Senate renews calls for CF increases.

[Ex-Dragoon]

Hamiltongs... thanks for addressing the issue of the sub harpoon with CB. WHat you guys need to is while adding a capability is nice if we do not have an established dosctrine to go with it then that capability becomes useless.

 

[enfield]

Senator Kenney is attempting to further politicize the process by asking admirals and generals, and indeed colonels and commanders to be openly critical of defence policy decisions.

Two wrongs do not make a right.

The fact that we abandoned the constitutionally correct doctrine back in the '60s does not mean that we should complete the politicization of the military, or the bureaucracy.

Don't the CDS and the heads of the services have an obligation to provide independent professional advice and expertise on military matters to the Government and elected representatives?

A service chief has to be able to step before a Senate or parliamentary committee and give their professional opinions on the open record, however it effects the policy of the government. Not doing so - and these questions are rarely asked, and even less frequently honestly answered - is a political failure. There is no reason the CDS and his generals/admiral can't go before a sentae/parliamentary committee and lay out reality as they see it, as long as they stay within the limits of professional expertise.

What the politicians choose to do with those opinions is their business. I support Sen. Kenny's recent attempt to draw up a credible Defence Policy and military.
25B is easy to spend when you're buying weapons, and I consider 90,000 a reasonable number to carry out the foreign policy of a G8 nation.

 

[Kirkhill]

Don't the CDS and the heads of the services have an obligation to provide independent professional advice and expertise on military matters to the Government and elected representatives?

Short answer, as far as I am aware, is no.  The CDS has an obligation to provide professional advice to the Government.  The Government is, in theory, responsible to the elected representatives.  The fact that it isn't, is the beginning and end of our problems.