"date":"2022-01-07T00:15:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=125125"},"modified":"2022-01-07T00:15:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:15:28","slug":"fighter-jets-useless-against-real-security-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/07\/fighter-jets-useless-against-real-security-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighter Jets Useless against Real Security Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s never enough\u201d said former Prime Minister Jean Chr\u00e9tien about military spending. \u201cThey always want more.\u201d <\/em>((Jay Hill, in the House of Commons<\/a>,\u00a0 quoting then Prime Minister\u00a0 Jean Chr\u00e9tien<\/em> from an article by Stephanie Rubec in the Ottawa Sun<\/em>, October 20, 2003.))
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Canada shouldn\u2019t spend huge sums on 88 new fighter jets incapable of protecting the population against pressing security threats. The warplanes will simply strengthen Canada\u2019s powerful, offensive air force.<\/p>\n

Amidst a pandemic and climate crisis the security argument for spending $19 billion \u2013 $77 billion over their life cycle \u2013 on fighter jets is extremely weak. New warplanes won\u2019t protect against climate induced disasters or new viruses. Worse still, purchasing heavy carbon emitting fighter jets diverts resources away from dealing with these genuine security threats.<\/p>\n

But we require these warplanes to protect Canada, say the militarists. In fact, many countries don\u2019t have fighter jets. More than 30 nations<\/a>, including Costa Rica, Iceland and Panama, don\u2019t have an active military force at all while Ireland hasn\u2019t had<\/a> fighter jets for two decades. Nor has New Zealand, but the militarists who demand Canada follow its \u201cFive Eyes\u201d counterparts won\u2019t mention that.<\/p>\n

Nor do they discuss how Canada\u2019s free trade partner Mexico has no operational<\/a> fighter jets. Doesn\u2019t that country face a similar menace from the Russians or Chinese? The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is far better equipped than its counterpart in Mexico, a country with more than twice Canada\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

RCAF has about 90 operational CF-18s. It is one of the better warplanes and will remain a top-tier fighter jet for many years to come. RCAF is about the 16th<\/sup> best<\/a> equipped air force in the world. But Canada is the 39th most<\/a> populous state. Should Canadians spend lavishly to maintain an air force far better equipped than this country\u2019s relative population size?<\/p>\n

Considering the resources required to mitigate the climate crisis and pandemic why not simply maintain the CF-18s and when the RCAF\u2019s standing approaches Canada\u2019s share of the global population consider purchasing new fighter jets. If the RCAF were designed to defend Canada that would be the sensible approach. But that is not, in fact, its purpose. The RCAF is structured primarily to support the US war machine.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s air force says CF-18s intercept 6-7 aircraft each year in <\/em>Canada\u2019s Air Defence Identification Zone, which is 100-200 nautical miles from its coastline. (<\/em>Canada\u2019s territorial airspace is 12 nautical miles from the coastline.) By comparison, notes Brent Patterson, Canada\u2019s CF-18s have conducted 1600<\/a> offensive bombing missions over the past 30 years in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Syria and Libya<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the military tightly controls news during fighter jet missions, some information has trickled out about what happens when these planes drop bombs from the sky. Pentagon documents<\/a> suggest CF-18s were responsible for a January 2015 air strike in Iraq that killed as many as 27 civilians. The RCAF claimed it had \u201cno obligation\u201d, reported the internal US documents, \u201cto conduct an investigation\u201d of the incident. In October 2015 the CBC also reported<\/a>, \u201cCanadian fighter planes have now been connected to a second airstrike in Iraq that has been reviewed by the Pentagon for possible civilian casualties.\u201d In another incident, a CF-18 reportedly killed 10<\/a> and injured 20 Iraqi civilians on November 19, 2015.<\/p>\n

In 2011 seven Canadian CF-18 fighter jets dropped at least 700 bombs on Libyan targets. Two months into the bombing United Press International reported that Ottawa \u201cordered 1,300<\/a> replacement laser-guided bombs to use in its NATO mission in Libya\u201d and a month later they ordered another 1,000 bomb kits. A number of coalition members placed strict restrictions on their forces\u2019 ability to strike ground targets. These and other countries\u2019 militaries frequently \u201cred carded\u201d sorties, declaring that they would not contribute. \u201cWith a Canadian<\/a> general in charge\u201d of the NATO bombing campaign, explained the Globe and Mail<\/em>, \u201cCanada couldn\u2019t have red-carded missions even if it wanted to, which is why Canadian CF-18 pilots often found themselves in the most dangerous skies\u201d doing the dirtiest work.<\/p>\n

CBC.ca reported that on March 29, 2011, two CF-18s launched strikes that directly aided the Jihadist rebels in Misrata and on May 19 Canadian jets participated in a mission that destroyed eight Libyan naval vessels. On their return to Canada, CBC.ca reported: \u201c[pilot Maj. Yves] Leblanc\u2019s crew carried out the final mission on the day Gaddafi was captured, and were flying 25,000 feet over when Gaddafi\u2019s convoy was attacked.\u201d Human Rights Watch found the remains of at least 95 people<\/a> at the site where Muammar Gaddafi was captured. According to the human rights group, a sizable number \u201capparently died in the fighting and NATO strikes prior to Gaddafi\u2019s capture\u201d with multiple dozens were also executed by close range gunshot wounds. Some accused NATO forces of helping to murder Gaddafi.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1999 eighteen CF-18s dropped 532 bombs<\/a> in 678 sorties during NATO\u2019s bombing of Serbia. About two thousand<\/a> died during NATO\u2019s bombing. Hundreds of thousands were internally displaced and hundreds of thousands were made refugees in a war that contravened international law.<\/p>\n

Two dozen<\/a> CF-18s were deployed to Iraq in 1990. Among few other coalition members, Canadian fighter jets engaged in combat. They joined<\/a> US and British counterparts in destroying most of Iraq\u2019s hundred plus naval vessels in what was dubbed the \u201cBubiyan Turkey Shoot.\u201d Coalition bombing destroyed much of Iraq\u2019s civilian infrastructure. The country\u2019s electricity production was largely demolished as were sewage treatment plants, telecommunications equipment, oil refineries, etc. Twenty thousand<\/a> Iraqi troops and thousands of civilians were killed. The UN resolution allowed for attacks against Iraqi establishments in Kuwait while the US-led forces bombed across Iraq in what Mark Curtis described as the open \u201crehabilitation of colonialism and imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying 88 new fighter jets has little to do with protecting Canadians. It\u2019s about funneling public resources to arms firms and strengthening the Royal Canadian Air Force\u2019s capacity to fight in offensive US and NATO wars. Is this really how we should be spending public resources? If the government was truly concerned about security, it would spend the money on public\/co-op housing, cleaning up ecological devastation and preparing for the next pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>The post Fighter Jets Useless against Real Security Threats<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s never enough\u201d said former Prime Minister Jean Chr\u00e9tien about military spending. \u201cThey always want more.\u201d ((Jay Hill, in the House of Commons,\u00a0 quoting then Prime Minister\u00a0 Jean Chr\u00e9tien from an article by Stephanie Rubec in the Ottawa Sun, October 20, 2003.)) Canada shouldn\u2019t spend huge sums on 88 new fighter jets incapable of protecting [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Fighter Jets Useless against Real Security Threats<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,34594,3069,192,194,712,75,196,36,166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461443,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459950\/revisions\/461443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}