Our weak friends

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As the United States prepares for another war against Iraq, it's high time to look at the military readiness of our closest allies. The view is not pretty.

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Since the end of World War

II, no nation has fallen further than America's neighbor to the north. Canada has a proud military tradition: Its troops stormed Juno Beach at D-Day, and it maintained more than 300 ships in its navy and one of the world's largest armies well into the 1950s. But five decades of government neglect have destroyed a once mighty military.

Although Canada's per capita GDP sits squarely in the middle of developed countries (about 80 percent of that of the U.S.), Canadian military spending stands at less than $265 per capita-the worst among major NATO members. (NATO countries average $589 per capita in annual military spending, while the U.S. spends a little over $1,000.) Today, the Canadian navy has only 34 ships, and just 12 of them can keep pace with an American battle group. Canada has no strategic airlift capacity, and so must disassemble and reassemble tanks and helicopters when they need to be sent overseas. Canada even relies on American help to move troops around to cope with its own domestic emergencies like floods and ice storms. Our northern neighbor also has no space command, and has declined offers to participate in America's missile defense plans, a cagey, if cheap, move: Almost all Canadian population centers lie within 150 miles of the U.S. border, so American missile defense will protect Canada anyway.