to begin with, i'm glad they're writing white papers again. i've kind of felt deprived. i might not read this one, but if they keep coming in areas i'm more interested in, i will.

what about canada and the 2%? well, the truth is that we're good at sneaking out of it. trudeau is pushing a line about being a reliable member of the alliance, which is true enough, but like a lot of what he says there's this kind of child-like naivete to it - as though lockheed martin is driven by concepts of fraternal bonds of friendship and patriotic fervour rather than cynically driven by greed and profit, and as though trump isn't in the pockets of the defence lobby.

i've been over this a few times. we have historically avoided involving ourselves in conflicts we're not excited about, and sometimes downright opposed to, by putting resources into occupying strategic cold war regions, which had the happy coincidence of doing things like building hospitals. and, we're proud of that, up here. but, that world no longer exists. now, they're demanding that we buy weapons. maybe, we could get some of those data wizards on the point of why defence jobs have shitty multipliers and you'd create more jobs with green energy? but, how do we get out of this, this time?

"we're spending money on veterans" seems entirely insufficient, granted. but, that level of insufficiency is also consistent, dare i even say characteristic, of the current pmo.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-defence-policy-1.4131623