Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page has reported that the price tag for the F-35 stealth fighters that the Harper government wants to buy is likely to end up much higher than the government has been suggesting. Page’s report, which echoes concerns voiced by F-35 critics, warns that the real figure could end up close to […]
Tag Archives: Afghanistan
CCPA report: Canadian military spending highest since WW2
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has published a new report on Canada’s military spending. Canadian Military Spending 2010-11, written by Ceasefire.ca editor Bill Robinson, shows that Canadian military spending is higher now than it has been at any other time since the end of the Second World War. According to the study, Canada will […]
Gates channels Vizzini
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has warned against getting involved in future land wars in Asia (Thom Shanker, “Gates Warns Against Any More Wars Like Iraq or Afghanistan,” New York Times, 25 February 2011): Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly told an audience of West Point cadets on Friday that it would be unwise […]
The human cost of war
The human cost of war sometimes seems like just one more statistic. But what’s at stake is lost lives and broken families. Ernie Regehr discussed the grim task of calculating war deaths on his Disarming Conflict blog earlier this week (“Counting the War Dead,” Disarming Conflict, 7 February 2011). Tabulating the human cost of war […]
Activist coalition vows to oppose Obama as long as he supports the war
An American activist coalition, War is a Crime, is circulating a petition opposing President Obama’s renomination until he ends the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reverses a number of draconian war policies, and drastically cuts military spending. The list has grown to include the names of many activists, professors, journalists, and politicians. The petition criticizes […]
NDP on Canada in Afghanistan
NDP leader Jack Layton outlined the New Democratic Party’s position on Canada and Afghanistan in a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies of the University of Ottawa on January 14th.