... and not a bloody word about this on the CBC's 'The National'. Just as with the lack of response from the CF in Lebanon, and the whining the CBC and other questionable 'news' organizations, who fail to point out that the Liberal Party so emmanciated the CF that they no longer have entire systems that we once had that could have made a difference. As an example, before the Liberals took hold of government in the '60's, we had a British built Light Fleet aircraft carrier. A CV right now would have been worth its weight in gold for Lebanon evacuations using helo's, transporting supplies, and offering C&C capability. Bringing this notion up to date, if we had a USN LHD vessels, with all their attributes, we could have been evacuating 1,500 civilians per trip/per ship, between Lebanon and Cypress. In Afghanistan had we the same wherewithall we did in the early '1960's, we would have had C-17's and Hercs galore moving troops, gear, and supplies, and a number of attack fighter squadrons so we could have provided our own CAS. That would have been in addition to having modern tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery, and lots of light armour of current vintage, not too mention having the ability to deploy on a steady basis a fully equipped and manned mechanized infantry brigade. The Liberal Party compromised media have for far too long been allowed to get away with this nonsense, and why I hope that more CF personnel, retired members, CF supporters, and their families start to call in talk shows and raise hell about the poor quality of reporting.

I think if you go down the route of having a small carrier, you are best served by an HSV-derived carrier, like Austal have proposed. They can carry a good load of helicopters, or even a JSF detachment, but can cruise at 30-40 knots. They are cheap, fast and effective - they could make the trip from Canada to the middle East in a matter of a few days. To support ground forces, they should buy some Predator Bs, which can carry EGBU-12 or GBU-38s, or Hellfires, or at least some Warrior ERMP UAVs, which can carry either Hellfires or Viper Strikes.