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From: davecb@nexus.yorku.ca (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Gulf - Canadian forces?
Message-ID: <1991Jan19.034621.2237@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jan 91 03:46:21 GMT
References: <1991Jan9.041850.20766@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan14.012111.7947@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan17.232956.3248@cbnews.att.com>
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From: davecb@nexus.yorku.ca (David Collier-Brown)

bcstec!shuksan!major@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Schmitt) writes:
|   Do you know if any Canadian troops have been or will be deployed to 
|   the gulf?

  At the moment, there is no public plan to send ground troops to the gulf,
save for the field hospital and some air force troops who provide security
for our aircraft.
  Politically, we've chosen to specialize in (U.N.) peacekeeping forces and
a NATO presence, and stopped there.  Our presence in the gulf is our first
war-fighting posting since Korea, and is again a U.N. undertaking.

  The government (ie, the cabinet) does reserve the right to send troops, and
may re-summon parliament for (retrospective) approval if it sees fit do do
so.  

|   I remember the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade-Group (CMBG) in Lahr,
|   Germany trained closely with the U.S. VII Corps.  Now that the VII Corps
|   and three U.S. units from Germany are in Saudi Arabia - it would be logical
|   for the 4th CMBG to deploy with them -- if anyone from Canada is going....
|   I remember that ther tank battalion (Royal Canadian Dragoons) had 
|   the German Leopard II.....and were very, very good.  And, one of the 
|   G3 staff officers at VII Corps headquarters was a Canadian Lieutenant
|   Colonel (not a liaison officer but 'assigned'). 

  I'm biased, I think they're rather good too (:-)).  Speculation aside,
they are a plausible formation to send, although logistics makes it hard.
The trick is really to get the equipment to the site: I'd hate to truck the
Leopards in via Lebanon.

--dave c-b

-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA | lethe!dave
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