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Could a Mod update the thread title to the amount the auditor general said it would cost?
Oh yeah definatley ..especially when you consider Canada is the pinnacle nation for drones and robotic technology..technology the US wants to purchase from us while they sell us useless overpriced garbage...
People have no clue whatsoever on how Canada panders to the US puppet string danglers and above all have no clue on the expertise in the nation......Canada is the leader in robotics, drone technology and electronic warfare systems that even make the US drool.
Latest Canadian mil tec
We don't need no USA anything...dammit
All these years during the cold war and thinking we are the peace keeper to find out that most of the US war machine was developed in Canada and just pre fab slapped together in the US...especially the technological marvels.
Not just electronic manufacture but in missle radar sites and satellite stations that direct the info to US departments OVER Canadian ones for decades and decades, showing the USA where our water originates ....where our minerals are to exploit......this done years ago before the days of high technology....the conservatives and liberals too have done a fantastic job in demoralizing the Canadain military and country. At least the libs try to make up for it by cherry picking NDP values to implemnet over the years to cheer us up a bit..
It is time to take Canada back from the Conservative sellout traitors..remember the "arrow"....
Coyne: F-35 debacle demonstrates a system of government in collapse
There are so many layers of misconduct in the F-35 affair that it is difficult to know where to start. Do we especially deplore the rigging of operational requirements by defence officials to justify a decision that had already been made? Or should we focus on the government's decision to buy the planes without even seeing the department's handiwork? Is the scandal that the department deliberatedly understated the cost of the jets, in presentations to Parliament and the public? Or is it that its own internal figures, though they exceeded the published amounts by some $10-billon, were themselves, according to the Auditor General, gross underestimates?
It's all of those things, of course, and more: a fiasco from top to bottom, combining lapses of professional ethics, ministerial responsibility and democratic accountability into one spectacular illustration of how completely our system of government has gone to hell.
Rex Murphy completely eviscerated Peter Mackay tonight, and, by extension, Harper.
Be Heard - No Stealth Fighters!
http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=10587
"Tell Stephen Harper, other party leaders, and your own MP that you do not support the F-35 Stealth Fighter. Send your letter right away. Sign the Petition!"
BAE is also involved with the manufacture of the Eurofighter, which has a similar history of cost overruns, and is also subject to much the same political debate surrounding the F-35 procurement. Is it possible that the impending cost inflation is the result of a scandalous breach of security that has compromised it's operational effectiveness. Perhaps the Anglo-American, industrial-military-academic complex is sitting on a titanic turd during a U.S. election cycle?
Den Tandt: AG Shreds Harper's Fig Leaf of Deniability on F-35 Debacle
http://www.canada.com/Tandt+shreds+Harper+leaf+deniability+debacle/64179...
"So that's it then. They knew and they lied.
To Parliament.
To all of us.
If that's true then they will have no defenders, anywhere.
Cabinet-level resignations yes, as a starting point.
But it's bigger than that.
The government itself will be discredited.
There is no moving on from a lie this big."
THe F-35 Stealth Fighter Program: - by Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30144
"How the war economy contributes to exacerbating the social crisis. War and the neoliberal economic policy agenda are part of an integrated process..'
Scrapping Fighter Jet Purchase Would Hurt Everyone: US (2011)
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Scrapping+fighter+purchase+could+hurt+e...
'US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he didn't wish to interfere in Canada's domestic affairs BUT..."
F-35 Scandal: We Need a Canadian Spring Now More Than Ever - Derrick O'Keefe
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/derrick/2012/04/f-35-scandal-we-need-can...
"It's the military-industrial complex, stupid.."
Peter Mackay was just on CTV's Question Period saying the extra $10billion is the cost of maintaining the F18 program until we get the F35s. Is that clear to anyone???
ETA: Mackay said there is no reason for him to resign.
So MacKay is a bigger idiot that we already thought he was.
Of course he won't resign - when was the last time a right-winger resigned on principle?
The thread title Stage Set For Vote on $16 Billion, Costly F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets perhaps should be updated to read $25 (or is it $30) Billion.
On one of the talk shows the pundits said Harper is making all those government cuts in the Budget in order to pay for the F35s.
On CTV's Question Period today one of the pundits said the purpose of the F35 program is to contain China 30 years from now.
My Issue is the new AG is a tory hack, you can see, he even blames EVERYONE but the people lying. Rigging the table much Harper? It will take decades to fix the destructino wrought by decievin steven. That or a revoltuion and we change to a republic update some rights, ditch FPTP and start reigning in the rich AGAIN.
Ouch first post in a while and its a double
F-35 Fighter Deal Shaky from the Start - by Geoff Stevens
http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion/columns/article/701242--f-35-fighte...
"The F-35 fighter jet affair is a scandal that should, by rights, bring down the Harper government. Not only is it huge - in terms of taxpayer dollars, 100 times the size of the sponsorship scandal that destroyed the former Liberal government - it is laced through with lies, deceit and ministerial incompetence. What does the government say now? It says that while it may have invested $500 million in development costs, it has not actually purchased any F-35s. With luck, it never will - not now."
$24 Billion British Budget Blowout in Black Hole F-35 Project
http://rt.com/news/f-35-british-cost-billions-590/
"The UK is set to fork out $24 billion, for the American Joint Strike Fighter program, whose total costs are set to exceed $900 billion over the next 50 years, making it the most expensive military project in history. Each F-35 Lightning II Stealth fighter jet will cost the UK around $136 million, plus an extra $25.6 million for each engine..."
Something tells me this outrageous hustle ain't going to fly. Nor should it.
Tories Only Want Ministers To Testify on F-35s
http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2012/04/10/tories-want-ministers-...
"The government is attempting to out manoeuvre the opposition parties and prevent a team of National Defence and Public Works managers who have overseen the $25 billion F-35 fighter jet project from being called to testify at the Commons Public Accounts committee, the opposition says..."
PM Harper's Team Gets a Good Laugh Over 'Austerity' - by Linda McQuaig
http://www.thestar.com/opnion/editorialopinion/article/1158786--prime-mi...
"...Just last week, citing 'challenging fiscal times' the Harper team ended a program that provides internet access at libraries and community centers, giving low-income Canadians - about half of whom lack internet access - a lifeline to the world, as well as a way to apply for jobs. The nationwide program, which costs only $15 million, operates with the help of volunteers.."
This is certainly an interesting look back when all this started. Note how much Peter MacKay says it's going to cost.
Is it technically possible for the mods to do a strike through in this thread's title and replace the $16 billion with the current (low end) figure of $25 billion? Of course the effect is lost if it can't be done with a strikethrough... maybe we need divine intervention, GOD, are you reading this thread?
Hell, if GOD is listening, could you please deliver us from Stephen Harper!!!
Boom Boom: we may have stumbled across something here -- the so-called Manichean heresy may, in fact, not be a heresy at all!
John Ivison: Pax Americana Alliance At Heart of Harper Government's F-35 Posture
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/10/john-ivison-pax-americana...
"...The wider international backdrop to the F-35 purchase is an America concerned about the rise of China in the Pacific. The Canadian government's decision to go with the F-35 appears to be part of a tacit political agreement between the US and key allies like Japan and Australia to contain China's ambitions.
It seems entirely feasible that the Harper government and National Defence were willing supplicants in a grand Pacific Pax Americana. Having signed up to the F-35 program, they attempted to justify it on the basis of regional industrial benefits and supplying the men and women in uniform with the best equipment available. The uncomfortable truth about the escalating costs and development problems was discounted and all opposition railroaded.."
The F-35 is an expensive dud. The Jet that Ate the Pentagon
- Do we need to buy the F-35? Does anyone speak for the Canadian public?
Islamist forces? I think the word 'Islamist' in this case would be a smear against a billion, mostly peaceful people holding certain religious beliefs. Perhaps Warnock's smear is unintended but nevertheless Warnock's use of the term Islamist to describe a bunch of terrorists is uncalled for and ony contributes to Islamophobia and the NeoAnglo-American religious crusades in Central Asia, "the Middle East" and Africa.
The people NATO aided and abetted in Africa are right wing radicals and religious fundamentalists. They are the Libyan wing of the mujahideen "freedom fighters" whose fathers and uncles fought for the CIA in 1980s-90s Afghanistan and Bosnia, Macedonia etc. They are mercenaries and right wing extremists. They are our good friends in Libya, John.
The Gladio Gang bred them. The Gladio Gang led them.
CBC: UK ditches plans to buy F35s
ETA:
A Guardian story reports the UK is buying a different version of the F35, not ditching them. I wonder where the CBC story came from? (it's scrolling across the bottom of the screen on CBC Newsworld).
And the latest estimate? Well, as of 14 May 2012 [drum roll please]
CDN$41,000,000,000 -- yep that is 41 billion - 256% of what was being discussed when this thread was started less than two years ago.
Think of all that could be done with $41 billion - full funding for First Nations, hospitals, pharmacare, social programs....
We won't be buying the F35. It's unproven technology that's unsuitable for Canada. My personal opinion is that we'll buy the F18E/F, just like the Australians.
Are the Cons really backing down from the F35?