Inside This Issue from All Comers—Our Friends Included

May—June 2012 Volume 72, Number 3

SITREPT h e J o u r n a l o f t h e R oya l C a n a d i a n M i l i ta ry I n s t i t u t e

Melbourne F Mackley archive/ ancestry.com

—MELBOURNE F MACKLEY ARCHIVE/ANCESTRY.COM Defending Arctic sovereignty Inside this Issue from all comers—our friends included. The opening of the Can NATO Continue to be the Most Successful Alaska Highway on November Military Alliance in History? Yes it can!...... 3 21, 1942, and a National Film Northern Sovereignty In World War II ...... 5 Board photo—approved for The State of the World: A Framework ...... 10 publication by US military Spent Nuclear Fuel:A National Security and authorities! Environmental Migraine Headache...... 12 Book Review: Dan Bjarnason, “Triumph at Kapyong: Canada’s Pivotal Battle in Korea”...14 Turco-Syrian Border could become a flashpoint for NATO ...... 16 From the Editor’s Desk Can NATO Continue to be the Most Successful Military Alliance in History? Yes it can! he impact of the latest federal budget is beginning to be felt throughout the government and across the nation. by Sarwar Kashmeri The exact nature of reductions in the size and capabilities Royal Canadian Military Institute Tacross all departments and agencies has yet to be determined. Founded 1890 nce the world’s most formidable military alliance, assigned to ISAF have suffered numerous casualties because Clearly from a defence and security perspective short-term cuts Patron today’s NATO is a shadow of what it used to be. Its other contingents could not support them. This casualty count to address the deficit need to be examined in the long term. When the spectre of His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D. original reason for existence, the Soviet Union, disin- includes at least a dozen Canadian soldiers that may have the potential loss of a capability appears, as it did so frequently during the ‘budget The Governor General of Canada Otegrated years ago, and its dreams of being a world policeman been killed for lack of support from other NATO contingents deficit war’ of the nineties, it is important to appreciate that once a capability is Vice Patrons have withered in the mountains of Afghanistan. during the 2006 Operation Medusa. lost it takes a very long time to resurrect. Examples abound…the savings by P.M. The Honourable David C. Onley, O.Ont From an alliance with a clearly defined objective, NATO In spite of its hollowed out condition, the fact however Chrétien’s cancellation of the maritime helicopter program have been exceeded by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario has morphed into an amorphous, hard to describe alliance remains that NATO is still associated in the minds of many the financial cost of the present program and more importantly the diminishment The Honourable Dalton McGuinty, MPP The Premier of Ontario of Western countries that believe NATO can be a world cop, North Americans and Europeans as their defender of last in capability and risk to our maritime pilots. The Royal New Zealand Air Force no General Walter J. Natynczyk, CMM, MSC, CD Chief of the Defence Staff emancipate women, reduce carbon emissions, rebuild nations, resort. It is also one of the girders that support the hugely longer exists! In a strange reversal of fortune we retained the tank capability in the His Worship Rob Ford defend European borders, prevent money laundering and successful transatlantic relationship and is the only security seventies because of an imbalance of trade with West Germany—Helmet Schmidt Mayor of Toronto pressured P.M. Trudeau to resolve this by buying German Leopard tanks. We did Officers & Directors piracy, serve as a defense research and technology lab, and platform that brings together the armed forces of the trans- and we retained a capability that otherwise was about to be cut. Hopefully the pres- Col Gilbert W. Taylor—President preserve Western values. atlantic allies. LCdr/Dr. Michael J. Hoare, CD—Vice President NATO’s actions in Libya demonstrated its lack of cohe- Can anything be done to stop the Alliance’s slide into ent cohort of military officers will not have to suffer as my generation did from this Col W. Allan Methven—Vice President lack of long-term consideration. But, “Hope is not a method.” Mr. Gilbert S. Lamothe—Secretary/Treasurer sion and structural weaknesses in a conflict with a minor irrelevance? LCol Donald R. Fisher, CD—Director military power. “The mightiest military alliance in history is After recent conversations with fifty political and mili- Sarwar Kashmeri provides a compelling argument that the world’s most suc- Ms Patricia M. Hind-White—Director cessful alliance has evolved and continues to be relevant on the world stage. Dr. Michael W. Leahy—Director only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime tary leaders, I believe NATO’s future relevance depends on its Maj David T. Mezzabotta, CD—Director in a sparsely populated country —yet many allies are begin- willingness to be bridged to the European Union’s Common Peter Pigott presents a little known perspective on how the Second World War LCol Leo P. Morin, CD—Director changed our North—specifically the US presence. Interesting given the present evolu- LCol C. Edward Rayment, CD—Director ning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, Security and Defense Policy—CSDP. LCol Reginald C. Scotland, CD—Director tion of US Northern Command’s continental US defence mandate and the Canada Capt John E. Thompson, CD—Director to make up the difference,” Robert Gates, then U.S. Defense Under this new version of NATO, (I call it NATO 2.0), First Defence Plan which places considerable emphasis on northern security and Executive Director and Editor Secretary said in Brussels last year. the Alliance would only be activated to undertake missions sovereignty. It happened before, it could happen again—the US placing troops on Col (ret’d) Chris Corrigan, CD, MA Gates noted with frustration that fewer than half the 28 that the Canada, the United States, and the European Union Canadian soil ostensibly to defend the continental US. Past President nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were en- believe are in their mutual and vital national interests. The George Friedman writes of the ever changing fortunes of nations and the cycles Col James R. Breithaupt, KStJ, CD, QC gaged in the Libyan conflict, and that fewer than a third were EU via CSDP would be primarily responsible for the defense of geopolitics. The demise of the Soviet Union 1989-91 still has a profound impact Special Consultant to the Board conducting airstrikes, even though the coalition unanimously and security of Europe and its periphery, using NATO assets throughout Europe. Since 2008 Europe, Asia and the US have been in financial crisis. LCol Jeffery J. Dorfman, OMM, CD backed the decision to go to war to protect civilians. as it deems necessary. All nations need new strategies to deal with the challenges of recession, environmental Honoraries Questions remain about NATO’s decision to interpret Since 2003, the EU has used CSDP to conduct 27 civil- degradation and the declining quality of life. Col (ret’d) John Clarry, MBE, ED, CD, QC the United Nations authorizations to defend civilians in Beng- ian and/or military missions from Africa to Asia, deploying Nuclear safety is both a national and international security issue. Lawrence Honorary President hazi to also include regime change. A fateful decision that has more than 80,000 personnel, including soldiers, policemen, Husick addresses the problem of spent nuclear fuel—an issue distinct from the MGen Richard Rohmer, OC, CMM, DFC, O.Ont, KStJ, OL, Legion d’Honneur, QC already had a geopolitical fall out: Russia and China refused judges, custom officials, monitors, and rule of law experts. The natural disaster-induced reactor accident of Fukushima. Hopefully the Canadian Honorary Vice President to endorse UN sanctions against the regime of Hafez al Assad missions include the deployment of 3,700 troops to Chad, and Nuclear Safety Commission has made the distinction between safe storage of spent O.Ont, KStJ, CD, QC LCol (ret’d) Bruce W. Savage, CD of Syria where the killing of civilians proceeds unimpeded. the anti-piracy naval force off the Somali coast. nuclear fuel and ‘All Hazards’ management of CANDU reactors. Honorary Curator Recently Dan Bjarnason spoke at a Military History Night about the Battle of Mr. J. L. Granatstein, OC, FRSC In Afghanistan, the performance of NATO has been even Remarkably, all these deployments were planned Dr. Desmond Morton, OC more tragic, as Canadians know all too well. Unlike Canada, and executed without a permanent military headquarters Kapyong. Thomas Fitzgerald provides a review of Dan Bjarnason’s excellent “Triumph Honorary Historian at Kapyong: Canada’s Pivotal Battle in Korea”—a must read for everyone wishing to Mr. Arthur Manvell many of America’s largest NATO allies refuse to participate (MHQ). Opposition from NATO forced the EU to set up a Honorary Librarian in fire-fights because of their national caveats. The caveats system of five virtual MHQs. Under this system a new MHQ know more about this important event in our nation’s military history. LCol J. Roy Weir , CD, AdeC, QC Our own Eric Morse rounds out the issue with a note on an interesting (and Honorary Solicitor have had deadly consequences. An official report prepared for is designated for each European mission deployment. The potentially volatile) incident in Turkish-NATO relations. Chaplains the Czech Republic’s Army pointed out that Canadian forces MHQ is used only for the duration of the mission; after the Maj The Rev Gillian Federico, CD In his Letter to the Editor kindly offered by Commodore (ret’d) Robert N. The Rev Martin Keatings deployment, MHQ staff return to their home countries. Every Baugniet, he comments on “DND Acquisition in an Era of Reform”, by Rodnie LCdr The Rev J. David Mulholland Sarwar Kashmeri is a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council of the United mission repeats the cycle of designating and standing-up a Capt The Rev Mark L. Sargent, CD Allison which appeared in the previous issue. States, a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and author of “NATO 2.0, new MHQ. It is a very inefficient and costly process that a General Manager Reboot or Delete?” e Mr. Michael T. Jones permanent EUHQ would eliminate. Director of Communications/Assistant Editor Sincerely, Mr. Eric S. Morse Colonel (ret’d) Chris Corrigan, Official Publication of the Royal Canadian Military Institute Executive Director The production of SITREP is made possible in part by the generosity of the 426 University Avenue, Sitrep Editor and Chair of the Security Studies Committee Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1S9 Langley Bequest, which is made in honour of Major Arthur J Langley CD 416-597-0286/1-800-585-1072 Copyright © 2012 RCMI ISSN 0316-5620 SITREP may be fully reproduced in whole or in part for academic research or institutional Fax: 416-597-6919 and Lt (N/S) Edith F Groundwater Langley purposes, provided that the author’s and the institute’s copyright is acknowledged. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and Editorial E-Mail: [email protected] do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute or its members. Website: www.rcmi.org

2 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 3 For those who suggest CSDP should use the existing countries to jointly develop and procure a range of advanced Northern Sovereignty In World War II NATO MHQ, there are a number of barriers to such an ar- weapon systems including unmanned aerial vehicles, nuclear rangement. First, NATO is American-led while CSDP man- submarine equipment, military satellites, missiles, nuclear by Peter Pigott ages missions that are in the EU’s national interest, ones which weapons research, and shared aircraft carrier operations. may or may not be aligned with American national interests. The establishment of the EUMHQ means a pooling of he Second World War changed the Canadian North planning. Traditional Canadian fears of American annexation CSDP has proven expertise in planning civilian missions, a military production and procurement, effectively creating an and the Arctic with the ferocity and the transience were replaced by pragmatic acceptance of the uneven part- capability that NATO is still trying to develop. Additionally, EU-wide defense industry. This is hugely important because of the Yukon gold rush.1 Unlike the 1914-18 conflict, nership that led to the United States impinging on Canadian CSDP has deployed missions to countries that did not want the EU5, including the United Kingdom, would account for Tthis time geography and developments in aviation and radio sovereignty beginning in 1930 with the planning of the Alaska NATO forces and its implicit American presence on their soil. about 90% of the EU’s defense spending. Thanks to the Lisbon put the Arctic on the periphery of military strategy. It was Highway. In a bold move to rectify the EUMHQ deficit the foreign Treaty, even without the UK’s participation in the EUMHQ, about sovereignty—in A resolution to be- ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Spain in 2011 all of the EU’s defense expenditure will be more efficient. this instance, that of gin construction of the sent a letter to Baroness Ashton, the EU High Representative Once the EUMHQ is established, and a leaner and more the northern part of the Alaska Highway was for Foreign and Security Policy, in which they asked her to efficient European defense sector begins to evolve, the primary Western Hemisphere. brought to Congress set up a permanent military headquarters in Brussels for the responsibility for the security of Europe and its periphery All three arms of the on December 5, 1941. purpose of planning, organizing, and executing EU civilian- should be transferred from NATO to the EU in a reasonably Canadian military were This had happened be- military missions outside the NATO chain of command. short period of time. The United States and Canada should involved - either in the fore but this time the This request is especially noteworthy because the EU5 play the leading role in this transformation of NATO’s re- Norwegian or the Alas- devastating attack on make up 55% of the EU’s total defense expenditures. All five sponsibilities, since both have been asking the Europeans to kan polar regions. RCN Pearl Harbor two days are in the midst of the worst economic downturn in the last rationalize their overlapping defense programs for decades. escorts fought their way later and the subsequent half century, and are experiencing relentless pressure to cut Rebalancing transatlantic security responsibilities through the Barents Sea Japanese expansion over defense expenditures. Pooling defense procurement, eliminat- through the establishment of NATO 2.0 will speak to the depth in the Murmansk con- the Pacific ensured that ing duplication, and focusing on strategic weapons capabilities of the transatlantic relationship and the nature of its growth voys, Canadian soldiers it received everyone’s for the conflicts of the 21st century are the only way to cut since its inception, when Europe was almost completely reli- landed in Spitsbergen, immediate attention. defense spending while still maintaining a potent EU defense ant on the United States and Canada for its very survival. A Norway in Operation On January 16, 1942 capability, as the letter makes clear: “We believe it [EUMHQ] North American pillar via NATO 2.0 within CSDP will ensure Gauntlet and on Kiska, President Franklin remains the most comprehensive basis for further work on all a mechanism within the EU for the United States, Canada, the Aleutians in Green- Roosevelt called in his the issues: capabilities, including civil-military planning and and Europe to act together. light Force and RCAF advisors, the Secretaries conduct capability, battle groups and EU/NATO relations.” It would be a shame to let NATO fade away because it squadrons flew in de- —PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA of War, Navy and Inte- To succeed in their quest for an EUMHQ, the five coun- will have to be reinvented some day. And given the existing fence of Nome, Alaska. A bridge on the Alcan Highway, circa 1942. rior and with General tries will have to bypass the UK’s legendary opposition to any financial and political realities together with the fact that Eu- In the Canadian George Marshall and move that facilitates a European capability to project military rope no longer faces an existential threat that will not be easy. North where airfields and highways were thrown up almost Admiral Ernest J. King present asked for a decision on build- force independently from the United States. To overcome the Instead of looking at NATO through rose-tinted glasses overnight, the battle over sovereignty was against a friend and ing the Highway. Marshall was not alone in anticipating an British opposition the five countries suggested setting up the the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago should take a sober neighbour, the United States. Between 1941-5, the immediate attack on Alaska and Admiral King informed the President military headquarters using the Permanent Structured Coop- view of the Alliance’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and influx of American airmen, soldiers and construction bat- that with only three aircraft carriers in the Pacific, the US. eration clause in the Lisbon Treaty. This would allow the EU5 threats. Then it should lay out a realistic agenda to remake talions far outnumbered the local inhabitants in Labrador, Navy no longer had the resources to protect the Alaskan coast. to move ahead with their plans with just a qualified majority NATO for the new century. The transatlantic community will northern British Columbia and the Yukon. Canadians who Roosevelt authorized construction to begin on February 11, vote in the European Council, effectively denying Britain an be the better for it.  since the British had bequeathed their Arctic possessions 1942, increasing the expenditure on March 3rd, doubling it opportunity to exercise its veto powers. to them never had the wealth or interest in developing the from $25 million to $50 million. The US. Government then It is interesting to note that even if it chooses to remain The views expressed are those of the author and do not North now watched in askance as the United States military briefed their Canadian colleagues about the Highway: To outside the EUHQ, Britain would still be part of the rational- necessarily reflect the views of the Institute bulldozed its way literally as well as metaphorically through repay Canada for building the NWSR, the United States was ization of EU defense expenditures, due to its recent defense or its members. Northern Canada. While grateful that the airfields, highways willing to pay the entire cost of constructing and maintaining treaty with France. The far-reaching treaty allows the two and pipelines that sprang up brought victory over the Axis the Highway for the duration of the war. closer, Canadians allowed the United States to change their The Canadian Chiefs of Staff Committee (like their prime North forever. In contrast with the cautious Ottawa bureau- minister) saw little value in the Highway as it would have no crats who weighed the postwar benefits of such developments effect on the defense of the British Columbia coast. But with with a view of eventual ownership, the United States military the United States still reeling from the shock of Pearl Harbor, charged in with a “can do” exuberance, the detritus of which Mackenzie King knew that Washington was in no mood to can still be seen in the North today. quibble and on February 12, the US. ambassador to Canada Because of a shrinking world, the North increasingly warned him of the prevailing feeling. Bluntly put, Canada was became part (a minor part) of Allied global strategic military told to swallow its sovereignty issues and acquiesce. As his own Secretary of State for External Affairs, King signed the Peter Pigott, one of Canada’s most esteemed aviation authors, is a prolific contributor to SITREP. Most recently spoke at a RCMI Military History Night Exchange of Notes on March 18, 1942 (the same day as the on his latest book “From Far And Wide: The Complete History of Canadian first contingent of US troops arrived at Dawson Creek, BC) in Arctic Sovereignty.” Toronto: Dundurn, 2011. This article is an excerpt. which the Canadian Government formally accepted the offer

4 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 5 of the United States Government to undertake the building eral J.F. O’Connor has been placed in charge of all American were becoming intolerable. to make the round trip from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse- and wartime maintenance of the highway. At the insistence of undertakings in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Taken from Roundel Magazine, here are a few entries except when they carried perishables. Then it was a nonstop the prime minister, a key clause inserted was that the United and Northwest Territories. He defended his choice with, “The from the daily diaries kept by various units during this period. trip of thirty-six to forty hours. This was done by flying relief States: “Agree that at the conclusion of the war that part of primary purpose of this road was the airfields. The secondary drivers to Fort Nelson and Watson Lake. The total poundage the highway which lies in Canada shall become in all respects purpose was to have an additional route to Alaska in case of “December 19th: Lockheed 7634 encountered severe carried in 1944 to the RCAF posts was five million pounds. an integral part of the Canadian highway system, subject to difficulties in the Pacific.” icing conditions, and, on the south-bound trip, icing endan- “The winter months meant that the drivers were unable to the understanding that there shall at no time be imposed any Since most US Army engineer regiments had already gered the aircraft to such an extent that only superb piloting gear down on the mountain sides lest they skid over the cliffs,” discriminatory conditions in relation to the use of the road as been deployed to the Pacific or European theatres, to build and a great deal of good luck prevented a crash and probably the squadron leader said, “and anyway they needed as much between Canadian and United States civilian traffic.” 2 the Highway the US War Department raised construction fatalities. It’s criminal that we should be asked to carry on speed as possible to get up the ice covered hill that inevitably Now called the Alcan Highway, it would also have eight battalions composed of black Americans. The US military was northern flying without having aircraft properly equipped awaited them as soon as they had successfully reached the landing strips built alongside and a road from Haines, Alaska segregated at the time and the battalions were commanded with de-icing and other winter equipment...Severe tempera- bottom of the previous one.” In the summer the rain made to Champagne, Yukon giving the US Army additional facilities by white officers who resented their assignments. Few of the tures being experienced in the North and still no winter cloth- the road as slippery as ice and spring brought flash floods for distributing supplies by truck. With airfields and highways black recruits had any training in engineering and most came ing for personnel. Someone has bungled badly.” from the melting snow on the top of the mountains. “It was came communications. In June 1942, the Northwest Commu- from the southern United States and had never experienced quite possible to be driving comfortably along the Highway nications System began when the United States Signal Corps a Canadian winter—let alone one in the Yukon. Despite all “December 21st: Contrary to all rules and regulations, one moment and the next to see a deluge of icy water come arranged to have line communications parallel the Alaska these handicaps, they managed to help push through a pioneer we are issuing flying-boots to all personnel, with the sincere rushing around a bend to wash away the road, one’s car and Highway. They ran 1,871 miles of line from Edmonton to road in only eight months. hope that this will alleviate to some extent suffering from the oneself.” Maze said. “But the drivers always had one thing to Fairbanks using 95,000 poles and 23 repeater stations planted It was a saga worthy of the country that had dug the cold.” look forward to, however. They used to stop for a swim at the at 160 kilometres intervals. In mid 1945, when the Canadian Panama Canal thirty years before and would put a man on the hot springs near Smith River, even when the temperature was Army assumed responsibility for the Canadian portion of the moon less than thirty years later. In eight months and 12 days, “December 23rd: Sqn. Ldr. Guest arrived. He reported thirty five below and the trees and the swimmers hair thick Alaska Highway, the RCAF did the same for the ‘pole’ line. at the cost of $140 million, 1,523 miles of the Alaska Highway intense cold at Whitehorse, average temperature 40 below with hoar frost.” Within a year the RCAF turned the ‘pole’ line over to the were built through forests, across swamps and around moun- zero. Personnel in desperate need of clothing and money. Both The booming wartime economy and free spending GIs Department of Transport which on April 1, 1947 contracted tains by US Army engineers and 6,000 civilians. What prewar of these items on way, but weather delaying. Living conditions and American civilian engineers that the Highway and CA- it to Canadian National Telegraph. should have taken five years to build was to be roughly formed at Whitehorse deplorable. Our personnel are living in our NOL projects brought to British Columbia, the North West On April 11th, the US Army Corps of Engineers officially in the eight months and completed in another year. Typically barracks without plumbing or adequate heat, and to get their Territories and the Yukon meant that the locals, who had clam- started construction of the Highway. The Canadian govern- American, a massive publicity campaign had accompanied the meals they must walk 1 and 1/2 miles to the Contractor’s. ored for decades in vain to get Ottawa’s attention for better ment’s approach to major projects like the Trans Canada Air- truck convoys snaking their way through the wilderness and Only one panel wagon available.” services, enjoyed it all. In a pattern repeated in other Northern way had been to treat them as unemployment relief schemes movie clips were shown throughout the Dominion. communities, Whitehorse for example was transformed by to get idle men doing something useful. In contrast, to the On November 21, 1942 the Alaska Highway was officially Sent to the Staging Route in early 1943 as the RCAF the Americans from a frontier town to a modern city. Its four US military the Alaska Highway was a military campaign and opened at Soldier’s Summit. Mackenzie King sent a con- Air-Rail Transportation officer, Sqn. Ldr. R.M. Maze and Sgt man volunteer fire department was deemed insufficient for permafrost, swamp, mountains, rivers and virgin forest the gratulatory telegram which conveyed his feelings succinctly. D. Whyte would set out to drive the completed Highway. On the new camps and squatters homes that had sprung up so enemy. Seven regiments of engineers were the shock troops to Canada’s “unprecedented action in granting the United States the 17 day journey they counted 22 flat tyres and had to buy without consultation with the territorial government, the US be followed by the main army of 7,500 construction workers permission,” he wrote, “to build the road across Dominion or scrounge a half dozen new ones. “Almost all the bridges Army enforced a fire code on all buildings, public and private. from the US Public Roads Commission. Cranes, bulldozers, territory was another symbol that we are brothers in arms, were of wood, hurriedly assembled and single lane.” said Maze. Seeing the town’s garbage and untreated sewage being dumped dump trucks, road scrapers served as the armour and artil- waging a life-and-death struggle against a common enemy.”3 “Just north of Watson Lake, we shot down the mountainside in the river, the Americans built a treatment plant to prevent lery. Eighty-one American construction firms—to the envy of Less subtle was Ian Mackenzie, his Cabinet minister at the towards one of them. As we drove on to it, our lights probing an outbreak of typhoid. And at the US government’s expense their Canadian counterparts —were the main body. Where a opening. “The soil is ours, the toil is yours.” he announced. No through the night fog we suddenly spotted an Army truck a sewer system was laid through the town. year before a few trappers and prospectors had wandered, at doubt on instructions from the prime minister, he pointed out speeding at us in the opposite direction. I don’t know how we “When a quart of milk cost $1.50 in 1944—so you can the height of the project a tsunami of 16,000 men and 11,000 that the Alaska Highway was only part of the grand scheme. made it but we did. Both sides of our car were scraped, the imagine what a quart of whisky cost—a few of the RCAF and pieces of equipment hit the North. It was a repeat of the Gold The Canadian-built NWSR was the remainder. “We have built left by the truck and the right by the bridge.” USAAF boys decided to go into business. They built three Rush as overnight the population of Dawson Creek which the skyway—you the highway.” Mackenzie said. The casual When he returned to Edmonton, Maze set to work 75-gallon stills in the hills surrounding Whitehorse. They got had numbered 3,000 residents in 1940 now overflowed to ingratitude of both messages must have puzzled the GI audi- organising a Freight Transit Unit for the RCAF posts on the away with it for many months, too, bringing their moonshine 10,000 men. ence who were there to win the war and had no intentions of NSWR. By the autumn of 1943, a fleet of trucks was operating down to the thirsty thousands through a system of metal pipes First, the US Army Transportation Corps comman- subverting Canadian sovereignty. The following year, at the from the newly built refrigerated warehouse at Dawson Creek rather like miniature CANOL pipelines.” —Roundel Magazine deered the White Pass & Yukon Railway, finding for it some request of Dimond, both countries agreed that the highway carrying supplies to all RCAF detachments on the route. “In The Japanese victories early in the war especially Pearl narrow gauge steam 2-8-2 locomotives from disused lines. from Dawson Creek, BC to Fairbanks, Alaska would be of- 1944, several people in positions of authority complained that Harbor, the sinking of the British battleships HMS Repulse Men and material were then transported from Skagway to ficially called the “Alaska Highway.” an Air Force debased itself by moving freight on the ground” and Prince of Wales and later the surrender of the supposedly the railhead of Dawson Creek from where the highway was One of the most distressing difficulties facing the RCAF’s remembered Maze. “To quiet these charges, someone figured impregnable base at Singapore—all so panicked the United to run through British Columbia and the Yukon. Only when detachments on the North-West Staging Route (NWSR) was out that an airman’s daily food supply, packed for shipment States that it was sure an attack on the Aleutian Islands and it crossed the border at Snag would it be in Alaska. Its rout- the problem of supply. Neither the Alaska Highway nor the weighed roughly six pounds. To have flown this package from Alaska was imminent. The state’s protection rested on the Alas- ing disappointed many Alaskans especially those who lived Staging Route were much use without motor vehicles and Edmonton to Whitehorse would have cost $2.40 per man per kan Air Force with its six old medium bombers and a dozen on the panhandle at Juneau and Skagway and felt themselves aircraft, and in 1942 these were not available in the quantity day. But by truck the cost of shipping the same package was obsolete fighter aircraft. But even if more aircraft had been in the greatest danger of Japanese attack. As commanding required. Some degree of hardship had, of course, been antici- thirty seven cents.” available, there were few airfields for them. On December 10, officer of the US Army Northwest Service Command, Gen- pated, but, by December of the year just mentioned, conditions A convoy of RCAF trucks took seven to nine days 1941, when General John L. DeWitt, the head of US. Western

6 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 7 Defense Command asked for more aircraft to defend Alaska, bridge several miles from Watson Lake, killing the pilot and of USAAF control organisation along the Route by a proces- the man that he found the money in a wartime economy to all that the USAAF chief H.H. Arnold could spare were as- co-pilot. Two passengers survived in the fuselage for eleven sion of limited objectives.” 5 The Americans were instructed pay for all US projects on Canadian territory. There would sembled at Spokane Wash.—the 11th Pursuit Squadron with days, even keeping a fire going while they heard aircraft over- to stop unauthorized construction. be no legal loopholes outstanding after the war that would 25 P-40s and the 77th Bombardment Group with 13 B-25s. head searching for them. On the eleventh day the pair gave Although control of the Staging Route was to be handed allow future American governments to claim property or any Installing winter maintenance equipment on them meant that up hope of rescue and each with a broken leg crawled out over to the RCAF in September 1942, the first commanding privileges in the North. The Canadian government paid out the aircraft didn’t leave Spokane until January 2, 1942. By the into the bush—hoping they were heading towards Watson. officers of the various units arrived in July. “They were chosen the following sums for improvements in the North:7 time they negotiated the rough NWSR airfields and groped For eight days they crawled through waist-deep snow drag- with two qualities in mind.” wrote Flying Officer S.G. French. their way to Alaska six of the P-40s had crashed, six were lost ging a small toboggan with food and water before an RCMP “The first was diplomacy: they had to be capable of ensuring The Northwest Staging Route $31,311,196 and the B-25s fared little better. To reinforce Alaska, the US constable followed their tracks in the snow and found them.4 friendly co-operation with the American forces (including Airstrips along the Alaska Highway $3,262,687 military also had elev- As to who would the Engineer Corps engaged in construction of the High- Airstrips along the Mackenzie River $1,264,150 en American airlines pay for the improve- way). The second was implied: Some“ bureaucrat in Ottawa Crimson Route along Hudson Bay $27,460,330 airlift troops through ments to the Route— must have run his pencil down a list of R.C.A.F. pilots until Mingan Airport, PQ $3,627,980 Canada to Fairbanks. If a second compromise he found six former bush-pilots. Wing Commander C.M.G. Goose Bay Airport $543,000 this wasn’t enough, that was reached. While the (Con) Farrell went to Edmonton, and Squadron Leaders J. F. Telephone line from Edmonton to spring, the United States Department of Trans- Bythell to Grande Prairie, E. S. Holmes to Fort St. John, A. the Alaska boundary $9,432,208 decided to ferry aircraft port was waiting for a C. Heaven to Fort Nelson, G. W. du Temple to Watson Lake, to its Russian ally over political decision on the and J. Hone to Whitehorse. In addition, Flight Lieutenant D. The grand total paid by Canada to the Americans for the the route. With such financial arrangements, M. Shields, an experienced airways traffic control officer, was airstrips was $111,000,000. In the years to come, the United heavy traffic, the Ameri- the Department of Na- sent to Edmonton to direct the establishment of a general States gratuitously gave aid to many countries - especially with cans wanted all airway tional Defence paid for control over the Route.”6 the Marshall Plan but as the aviation historian J.R.K. Main deficiencies corrected the Canadian share. Pat Ivy flew with the RCAF on the Staging Route would write in “Voyageurs of The Air”, that for Canada, King and under their con- Aware of Japanese inten- throughout the early war years and was later killed in Europe. ensured that there were no misunderstandings on this score. trol—and immediately. tions on the Aleutians, When Aishihik was under construction, Pat flew in one day Sovereignty as he understood it, came at a price.  For Canada, ced- the US government was and pancaked his Dakota after taking the undercarriage off ing wartime sovereignty desperate to bring in US on the top of a bulldozer. His entire load consisted of nails. The views expressed are those of the author and do not to the United States for Army engineer units “You can find nails on the runway to this day,” the locals say necessarily reflect the views of the Institute the ultimate defeat of —PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA immediately. But fearing “—often when you least want to.” RCAF( Roundel) or its members. the Axis was commend- The C-119 Flying Boxcars did sterling work resupplying the stations. postwar repercussions On June 1, 1944, with headquarters in Edmonton, the able —but troubling. Al- that would not be in the RCAF Northwest Air Command was formed to take over Notes lowing a foreign military (however benign) to construct and sovereign interest of Canada, Ottawa was reluctant to agree. complete operations of the route. The Yukon section of the operate airfields, radio and military installations for what had Colonel Biggar brought this to the Cabinet War Committee’s Northwest Air Command was RCAF Station Whitehorse, with 1 Ironically, the one resource industry in the North that did not prosper during the war was gold mining. Considered nonessential, men and machinery were nothing to do with civil aviation was setting uncomfortable attention and on April 22, it was decided that if the United detachments at Teslin, Aishihik and Snag. Air Vice Marshal withdrawn from the gold mines and allocated either to the war effort or to Port precedents. In Ottawa, politicians, bureaucrats and the mili- States would pay for additional work that was beyond Cana- H.D. Lawrence told a group of officers who were to staff the Radium to make the fissionable material for atomic bombs. 2 Canada Treaty Series 1942/13 tary watched the construction of the staging route airfields in dian requirements, Canada would retain full title and control new Command that they were “going to ‘Canadianise’ the 3 “Vancouver Province”, November 22, 1942. the eastern and western Canadian North with growing unease. of the NWSR during and after the war. Route.” The Department of Transport took over the airfields 4 The story was used by Ernest K. Gann in his book “Fate Is the Hunter” and As the Director of Air Services in Canada J.A.Wilson was The Department of Transport kept control of the opera- at The Pas and Churchill in August, 1945 with Southampton made into the movie “Island in The Sky” starring John Wayne. 5 D. Hist 181.009 (D3391) North West Air Command (RCAF) 31 December aware, airways were no longer in the mandate of the Depart- tion of the NWSR until September 1942, when as the route Island transferred in September. Mingan airfield was given 1942-4 April 1944 , “USAAF Control Towers on Hangars-NWSR”, 17 January, ment of Transport. On March 11, 1942, the RCAF, the Depart- was being used for military purposes it was handed over to the over to the Department in 1949 but the United States main- 1944. ment of Transport and the USAAF met in Ottawa to work out Royal Canadian Air Force. Six RCAF officers were sent to each tained Frobisher Bay and Fort Chimo until 1950. 6 S.G. French, “The North West Staging Route”, Roundel Magazine in seven parts, 1955. a compromise. The Department of Transport would install of the airfields enroute to begin the military’s take over. Their For the ordinary Canadian, sovereignty regarding the 7 J.R.K. Main, “Voyageurs of the Air”, Ottawa: Queen’ sprinter, 1967, P. 179. intermediate radio ranges on the airway between Fort St. John instructions convey the sensitivities of the time. They were North, a land that outside Robert Service’s poems he knew and Fort Nelson and between Watson Lake and Whitehorse to act as ‘ambassadors’ of the Canadian government- which nothing of was of little importance in the worldwide struggle and construct emergency airfields in-between each town. The considering they were in their own country is an interesting of Liberty against Tyranny. More than likely, if he thought USAAF would install ground to air radio equipment at each choice of word. But the intent was clear. At some future date about it at all, given the opportunities that the postwar world of the main fields along the airway and when the Canadians the RCAF would take over from the Department of Transport was about to afford him, he had no qualms with what the built the support facilities such as barracks, hangars and mess and the USAAF. While the transfer of assets with the former Americans had done. Taken on junkets to see the Highway, halls, the Americans would maintain them. could be settled in Ottawa, issues with the latter were espe- provincial politicians waxed lyrical about the peacetime ben- Many of the USAAF aircraft ferried through the NWSR cially contentious. When the US military attempted to take efits it would bring. The Canadian public accepted that once lie today on the bottom of lake beds in the North. Engine control of air traffic at Whitehorse, it was firmly rebuffed. victory was achieved, the Alaska Highway would open up the trouble, inexperienced pilots, getting lost or running out of With so much traffic going through, the Americans continu- North to settlement, farming and mining. fuel on the route in the winter meant putting down on a frozen ously attempted to expand their facilities. When the USAAF But Prime Minister Mackenzie King understood that lake surface and so many pilots did so that the region around began to build an unauthorized air traffic control tower at Canada as the junior partner in such an alliance would ex- Watson Lake became known as “Million Dollar Valley.” On Watson Lake as the first of many along the airway, the RCAF perience difficulties with regard to its sovereignty in decision one occasion a USAAF DC-3 forced landed on a deserted officers saw it as “an effort to move towards the establishment making and control of its territory—and it is characteristic of

8 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 9 The State of the World: A Framework tionalism and emerge as a United States of Europe, a single the problem with a massive surge in bank lending, driving political federation with a constitution and a unified foreign new investment and supporting GDP growth but also fueling by George Friedman and domestic policy. It would move from a free trade zone rampant inflation. Inflation created upward pressure on labor to a unified economic system to a single currency and then costs until China began to lose its main competitive advantage he evolution of geopolitics is cyclical. Powers rise, fall the end of the Japanese economic miracle, the first time the to further political integration built around the European over other countries. and shift. Changes occur in every generation in an world had marveled at an Asian power’s sustained growth rate Parliament, allowing Europe to emerge as a single country. For a generation, Chinese growth has been the engine of unending ballet. However, the period between 1989 as the same power’s financial system crumbled. The end of Long before this happened, of course, people began to the global economic system, just as Japan was in the previous Tand 1991 was unique in that a long cycle of human history the Japanese miracle and the economic problem of integrat- speak of Europe as if it were a single entity. Regardless of the generation. China is not collapsing any more than Japan did. spanning hundreds of years ended, and with it a shorter cycle ing East and West Germany both changed the way the global modesty of formal proposals, there was a powerful vision of However, it is changing its behavior, and with it the behavior also came to a close. The world is still reverberating from the economy worked. The 1991 Maastricht Treaty set the stage an integrated European polity. There were two foundations of the international system. events of that period. for Europe’s attempt at integration and was the framework for for it. One was the apparent economic and social benefits of a Looking Ahead On Dec. 25, 1991, an epoch ended. On that day the So- Europe in the post-Cold War world. Tiananmen Square set united Europe. The other was that this was the only way that viet Union collapsed, and for the first time in almost 500 years the course for China in the next 20 years and was the Chinese Europe could make its influence felt in the international sys- If we look at the international system as having three ma- no European power was a global power, meaning no European answer to a collapsing Soviet empire. It created a structure that tem. Individually, the European states were not global players, jor economic engines, two of them—Europe and China—are state integrated economic, military and political power on a allowed for economic development but assured the dominance but collectively they had the ability to become just that. In the changing their behavior to be less assertive and less influential global scale. What began in 1492 with Europe smashing its of the Communist Party. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait post-Cold War world, where the United States was the sole and in the international system. The events of 2008 did not create way into the world and creating a global imperial system had was designed to change the balance of power in the Persian unfettered global power, this was an attractive opportunity. these changes; they merely triggered processes that revealed ended. For five centuries, one European power or another Gulf after the Iraq-Iran war and tested the United States’ The European vision was smashed in the aftermath of the underlying weaknesses of these two entities. had dominated the world, whether Portugal, Spain, France, willingness to go to war after the Cold War. 2008, when the fundamental instability of the European exper- Somewhat outside the main processes of the interna- England or the Soviet Union. Even the lesser European powers In 1989-1991 the world changed the way it worked, iment revealed itself. That vision was built around Germany, tional system, the Middle East is undergoing a fundamental at the time had some degree of global influence. whether measured in centuries or generations. It was an the world’s second-largest exporter, but Europe’s periphery shift in its balance of power. The driver in this is not the crisis After 1991 the only global power left was the United extraordinary period whose significance is only now emerg- remained too weak to weather the crisis. It was not so much of 2008 but the consequences of the U.S. was in the region and States, which produced about 25 percent of the world’s gross ing. It locked into place a long-term changing of the guard, this particular crisis; Europe was not built to withstand any their termination. With the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Iran domestic product (GDP) each year and dominated the oceans. where North America replaced Europe as the center of the financial crisis. Sooner or later one would come and the unity has emerged as the major conventional power in the Persian Never before had the United States been the dominant global international system. But generations come and go, and we of Europe would be severely strained as each nation, driven Gulf and the major influence over Iraq. In addition, with the power. Prior to World War II, American power had been grow- are now in the middle of the first generational shift since the by different economic and social realities, maneuvered in its continued survival of the al Assad regime in Syria through ing from its place at the margins of the international system, collapse of the European powers, a shift that began in 2008 own interest rather than in the interest of Europe. the support of Iran, there is the potential for Iranian influence but it was emerging on a multipolar stage. After World War but is only now working itself out in detail. There is no question that the Europe of 2012 operates in to stretch from western Afghanistan to the Mediterranean II, it found itself in a bipolar world, facing off with the Soviet What happened in 2008 was one of the financial pan- a very different way than it did in 2007. There is an expecta- Sea. Even if the al Assad regime fell, Iran would still be well- Union in a struggle in which American victory was hardly a ics that the global capitalist system periodically suffers. As is tion in some parts that Europe will, in due course, return to its positioned to assert its claims for primacy in the Persian Gulf. foregone conclusion. frequently the case, these panics first generate political crises old post-Cold War state, but that is unlikely. The underlying Just as the processes unleashed in 1989-1991 defined The United States has been the unchallenged global within nations, followed by changes in the relations among na- contradictions of the European enterprise are now revealed, the next 20 years, so, too, will the processes that are being power for 20 years, but its ascendancy has left it off-balance tions. Of these changes, three in particular are of importance, and while some European entity will likely survive, it probably generated now dominate the next generation. Still powerful for most of this time, and imbalance has been the fundamen- two of which are directly linked to the 2008 crisis. The first will not resemble the Europe envisioned by Maastricht, let but acutely off-balance in its domestic and foreign policies, tal characteristic of the global system in the past generation. is the European financial crisis and its transformation into a alone the grander visions of a United States of Europe. Thus, the United States is confronting a changing world without yet Unprepared institutionally or psychologically for its position, political crisis. The second is the Chinese export crisis and its the only potential counterweight to the United States will not having a clear understanding of how to deal with this world the United States has swung from an excessive optimism in consequences. The third, indirectly linked to 2008, is the shift emerge in this generation. or, for that matter, how the shifts in the global system will af- the 1990s that held that significant conflict was at an end in the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of Iran. fect it. For the United States strategically, the fragmentation China and the Asian Model to the wars against militant Islam after 9/11, wars that the of Europe, the transformation of global production in the The European Crisis United States could not avoid but also could not integrate into China was similarly struck by the 2008 crisis. Apart wake of the Chinese economy’s climax, and the dramatically a multilayered global strategy. When the only global power The European crisis represents the single most signifi- from the inevitably cyclical nature of all economies, the Asian increased power of Iran appear as abstract events not directly becomes obsessed with a single region, the entire world is cant event that followed from the financial collapse of 2008. model, as seen in Japan and then in 1997 in East and Southeast affecting the United States. unbalanced. Imbalance remains the defining characteristic The vision of the European Union was that an institution that Asia, provides for prolonged growth followed by profound Each of these events will create dangers and opportuni- of the global system today. would bind France and Germany together would make the financial dislocation. Indeed, growth rates do not indicate ties for the United States that it is unprepared to manage. The While the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Euro- wars that had raged in Europe since 1871 impossible. The economic health. Just as it was for Europe, the 2008 financial fragmentation of Europe raises the question of the future of pean epoch, it also was the end of the era that began in 1945, vision also assumed that economic integration would both crisis was the trigger for China. Germany and its relationship with Russia. The movement and it was accompanied by a cluster of events that tend to join France and Germany together and create the foundations China’s core problem is that more than a billion people of production to low-wage countries will create booms in accompany generational shifts. The 1989-1991 period marked of a prosperous Europe. Within the context of Maastricht as live in households earning less than $6 a day, and the major- countries hitherto regarded as beyond help (as China was in it evolved, the European vision assumed that the European ity of those earn less than $3 a day. Social tensions aside, the 1980) and potential zones of instability created by rapid and Dr. George Friedman is an American political scientist and author. He is the Union would become a way to democratize and integrate the economic consequence is that China’s large industrial plant uneven growth. And, of course, the idea that the Iranian issue founder, chief intelligence officer and CEO of the private intelligence corpora- former Communist countries of Eastern Europe into a single outstrips Chinese consumer demand. As a result, China must can be managed through sanctions is a form of denial rather tion Stratfor. He has authored several books, including “America’s Secret War, framework. export. However, the recessions after 2008 cut heavily into than a strategy. The Intelligence Edge, and the Future of War”. The Editor thanks Strategic Forecasting Inc—Stratfor (www.stratfor.com) for permission to reprint this However, embedded in the idea of the European Union China’s exports, severely affecting GDP growth and threat- article of February 21, 2012. Copyright 2012 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. was the idea that Europe could at some point transcend na- ening the stability of the political system. China confronted Continued on page 13

10 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 11 Spent Nuclear Fuel:A National Security and percent is still very radioactive and dangerous.) According to and the fuel rods cooled sufficiently, the fuel heats the water, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Because boiling it away. Once the water level falls, the rods continue Environmental Migraine Headache of their highly radioactive fission products, high-level waste to heat, and either melt or catch fire. Melted fuel presents a and spent fuel must be handled and stored with care. Since difficult recovery problem that in the case of Fukushima will by Lawrence A. Husick the only way radioactive waste finally becomes harmless is take more than a decade to solve. Burning fuel allows radioac- through decay, which for high-level wastes can take hundreds tive particles to escape into the air, and to contaminate land, of thousands of years, the wastes must be stored and finally water, crops, and the food chain. Many sites in the US have disposed of in a way that provides adequate protection of the already detected radioactive fallout from Fukushima, and public for a very long time.” contaminated water is being dumped into the ocean, as well. The experience of the past 50 years, and of the April 2011 In either case, we have a mess that will take billions of dollars weeks in Japan, is that SNF waste from power generation is and decades to clean up, and even then, eons to become safe accumulated in large water-filled pools, where it glows an eerie in any meaningful way. blue from the Cerenkov Effect (high speed electrons emitted And yet, the total eventual and inescapable costs of final from the waste slam into water molecules and give off light in nuclear waste storage have never been imposed on either the blue part of the spectrum.) The SNF “cools” in such pools the shareholders or ratepayers of electric utility companies. for ten or more years before it has decayed sufficiently to be Those costs have been “externalized” to future taxpayers, placed in large steel and concrete “casks” where it must remain but are carried “off the books”. Were we to impose the true for, in effect, eternity. Since the oldest known human-made costs on utility customers, it is likely that nuclear generated items are about 2 million years old (stone tools, simply chipped electricity would cost at least three to four times the present rocks) and the oldest extant (but ruined) human structures price. Today’s utility company profits and low electric energy are about 10,000 years old (a Neolithic-age tower in Jericho) costs will mean little to our descendants, to whom the job of it seems odd to think that anyone, anywhere knows how to nuclear cleanup will fall. build a container that will hold this poison for the next several Finally, we should add to all of this known risk the hundred thousand years, let alone millions. unknowable risk of intentional acts of war and terrorism. The US Department of Energy has collected billions By now, the accountant in you should see red. Regardless of of dollars from electric utility ratepayers for the Nuclear advances in technology, efficiency, and operational safety, the Waste Fund, and it long believed that the solution was nuclear energy books still haven’t been made to balance, except storage of both military and civilian high level waste deep on the backs of future generations of taxpayers.  underground at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. After spending over $10 billion on studies and construction, with great The views expressed are those of the author and do not political and technical opposition, Congress voted to com- necessarily reflect the views of the Institute pletely and finally defund the project on April 14, 2011. or its members.

—AIR PHOTO SERVICE CO. LTD., JAPAN As of now, the United States has no plan for long-term March 24, 2011 aerial photo showing damaged Unit 3, left, and Unit 4 of the crippled storage of SNF high level waste, and continues to allow it to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. accumulate in cooling pools at each nuclear facility where it is generated. The Nuclear Waste Fund balance is clearly insuf- f all the professions, accounting is considered the The electric power industry in the United States has ficient to pay for long-term safe SNF storage. Dr. Steven Chu, State of the World—continued from page 11 most conservative. After all, credits and debits must enjoyed more than fifty years of subsidy from the taxpayers Secretary of Energy has promised to convene a “Blue Ribbon” line up, and figures must balance. Even in the world in the form of a sort of willful blindness. The physics of fis- panel to study the issue again. Three major areas of the world are in flux: Europe, Oof federal budgets, entitlement programs, off the books wars, sion power are immutable, even as it mutates Uranium fuel In addition, many more tons of low level waste, such as China and the Persian Gulf. Every country in the world will and partisan politics, there eventually comes a day of reckon- into lighter elements. Each kilowatt-hour of power gener- worn out plant equipment, worker uniforms, medical waste, have to devise a strategy to deal with the new reality, just ing when the bills must be paid. So, too, in the field of nuclear ated creates waste in the form of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) construction debris, and the like are stockpiled and stored as 1989-1991 required new strategies. The most important power, things must be made to balance, and a day of reckon- and reactor equipment that eventually wears out and must around the US and the world, with no consistent plans for country, the United States, had no strategy after 1991 and ing comes. With the Fukushima Diishi plant in ruins (http:// be replaced. The spent fuel, usually in the form of the rods “disposal” and safety. Much of this waste is dangerous to hu- has no strategy today. This is the single most important real- www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html), we are withdrawn from the core, is considered “high level” waste, man health, and some of it could possibly be used by terrorists ity of the world. Like the Spaniards, who, in the generation again reminded that atomic energy is neither as cheap nor as “hot” enough in remaining radiation to be deadly to humans in “dirty” bombs. (Disposal, of course, is impossible, since after Columbus’ voyage, lacked a clear sense of the reality clean as the sparkling futuristic films of the Eisenhower era’s for a very long time (though no longer hot enough to generate as anyone who has studied ecology can tell you, the central they had created, Americans have no clear sense of the world “Atoms for Peace” made it seem. power); such waste contains Tc-99 (half-life 220,000 years), lesson of that science is that there is no “away” anywhere on they find themselves in. This fact continues to define how the I-129 (half-life 17 million years), Np-237 (half-life two million earth—we cannot just throw things “away” pretending that world works.  years), and Pu-239 (half life 24,000 years). (Remember that out of sight and out of mind is somehow, magically, safe and Lawrence Husick is a Senior Fellow at FPRI, where he concentrates on the a half-life is just the time that it takes one half of the mate- nontoxic as well.) study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular fo- The views expressed are those of the author and do not rial to lose its radioactivity; thus, for a relatively short-lived As the failure of the spent fuel pools at Fukushima cus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist. necessarily reflect the views of the Institute He is also co-director of the FPRI’s Wachman Centers Program on Teaching material like Pu-239 it requires more than 159,000 years to Diichi teaches us, the short-term risks are at least as large as or its members. Innovation. Copyright Foreign Policy Research Institute (http://www.fpri.org/). become 99 percent “cold,” and even then, the remaining 1 the longer-term ones. If we cannot keep the pool full of water

12 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 13 Book Review: Dan Bjarnason, “Triumph at Kapyong: Wayne Mills, DSM who wounded twice used his Bren gun to was just a hill after all. Just like a thousand hills over there”). great effect retaking a trench and repulsing an enemy attack; This is regrettable. Kapyong deserves a greater place in the Canada’s Pivotal Battle in Korea” Hub Gray commanding the mortar platoon who steadfastly collective psyche of Canada. That short, sharp battle on that reviewed by Maj Thomas E.K. Fitzgerald kept the “back door” closed against repeated Chinese attacks; cold, lonely shale hill disposes once and for all the myth that “Smiley” Douglas, who lost an arm but won the Military Canadians are not, by nature, a warrior society. Bjarnason’s Medal for selflessly risking himself to save the men of his book, Triumph at Kapyong should be read by anyone who apyong, a forgotten battle in a “forgotten” war. Ka- of the North Koreans from the south changed Canadian plans. section who had wandered into a minefield; Lt. Mike Levy of thinks otherwise.  pyong, where seven hundred dirty, scruffy, cold, Rather than sending all three battalions, it was decided to D Coy, who called down artillery fire on his position when highly trained amateurs stood their ground and send only the 2PPCLI, commanded by WWII veteran, LCol the outcome of the battle was very much in doubt and finally, Triumph at Kapyong: Canada’s Pivotal Battle in Korea, Kbeat back repeated human wave attacks. Kapyong, where the Jim Stone, as it was the most advanced in its training. The their commander Jim Stone who, in a passage almost from Toronto: Dundurn Press, (2011) ISBN 978-1-55488-872-6 2PPCLI slammed the door shut on a Chinese breakthrough government thought that the Patricias would see little action a movie script, said, “Let the bastards come! Nobody leaves”. 195 pages $22.99 and thereby saved Seoul from given the turn of events. The Military history is replete with incidents where small capture. Kapyong, where the Patricias were destined to be groups of desperate men fought against overwhelming odds The views expressed are those of the author and do not heroic defenders of a small but an occupation force. This all and either prevailed or died—the Spartans at Thermopylae, necessarily reflect the views of the Institute vital hill earned the Presidential changed when, on October the French Foreign Legion at Cameron, the Old Guard at or its members. Distinguished Unit Citation for 25 1950, communist China Waterloo, the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers at Etreux, the Texans Notes their bravery but, to the dishonor entered the war and quickly at the Alamo, the 1/7 in the Ia Drang valley. It is amazing as of the government of the day, reversed the gains of the 1 The Canadian Army Special Force (CASF) consisted of approximately 5000 Bjarnason laments that Kapyong has not taken its place in this volunteers. Recruited and trained as part of the regular Army, the special force were not permitted to wear the United Nations’ forces. pantheon. It may be our national desire to forget a war that called for a new battalion to be added to each of the three Regular Force infantry coveted blue ribbon for five years In April, 1951, the Chi- was never really popular and never really resolved anything. regiments. The “special force” would train only for Korea thereby leaving the regu- afterwards. All this and more are nese commenced their spring lar army intact. In addition to the 2PPCLI, 2RCR and 2R22eR, the CASF or the It may be that the ten fatalities suffered in the battle made the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade (CIB) as it later came to be called, elements of the recounted in noted Canadian offensive, attacking all along battle a minor affair. It may be that recent events have over- Lord Strathcona’s Horse and the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery were attached.. journalist and amateur historian the line. One of their main shadowed the battle. It may be that the survivors, volunteers Commanded by BGen John “Rocky” Rockingham, one of Canada’s finest “lead Dan Bjarnason’s fast paced and thrusts was toward the Ka- from the front” tacticians from WWII, the 25th CIB quickly shed their “soldiers of all, left the army after the war and took up their civilian lives fortune” label unfortunately attached to them by then CDS Gen Charles Foulkes. superbly written book, Triumph pyong valley, a natural and and minimized their efforts. (As one veteran observed, “It 2 The battle takes its name from a nearby village and the Kapyong River. at Kapyong: Canada’s Pivotal direct route to Seoul. Sitting Battle in Korea. Based on primary in reserve, the Canadians and secondary sources and on were ordered forward to de- the interviews of a dwindling fend Hill 677 and stanch the Letter to the Editor—A Response on Defence Procurement number of survivors, Bjarnason enemy offensive. They dug in has penned a well deserved trib- on April 23 and waited. They Dear Editor: the yards disappeared and had to be recreated when the next ute to these all but forgotten men. did not have to wait long. To I read with interest the article, “DND Acquisition in program eventually came along. The background to the their front, the Republic of an Era of Reform”, by Rodnie Allison which appeared in the Just ask the folks at Irving Shipbuilding who grace the battle is well known. Canada, Korea’s (ROK) 6th Division March-April 2012 issue of SITREP. While the author does a cover of the last issue of Sitrep what their experience has been as part of its United Nations was routed. To their left, the good job outlining why defence procurement desperately needs over the years. Or ask the folks at Davie Shipbuilding; Yar- commitment to stem the North 1st Battalion of the Glouces- reform, a little historical perspective might have added even rows; Victoria Machinery Depot; Marine Industries, Burrards, Korean invasion of South Korea tershire Regiment was deci- more strength to his position. Specifically, and please accept Halifax Shipyards and Canadian Vickers to name but a few—or on July 25, 1950, initially con- mated almost to a man along this is presented from a retired naval officer’s narrow viewpoint: their successor companies or retirees’ associations in the event tributed three infantry battalions, the banks of the Imjin River. In the late 40’s, early 50’s Canada built one naval ice the company has disappeared completely. If you tried to select 2PPCLI, 2RCR and 2R22eR.1 By The 3rd Battalion, Royal Aus- breaker, and then stopped the program. In the late 50’s through the most expensive way to build ships over the years, Canada the late 60’s, Canada built three Operational Support ships, and perfected the system. And if anyone can tell me what purpose- the time these battalions had tralian Regiment (3RAR), then stopped that program. In the 50’s, Canada built 14 mine- built military aircraft we have developed and built recently in been recruited, organized and supported by a company of sweepers, and then stopped the program. Six were transferred Canada, I would be delighted to be educated. trained, events in Korea had the US 72nd Heavy Tank Bat- to the French Navy almost immediately after construction There is no question reform in DND’s acquisition pro- changed dramatically. The American forces initially crowded talion held high ground five kilometers across the Kapyong and replaced by six more in the period 1956-57. The building grams is desperately called for and needed. Hopefully it is into the Pusan Perimeter broke out and raced northwards Valley to the east but, after battling wave after wave of Chinese program was then terminated. Then there were the St. Laurent, not too late. Right or wrong, but to further put Canadian linking up with American and Korean forces driving east infantry for sixteen hours and running low on ammunition, Restigouche, MacKenzie and Annapolis class DDE/DDH and defence acquisition in perspective, there are individual US and south following the spectacular amphibious landing at both units withdrew on April 24. The waiting was over. The IRE programs followed by the Tribal class program which defence contractors who employ more people and gener- 2 Inchon. The linkup between the two forces and the expulsion stage was set for the 2PPCLI and the Battle of Kapyong. spanned the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Finally there were the CPF and ate more annual sales, including significant exports, than Bjarnason’s book is a superb account of the battle. Writ- MCDV programs in the 1980’s and 1990’s. While at first blush Canada’s entire defence industry. Maj Thomas E.K. Fitzgeraldis a Reserve Force JAG officer. He is deployed as ten in a “you are there” style, the author recounts hour by hour, this might look like there was continuity in building programs Respectfully the Deputy Chief, ANA Legal School, Kabul. In his civilian life, he is a senior in meticulous fashion, the ebb and flow of the battle. Bjarnason for shipyards in Canada, the reality is that after each program Crown Attorney for the Province of Ontario. The opinions expressed herein are entirely those of the author and should not be attributed in any way to writes with a great measure of affection and respect for his came to an end there was, in fact, nothing to replace it. All the Robert N. Baugniet the Office of the Judge Advocate General, to the ANA Legal School or to the subjects. Rather than leaving the story to its dry narrative, the naval ship construction expertise which had been developed in Commodore (ret) RCN NATO Training Mission (NTM-A). author introduces the reader to many of the battles heroes: Pte

14 SITREP MAY—JUNE 12 15 Turco-Syrian Border could easily become a flashpoint for NATO by Eric S. Morse

ate in the afternoon of April 11 a five-line item came few NATO-country diplomats working like mad to convince through on Stratfor’s news-and-intel subscription ser- Erdogan that it may not have been the best idea in the world. vice, buried among fifty other snippets with esoteric Apparently they succeeded because as of mid-May no more Ltitles like ‘Japan: Bahraini King Meets With PM’, and ‘Egypt: had been heard of it. (The perpetual elephant in the plane Muslim Brotherhood To Hold Million-Man March’. And there, whenever a news item like this comes up is how many beers nearly lost in the heap, was ‘Syria: Turkey May Invoke NATO’s the speaker had had at the time that he spake.) Protection—Erdogan’. In fact a formal request from Turkey under Article V That one was a stop-and-do-a-double-take number— would put NATO and its members in a major bind. Turkey ’He said WHAT??’ It was followed about twelve hours later is an important member of NATO and a growing force in by a more detailed report from Reuters, some other scattered the Middle East, but it is not what you’d call a typical NATO references, and then not much else. country, being the only Middle Eastern and Muslim-majority Apparently Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Er- member. It joined NATO originally because of a mutual in- dogan had told a planeful of Turkish journalists somewhere terest—containing the Russians—that exists to this day, but over China that Turkey might invoke Article V of the NATO its interests are definitely different from any other member’s. Charter to protect their southern border against Syrian incur- But it is a vital geopolitical anchor for NATO because of its sions. (Syrian forces have been violating the border regularly strength and location. It also has an Islamist-but-pragmatic in pursuit of refugees from the insurrection, with ground leader (Erdogan) even though officially it’s a militantly secular forces and artillery fire). state. NATO can’t afford to treat an Article V request from As it happens, Article V is the ‘an attack on one is an Turkey in any way that would suggest that their security con- attack on all’ clause that was famously invoked in 2001 to cerns are less important than any other member’s. Added to involve NATO countries in the Afghanistan war. In fact, that which, Afghanistan was an ‘out-of-theatre’ exercise in which is the only time Article V has ever been invoked since NATO some NATO members had serious doubts, as evidenced by the was founded in 1949. So for Erdogan to have brought it up is layers of caveats. You can’t say that Turkey is out-of-theatre, hardly petty or picayune, even if it was said in a flying scrum. its southern border is NATO’s by definition. The leader of a NATO member country is talking about in- But NATO desperately does not want to get involved on voking a Charter clause that could conceivably involve much the Turco-Syrian border, partly for the same reasons the West of the alliance in operations up to and including combat on does not want to get involved in a direct attack on Syria—a Turkey’s southern frontier. That’s important, but almost no thing that’s almost impossible to do in practice—but also major media picked it up. because the southern Turkish border is hideously complex; The problem is, there was no context. It’s a single story a potential multi-front war on a single front. In the western that pops up and then fades because it’s a little arcane, nobody’s segment, there is Syria and all its sectaries, then Iraq and the feeding it with follow-ups, and it was said at the wrong time non-state of Kurdistan straddling the border, and finally Iran and in the wrong place to get Western media attention. itself—and that is a drastic oversimplification. So NATO has Presumably, if Erdogan was serious about this—and you to hope that cooler heads continue to prevail in Ankara, and have to take him at face value until proven otherwise—NATO that they don’t get a formal Article V request from the Turks. had not yet received any kind of formal approach. (It never The intervention in Afghanistan has been a very difficult has, as things turn out.) NATO HQ in Brussels did manage to experience for the alliance, at least as much because of insti- get out a response to Agence France Press that “We are deeply tutional problems like differing rules of engagement within concerned by events in Syria, particularly the recent incidents the force as because of the enemy, and it is not one that NATO on the border with our ally Turkey.” , but that got little play would choose to repeat any time soon, in or out of theatre. at least in the English-speaking media. Lyndon Larouche’s The insertion of UN monitors, however futile in the long blog—of all places—picked it up. run, may have bought some breathing space on this particular It would take a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, issue. But the Syrian situation is not under anything resem- the highest body in NATO, to authorize and shape collective bling control (it is inceasingly bleeding into Lebanon), and military intervention in support of Turkey. If the idea was the Turkish border, aka NATO’s southern flank, still has to be still afloat in Ankara, there had to have been more than a regarded as a potential Middle Eastern flashpoint. 

Eric Morse, a former Canadian diplomat, is Vice-Chair of the RCMI’s Security Studies Committee. He is a frequent contributor to op-ed pages in The views expressed are those of the author and do not national media. A version of this article originally appeared in the Ottawa necessarily reflect the views of the Institute Citizen on April 14. or its members.

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