Canadian Military faces Shortage
The Canadian Forces, squeezed by the Afghanistan conflict, may be forced to cancel half the training courses for regular and reserve soldiers scheduled for this summer in western Canada.
The training squeeze, caused by the unavailability of qualified officers to teach troops, could cause a shortage of reservists in 2009 if Prime Minister Stephen Harper decides to extend the mission past February of that year, according to one reserve officer.
"We're still struggling to find trainers, there's no question about that," said Lt.-Col. Tom Manley, commanding officer of the Calgary Highlanders reserve unit, which has generated a disproportionate number of volunteers for the Afghanistan mission.
"And there's a chance we simply may not get everyone trained that could potentially deploy, so we may have to leave some behind (in 2009) because they didn't get the training they needed," he said this week.
I wonder of this will be used as another reason to give more training contracts to some of the many new mercenary companies that have cropped up recently. (Probably be no-bid.)
The part about this that is interesting is that most of the guys in the PMC's are being lured from the armed forces by higher pay for doing much the same job in Iraq and Afghanistan. Basically, they're also responsible for the shortage of highly qualified trainers, and thanks to thier poaching of those troops, they'll get to make even more money by getting paid to replace them. Hell, they can probably even it as a competitive advantage; their guys already know Canadian training methods.
In any case, it's another reason to consider bringing the Afghan mission to an end. For an even more compelling reason, head over to The Galloping Beaver and read this post.
