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Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Still Want to Move to Canada?

Saw this at Instapundit. Canada is limited in their response to the Tsunami, read Flightless DART.

There's little to say about the tragedy of Canada's response to the tsunami tragedy that hasn't already been said. A lot of excuses have been bandied about for why Canadian soldiers weren't sent, when Australia, Taiwan, Israel, and other countries despatched forces early, and the American military launched its largest operation in the area since Vietnam to try to save lives.

In the end, though, the answer's pretty simple: 600 tonnes.

That's the amount of airlift required to move the DART(Disaster Assistance Response Team). Since Canada only has the 4 CC-150 Polaris (modified Airbuses) for strategic airlift, with a cargo capacity of 13 tonnes each, rapid deployment of DART anywhere outside the effective ferry range of our 30-odd additional short-range Herc transports (ie, off this continent) was a mathematical impossibility, without civilian airlift... and civilian airlift is in pretty short supply at the moment.



I find it humorous that all the anti-war folks want to move to Canada because Bush won, and Canada does not have the means to help the world in a natural disastor like the US can. It is probably still uncool to be an American though, so don't worry.



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