James and lonesome on Canada not pulling its weight in NATO monetarily a couple pages back: Its true the United States carries the defence load of Canada and Europe as the most powerful, influential and richest country in the world, a concomitant responsibility of the American empire. It now says it doesnt need allies. Those countries under its umbrella must pay for their protection Mafia-style or suffer the consequences. It wont happen. A country that told its people it could fight two major wars on two continents at the same time hasnt had a victory since Grenada and Panama. National security is more than money.

Canada stewards the lives of its citizens and resources as it sees fit and buttles to no one. It wouldnt fight and die to protect the last remnants of the French colonial empire in Vietnam nor go along with the deceitful, costly and illegal invasion of Iraq. Its not happy with NATOs breaking its solemn word with Soviets by pushing right up to its borders, within 75 miles of its second city St. Petersburg, or its involvement in the Middle East after the horrors of Arab Spring. While trying to understand the larger world around it, Canada finds itself fighting a NATO ally and jihadists and helping the Kurds carve out a country of their own in the Syrian abbatoir.

So, yes, between wars Canada always neglected the military---as did the US with its isolationist policy allowing it to be torpedoed into the First and bombed into the Second while the British and Commonwealth fought fascism alone---and Canada's commitment overseas now is largely symbolic for legitimate reasons. The future is lots of little wars, not a nuclear one. The great powers dont fight each other any more. The US military itself no longer believes that large conventional forces are appropriate for handling a relatively modest terrorist threat. Canada is one of two countries that persuaded the US to participate in NATO. With or without the US, it may be a significant partner again of NATO as an international police force to diminish extremism and imperialistic notions.

Canada has always punched above its weight in military prowess when needed. It gave the British its first victory after four months of humiliation and defeat from the gallant Boers and their Mausers in South Africa. Canada had the finest formations of both sides in the First World War, according to the leading military historian of his generation, Trevor-Roper. With a relatively tiny population, it finished the Second World War with the third and fourth-largest air force and surface naval fleet. Our Special Forces and military are welcomed additions to their peers.

My opinion of where Canada spends its money currently as a sovereign nation to the worlds advantage is in doing its part in taking in refugees from Syria as part of its collective responsibility for the consequences of Iraq. From any military and humanitarian perspective, its arguably of greater value to the world than contributing to the sacrificing of tens of millions of innocents---for what? Jihadists in one form or another have always been with us. Collectively the West has kept them in manageable proportions without losing its high standards of human values.