I don't think you can know what it is like to make a decision until you have had to make that decision yourself. I don't know what it would be like to pull the trigger of a gun and take a life. I don't know what it would be like to flee my country as a refugee or a political dissident.

In peacetime, bureaucracy tends to expand as the number of soldiers decreases. The one thing that our military does not need is cutting back the size of the regular forces. The Canadian army is already smaller than it should be for the tasks it is asked to perform.

Last week, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, the former commanding officer of Canadian troops in Afghanistan pleaded guilty to a relationship with a subordinate. But is it the business of Canadians and the military rank and file to be concerned about such a relationship?

THE CANADIAN PRESS -- TORONTO - War may be hell, but that didn't seem to deter tens of thousands of would-be soldiers who applied to join the ranks of...