Cogging in the media machine

Babble on.

I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't having a bit of a puffed-chest moment reading this article this morning:

The initial exultation over military spending promises in last month's federal budget is giving way to sober second thought by some in the defence community.

Upon closer scrutiny, the government's promise of $12.8 billion in new spending over five years may not be all it's cracked up to be, say observers.

For at least the next three years, spending - adjusted for inflation - will still be well below peak levels in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

And there are no guarantees the minority Liberal government will be around to keep the promises, or that the economy that must support the spending increases will hold up.
...
One-time increases in defence spending over the next two years have been pegged at $500 million and $600 million, most of which is targeted specifically for infrastructure upgrades.

But figures adjusted for inflation indicate this and next year's budgets are only equivalent to or less than adjusted spending last year, when planes were grounded and ships tied up for lack of resources to operate them.

A look at defence spending from 1986 to the present suggests the military is still far below the peak 1988-89 level of $16.1 billion adjusted to 2005 dollars.
...
SPENDING HABITS

A look at defence spending since 1986-87, with figures converted to 2005 dollars in brackets. All figures represent billions of dollars. (Conversions were made using the Bank of Canada's Inflation Calculator):
1986-87 $9.9 ($15.5)

1987-88 $10.7 ($16.1)

1988-89 $11.2 ($16.1)

1989-90 $11.6 ($15.8)

1990-91 $12.3 ($15.7)

1991-92 $11.7 ($14.8)

1992-93 $11.9 ($14.7)

1993-94 $12.0 ($14.7)

1994-95 $11.8 ($14.3)

1995-96 $11.4 ($13.6)

1996-97 $10.6 ($12.4)

1997-98 $10.2 ($11.8)

1998-99 $10.3 ($11.8)

1999-2000 $11.5 ($12.9)

2000-01 $11.5 ($12.5)

2001-02 $12.2 ($13.2)

2002-03 $12.4 ($12.8)

2003-04 $13.2 ($13.4)

2004-05 Projected at $13.3

2005-06 Projected at $13.4

Mr. Stephen Thorne is a man of his word.

What strikes me is that the government of Canada spent more on our military in constant dollars in 1995-96 than it will in 2005-06. So much for a "renewed commitment" from our Liberal oligarchy.

I am inordinately proud of having played a miniscule role in all this. More than that, I'm glad someone's saying what needs to be said: we can't continue to underfund our Armed Forces if we're going to keep sending men and women in uniform into dangerous situations. Even if you put moral issues like that aside, our lack of miltary resources is crippling our foreign policy. The Liberal smoke-and-mirrors budget is a drop in the bucket - no, a promised drop in the bucket.

Now, since a picture is worth a thousand words, we need to get a graphic presentation of these figures into circulation. Time for this techno-idiot to get off his duff and finally figure out how to post an original image with Blogspot.

Babble off.

Update: VW at The Phantom Observer beat me to the graphic. I still have to figure out how to put something like that up myself, though.