Flit

Getting your Libya fix

For useful Libya air war information, some of the best poop so far has been David Cenciotti's. His day three brief, among other things highlighted a possible comsec violation over the Med by a Canadian Air Force Airbus.

Cenciotti's day one brief made reference to what may be one of the more interesting tactical questions of this fight so far... what exactly the French Air Force was doing plinking tanks near Benghazi in the very earliest hours of the war, before any air defense suppression of any kind had been done, in daylight, and over 4 hours before any kinetic act by any other NATO country. It's hard not to wonder if that attack wasn't a unilateral, or at least somewhat disjointed-from-the-rest-of-NATO French effort, trusting solely in surprise and speed of action... either that or it was a very deliberate attempt to bait the Libyans into some kind of hasty response, turning on their radars, even scrambling planes, that the still-assembling coalition could take advantage of. Gutsy, either way, though.

In other news, I see NATO has declared an arms embargo, so HMCS Charlottetown should be getting busy again pretty soon, too.

Godspeed

A belated best wishes to the Canadian Forces personnel involved in Op MOBILE. I have no doubt they'll do their country credit. And really, you can't ask more in the way of support from one's political class than a unanimously passed three-month mandate, either. (Even World War Two had one vote (J.S. Woodsworth's) against.)

What we've seen over the last few years is a real normalization of small wars, in a way that would have seemed unfathomable to me in, say, the 1980s. If you'd told me 10 years ago before 9/11 not only that Canada would still be engaged in a protracted land conflict while its jets were part of an air campaign against Libya, but that I myself would be working on military-related projects practically full time come 2011 in part as a result, I wouldn't have believed you.