Disappointing

its quite interesting that you say that the world does not take Canada seriously. But unfortunately, because you are AMERICAN you have no idea what the world is thinking.
its a hard and known fact to everyone else on earth (except americans) that citizens of the USA are so far attached from the world, that you people live in near isolation.
if youve every ventured outside of the secure american culture you may find that not many people enjoy the company of the bullying US. on the other hand, welcome the Canadian, British, German, Swedish.... (you know, nicer countries).

As for our military: Canada has 32 million people - 10% of the USA. and fittingly our military is 10% of what the USA is... so its not low rated, just proportional... besides our Department of National Defense does not effectively seek out the lower economical class citizens to persuade to join the forces. our military men MUST attend university and obtain a degree in some field of study (whether it be military related or not). so to call us a bunch of paper pushers with no manpower is a long stretch... our military is strong, smart, and extremely well trained (why is that Canada seems to beat the USA and many other countries in army competitions???)

Anyways, gaining the respect of Americans is not something we care to do, there are more important things to look after.

"When the New York Police Department alone is basically larger than the COMBINED Canadian military, you know something is seriously wrong."

You are right! There is something wrong ... with NEW YORK!

And if you think a contry should be taken seriously in proportion to it's military - as in more military, more seriously taken - you have just defined yourself as a bully. And bullies are what we need less of in OUR world.

Thank god the last thing Canada cares about is military spending or enlarging its military.
I think ANY normal country would want it's military spending to be at the absolute necessary minimum. Why divert precious resources to the purchasing of expensive military hardware and the training of vast amounts of personel, while being able to use those funds to improve the countrie's education and god forbid, provide a nationwide healthcare system to all it's citizens. Better to spend a nations income on improving the life of its citizens than wasting it on weapons.


Hopefully the new Conervative leadership in Canada won't screw things up, destroying the achievements in Social Democracy (and continue to divert more resources to improve it) for a more aggresive Capitalistic and "Patriotic" stance towards world affairs, which would require a large boost in military spending.

Canada's enemy list is as long as New Zealand's. It does not require a large standing army to cope with that threat. If it's sole land neighbour, the U.S, decides one day to wage war against the "terrorist harboring" nation "up north" the world has probably gone to hell already, or that the U.S can't stand the notion of Canada surviving after they do :-)

The day Canada will be attacked by terrorists (because of Canadian actions) will be the day they'll run out of targets in the U.S.

However, The U.S is not the only country so very influenced by it's military industrial complex. All 5 permanent members of the security council are (U.S, U.K, France, Russia, China), not to say Israel, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan and many more.
The sad truth is that in most nations, the military has a central role in shaping it's nations policy. Some more than others. Canada is a good exception.

Canada's military should only consist of a few battalions of highly trained personel equiped with state of the art military systems. These forces should only be deployed against REAL threats against Canada or the Free and democratic Western way of life. Mostly, these forces should be deployed for peacekeeping or humanitarian purposes.

Let me end by saying that I have no problem with a U.S military keen on policing the world, as long as it's deployment goals are just and lead to the establishment of stability and peace. Getting rid of Saddam and freeing Iraq from his tyranny was a good thing. The way it was executed was terrible. But the U.S has to stay in Iraq until it manages to stabalize it. Running away from there will be the worst thing to do. But if the U.S truely believes in bringing freedom and democracy to nations by policing the world, it still has a LONG list of nations to intervine in or even topple their oppresive regimes (including some of it's closest allies in the war on terror), although I recognise the fact that some regime leaderships, oppresive as they may be against their people , are better to be kept in power than to hand over power to other representatives who claim to have the support of their people, yet do not believe in Liberalism and a free society (Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others are good examples).
Selectively choosing will always bring criticism and will point towards a policy of self interests not necessarily connected to the spreading of freedom. In reality, the U.S like any other nation on this planet , thinks first and foremost about its own interests. If they coincide with other nations interests...great. If, not....tough.

By the way, according to this documentry, Iran is next after Iraq. That will happen in 1-3 years , probably before Bush leaves office and is replaced by Condi Rice(The U.S military first needs to restock on ammunition and ask for more loans to cover the costs of fuel for the campaign. At 100 dollars a barrel for oil, the U.S could probably sell off Alaska to Canada and Hawai to Japan to cover the costs)
Prepare yourselves

Any right-thinking person would welcome the fact that Canada chooses not to arm itself. If everyone thought the same way as Canada, there would be no war. They are to be admired, not ridiculed.

The USA's reliance on huge military power is not a sign of strength, but weakness. The only thing 'seriously wrong' with the fact that the NYC Police Dept. dwarfs the Canadian military, is the size of the NYC Police Dept. The expansion and militarisation of American police forces is indicative of the deterioration of what used to be a great country. A country that now, only cares about oppressing the already disadvantaged at home and abroad, so it can redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich in an even more outrageously skewed fashion. A coutry that requires ever-growing police and detention facilities to deal with the repurcussions of these blatant injustices.

As for this film being propaganda, that's wishful thinking on the part of the right wing delusionists. This film represents an important, historical document which people will hold up in the future as explicit evidence of the reasons why America lost its way, and how it sowed the seeds of its own destruction. Reagan, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their swivel-eyed cronies will be viewed in the way the enlightened see them today: as some of the biggest war criminals ever to have lived.

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln

Wow,

Another uneducated US citizen that needs to sharpen his intellect. Its told in this movie that the US spends three quarters, that's THREE QUARTERS!!!!!! of a TRILLION dollars on its defense program. More money from the annual budget goes into the defense program per year than ALL the other budgets combined. What the hell is this saying.

I have a an American friend, a very close one at that, who told me about his education in America and how he thought it was dispicable. I got the impression that it really doesn't matter how intelligent you are, just get the right anwer and move along.

"Ahhh, 50% final mark. Hey you're doing great!!!" And that's in a post secondary academic environment.

Well, he said when he came here to Canada, and tested for his program in one of the Univeristys here, one of the minor reputable ones, it was a whole different ballgame. He told himself that, "Hey, I actually have to study for this now!" Testing here, you have to reach a top percentage, that's above 50% to pass. 60 and 70 is the going standard to pass an exam or even a simple test. Some tests you even have to get 80% to get ahead.

Perhaps more money should go into their education system instead of defense and then maybe more intelligent and practical solutions can be developed and exercised for their troubles than pulling out a gun and blowing away the next ciivlian (collateral damage) but still getting the "enemy" that was standing beside them, maybe.

Im From the uk, a country with a sizeable army (nothing to be proud of) which was sent to iraq along with the american army, despite a demonstration of over 2 million britons, the largest demonstration in the uk, im ahamed to say that my country has become another one of americas puppy dogs. i dont understand why you critisise canada for being a peacfull nation, without a sizeable armed forces, the us government believes it can do as it pleases, conning the american people, you are so heavily brainwashed by your media, that you allowed them to determine who became the president in the last election.
i believe it will take more than 50 years to repair what has been done by your government in just four years in the name of freedom.

You talk about canadas "disaterous" millitary direction, comming from a country that has lost every war it fought, and there have been many, since the second world war. Support for the united states government, around the world is at an all time low, the american public, can no longer freely travel the world, without fear of reprisals, is that what you believe to be the way forward?

The War on terror, isnt that a bit ironic, isnt war terror?
one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist.

i still havent heard a valid argument against this film, you have to stoop so low, as to personal insults. please i beg you, open your mind

Question autority, question everything.

So, only nations with might armies should be reckoned with ?
Short and simple, WRONG, and you should know why so here we go;

We live in a global world, without import/export the USA would die, so to prove this; the German econmony for example is an extremely big commercial partner to a lot of countries around the world. Yet they have NO regular army.

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Come To My Country and Break some of our laws and see how fast your dumb ass can get thrown in Prison.

I can guarantee you, unless you are a member of one of the overrated First nations(those are American Indians, for your reference) you have a very good chance of going to prison for a very long time.

That was not the case up until a short time ago...
Way back when, it was the case if you happened to be a member of a First Nation...

Here's some advice;
Stay south of the 49th parallel...

what's an FO.

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Europe is a society of empires in decline with an unearned sense of superiority, convinced that they are incapable of ignorance (though they are willing to display it on the internet every chance they get)

"America is that little popular bitch that everyone hates behind her back, because of her nosy, cruel and vicious attitude."
We are nosy. Especially when a German leader starts to eradicate the Jewish race as well as conquer the world. We are nosy when the Japanese empire starts to conquer the far east, trying to forcefully assimilate all neighboring cultures into there own. We are nosy when countries all over the world start falling to a political system(Marxism), whose stated goal is to violently end the way of life of our nation. Yes, Marx said that violently overthrowing the capitalists is the only way. And, in the fifties and sixties countries were dropping like flies to communism, so we got a little scared, and yes we dont really mind war. We're even starting to get nosy over there in the Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people are getting killed, though we should of got nosy about a year ago.
Cruel and vicious? Sounds more like the British when they decided to invade India , and annex it into their empire, a colony to exploit. Indian muslin weavers were the finest in the world, famous for their fine silk. But the British, literally cut off their fingers, because they were in competition with British textile factories. Cruel and vicious is when the British told Arab revolutionaries to fight against the Ottomans for their freedom, than after WWI was finished they decided to split the Arab territories for themselves and the French(see sykes-picot agreement). They were able to this because of their military might. Europeans(and others) have done countless acts of vicious cruelty all over the world throughout history. How about when the Chinese tried to stop its population from being addicted to opium? The British went to war with them for that! I have heard that German colonialism, especially in Africa, was even worse. What about the French in Algeria, all the torture?
When did these European nations give up their colonies and start preaching against war and imperialism? Could it be between the 1940's and 1960's, around the same time they lost their military strength? Wow, that's funny, soon as they lost their guns, they started preaching against them. Could it be that the poor status of Africa, India, the far east, is due to European imperialism, made possible by superior militaries? Could it be that these nations are free from Nazi Germany, Facsist Italy and the Imperial Japan because of the US? Could it be that they are free from Soviet-dominated totalitarian regimes, because of the US? Could it be that the third world economies are getting better because of free trade agreements that open the rich market of the US to third world products? What about over a hundred nations which have constitutions guaranteeing the rights of its citizens? What about the airplane, the telephone, the record player, the film projector, the PC, the assembly line, rock n' roll, jazz, blues, hip-hop? What about your free-market economies? You are all Americans all over the world, like it or not. That is why you single out everything that is bad about the US, and we thank you for it. A lot of us listen and it is good that you guys are free to speak that way. But think about it, if we didn't do all of those bad things, than we would be perfect, you woudn't have anything to criticize. Everyone in the world would be wearing baseball caps!
And another note, my family is from Bangladesh, an Islamic nation, but here in America, i have never felt any criticism or prejudice, i have always felt welcome and at home. Americans consider me American. My best friends are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Black, white, chinese. All americans. But i know of Asians that are born and raised in European nations yet not considered Italian, or British or French? Why is that? America opened its doors to the whole world, anybody can come join, provided they have the necessary credentials. We do not discrimate against race, religion or gender. By the way i understand America is a child of Europe and i respect Europe and their beliefs(especially the French), i am just expressing my mind for the haters.
Word
Oh yeah, and Europeans probably do know more about America than average Americans. Thats because we are on their minds constantly. Americans don't care about Europeans because we... just don't care. Europeans are great thinkers too. Americans are doers. We act. They think.
Peace to all of you, and sorry about global warming.