To Shield From Missiles -- or Not?

There's that invitation again, proffered by our good neighbour, partner in trade and associate in defence. The United States is concerned over the escalating belligerence and threats emanating from sources whose possession of weapons of mass destruction and unreliability as rational governments pose a crisis of confidence for future safety. Missiles being designed and built by North Korea, along with their program for nuclear arms and their miniaturization represent an obvious concern for a country that the belligerents target verbally and ostensibly physically.

The United States and Canada share the greater portion of a continent. We have contiguous borders and coastlines. What can hit Washington State, for example, can equally hit British Columbia. The United States is expending considerable time, energy, financing and human resources to establishing a system of defence that will benefit its troops stationed in Asia, as well as its Asian allies. That anti-missile defence capability will give some measure of assurance to security in the face of dire threats.

Canada is now being invited to join an anti-ballistic missile shield. This is not, needless to say, the only time such an invitation has come forward from the United States to Canada. On previous occasions the invitation has been politely rebuffed. Easy enough to do for a country that has traditionally relied on its more powerful, more populous, wealthy, better armed neighbour to extend its defence to include a geographic neighbour.

Latterly, Canada has been expressing itself more forcefully on the world stage. And the country has raised the military's share of tax dollars in support of a stronger, better equipped force, returning pride and capability to a formerly stripped force. In the world that now confronts the global community with the growing incidence of military threats, both state and non-state, such a move was required. And since we have always partnered where it seemed feasible; NORAD and NATO come to mind, it seems common sense to do so now.

As though on cue, the RCMP and CSIS made a public announcement this very day that thanks to the collaboration and cooperation of the American Federal Bureau of Intelligence, and the CIA, two targeted arrests were made, wrapping up a year-long investigative-security operation tracing the activities of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists seeking to wreak destructive damage in Canada through an attack on a VIA rail train. As though directly pointing out the advantages to be had through cross-border cooperation.

Engineered for maximum impact in an effort to bring Canadians around to the prospect of agreeing to the American invitation respecting the anti-ballistic shield, it still makes sense. Like it or not, there is the very real and pressing issue of national security, both on the micro- and on the macro-level.