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The suggestion is disturbing to the geopolitically alert because of uncontrollable escalation risks. Shi’ite Iran has combat as well as training forces in action against ISIL’s Sunni fanatics in both Syria and Iraq, and is closely involved with Israel’s deadly Shi’ite Hezbollah enemy in Lebanon. Meanwhile Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main Muslim adversary, is bombing Iranian-backed Shiite fanatic Houthi militias in Yemen even as ISIL targets Shi’a mosques inside Saudi Arabia. It is impossible to introduce significant ground forces into such a murky situation without risking cross-border complications.

Lord Richards’ warning is also disturbing to the historically minded because Britain probably now lacks the capacity to mount such an operation. Policy-makers in London still see themselves as the great power whose armed forces prevailed in global conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars through the Cold War. But the Royal Navy now has fewer ships than it’s had since Henry VIII’s wooden carracks fired iron cannonballs; the RAF is smaller than it’s been since men in biplanes fired pistols at one another in 1914; and the rapidly shrinking British army will soon have fewer soldiers than at any point since the Transvaal War in 1880-81. Indeed it will soon be scarcely larger than the Canadian Armed Forces.

Which is why, finally, Lord Richards’ suggestion is or should be highly disturbing to Canadians. The Harper government talks tough in foreign affairs and often with admirable moral clarity. But it has run down the capacity of our armed forces, through deliberate budget cuts and botched equipment procurement, to a point reminiscent of the so-called “Decade of Darkness” under Jean Chrétien. At least Britain still aspires to spend 2 per cent of GDP on its military, though its cuts have brought public rebukes from the unlikely direction of the Obama administration. Here in Canada, despite repeated promises to meet NATO’s 2 per cent target, we are rapidly sinking toward 1 per cent and below.