Dude, Could You Give Me a Lift to Sri Lanka?

You have to give Chrétien a little credit now and again. And, in one case, David Collenette, the Minister of Defense in 1996 and a colossal Tool in his own right, should share the glory. The DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) was a great idea, inspired one might say, even if it was a long time in coming. The concept of having an emergency response team on standby, ready to go anywhere in the world to help provide medical support and clean drinking water to victims of major disasters. Expensive, maybe, but a little money isn’t a big deal when compared to the health and survival of disaster victims. The nation, as much as it noticed, applauded. The applause was echoed in the international aid community. A good, solid humanitarian display of heart.

But all is not well in this paradise of good will.

Leaving aside that it took a full week of debate for the current ruling crop of polidiots to decide where to actually send the DART and that it will take another three to four days before the team can actually leave and that they haven’t actually been deployed anywhere in the past five years, now that we’re going to send them to Sri Lanka they apparently can’t get there by themselves. We’ve had to rent a pair of Russian Antonovs, large-scale cargo planes, to ferry the DART and its equipment back and forth.

WTF?

No one in the media is commenting on this blatant stupidity. We may have had Defense cuts, but surely not to that extent. Is anyone noticing?

Actually, the Defense cuts have gone a lot deeper than most people might think, far past the point where our troops are in danger just by using their own equipment, an item for which many politicians should be slowly roasted over a low flame, but in this case we apparently don’t have any aircraft capable of moving the amount of cargo needed and haven’t for a long, long, long time. Maybe never. So the much-publicized DART is left needing to thumb a ride to wherever they’re sent.

But to finally expose today’s tools, I name Prime Minister Paul Martini, our current Defense Minister Bill Graham, and our current Finance Minister Ralph Goodale for blowing a bunch of extra cash (and some of what little credit we have left on the international stage) to hire out the Antonovs. Would it really have been such a big deal to use a bunch of Hercs and just refuel as needed along the way? We still have a few, don’t we? At least then we wouldn’t look like completely incompetent knobs who can’t provide for our own troops (forgetting about borrowed transport for peace-keeping missions and forest-cam uniforms sent with the troops to Afghanistan, for example). I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m embarrassed.

A trio of Tools to begin the new year. Why am I afraid that it can only get worse as the calendar progresses?