Putting the DART before the SEAHORSE

The Toronto Star reported yesterday that the Canadian DART response team is now being deployed to one of the worst hit regions of the tsunami. Due to the not-so-rapid response of our government, they're arriving to an area where their expertise...is no longer required. It seems their specialty, providing safe drinking water and medical treatment, are already being covered by assistance agencies already in place. There is now a concern that the overlapping roles will confuse the victims there, that some are being diagnosed more than once and given more medication than necessary.

I'm not certain whether such confusion would emerge in any large-scale relief operation such as this, but it seems DART could be deployed elsewhere, or not at all. Our late deployment has given us time to assess the situation and realize that DART's roles have already been covered by existing organizations. The now retired Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie wrote a piece in the National Post discussing our ineffectiveness this time around, that there are more than enough NGOs to cover such functions as medical assistance and water treatment.

Instead, he advocated a proposal submitted by a group of military officials called SEAHORSE, which called for a rapid-reaction military force instead of a humanitarian response team. It would rely on assualt transports and helicopters for transportation. Not only has this idea (rapid-reaction force) been discussed for a while, but I didn't realize a proposal existed. SEAHORSE seems to make more sense in this context and future situations.

In the tsunami scenario, they could be there to help clear debris, find bodies, reconstruct roads and clean up water sources instead of just treating them. Reconstruction will be the next big challenge and it could be there for a long haul to help the many nations that need to rebuild their coast. Canada's role in providing help would not overlapj as much, if at all, with the many NGOs already there. I doubt the Red Cross or Oxfam are picking up their hammers and nails.

In addition to the many functions this force would have (transport, evacuation, security, construction), there are other advantages. We would no longer be relying on other nations (US, Russia, etc) for transporting our own troops nor incur the cost of maintaining a fleet of Hercules or Antonovs. This force could be used in both disaster-relief and peacekeeping missions, since they are still trained as military personnel. It is the exact type of force that seems to fit Canada best as a middle power- small, yet flexible, self-sufficient and quick-response.

Besides, Mackenzie's a major-general for pete's sake. I think he knows what he's talking about. PM Martin and his defence minister definitely needs to seriously consider SEAHORSE or a similar idea for the Canadian armed forces. It's a win-win. You win support for spending on the military, but you're not just buying troops and equipment for a war effort because they can be deployed for the above reasons. You've just covered the entire political spectrum.

Your move, PM Martin.