R.A. Flannagan's Blog, page 2

Problems in Canada Special Forces and What to Do About it?

There have been two recent articles here in Canada about Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) that identified issues within Canada’s special forces community.

The first addresses a number of HR issues within Joint Task Force 2 (JTF-2). These issues range from burnout to the mishandling of sexual violence allegations. The second article outlines what I would call the “poor cousin syndrome” that various units in the CANSOFCOM have toward JTF-2, the Canadian Armed Forces (C...

The Disengagement of Men and its Potential Consequences

And is Such a Disengagement a Bad Thing?

As a conservative middle-class man, I’m increasingly worried about the status and role of men in Western society. As you look in the past, there are many examples of the bad things that can happen when societies don’t provide men with positive societal outlets that allow them to engage and thrive in society. 

Perhaps the most recent and greatest examples are the years that led up to WWII. In the fifteen odd years before both the world’s most terribl...

Conservative Middle-Class Men and Trans Rights – The Views Held

Question: What “rights” aren’t Canadian middle-class men willing to accept when it comes to trans rights?

The short answer is almost all.  However, there are few areas that conservative middle-class men are not prepared to say yes to. This essay will identify what these issues or rights are and why it is conservative men will make efforts to prevent them from happening.  

Now, as will be my contention in the series of short essays I will be producing in the next few months, whether or not ...

An Interview with R.A.: Thoughts of a Middle-Class Conservative Guy

Interviewer: “So you’re going to spend the next several weeks writing blog posts instead of writing, eh?”

RA: “Yes, I’m in between books at the moment so I’m going to take this opportunity to toss out several opinion pieces on a range of issues, most of them political.”

Interviewer: “Isn’t the standard advice for authors to stay out of politics?”

RA: “Fair question. As I understand it, the answer to that question is don’t alienate your readers by taking sides politically but the truth o...

What Capabilities Should the CAF Go Without?

I recently listened to a podcast where Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff talked about the future of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). As things tend to go with senior leaders from any large governmental organization, it was a guarded talk.

There was however one thing I seized on from the General’s remarks. Specifically, on two occasions, he indicated that the CAF would have to choose capabilities (current or future) that it wouldn’t be able to take on. The comment got me thinking. What are the c...

How to Recruit More Soldiers into the CAF?

Recently, I wrote a detailed blog on why the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) can’t meet its recruiting targets. Further to that post, the CAF announced it would allow Permanent Residents (PRs) to apply to the CAF. Subsequently, it was announced that 2,400 PRs applied to the CAF. This was an important and positive policy change for the CAF.

If done well, recruiting, training and holding onto PRs could go some distance to increasing the CAF’s enrollment numbers and increasing the diversity of the o...

What is Missing From Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy?

I did some reading up on Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and the consensus seems to be that it’s a step in the right direction but that it is also modest. In Take Whiteman and its sequel, China plays a role, but it’s primarily in the background.

In my novels, the United States is in the midst of a civil war and has largely pulled back from its international commitments. I have also assumed China has taken Taiwan and is asserting itself in various places around the world.

As I see it in my s...

Why the Canadian Armed Forces can’t recruit enough soldiers?

In the following article by the Canadian Press, a list of reasons (or excuses) are provided as to why the CAF can’t recruit the number of soldiers it needs. Among other reasons given are the pandemic, the sexual assault controversy involving a small number of the senior brass, or the unstated/implied reason of the CAF “values” not lining up with some unknown percentage of the Canadian population. More on this last reason below.

Here are the recruitment numbers listed in the article:

2020-2...

Americans: Why do you put up with Canada’s defence spending?

I’ve now had just over 800 people download my first two novels. To my surprise, the majority of my readers indicate they’re from the United States. This being the case, I thought I would write this blog post as an open letter to my American readership. 

And what am I writing to my American readers about? Just this – Why in the name of whatever you believe in do you tolerate countries like Canada spending virtually nothing on its own defence?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been rippi...

Top 3 Books To Set You Up For Success

No Matter How Hard Life Gets

At any given moment in time, life can suck. We all have bad spells. For some of us, it’s a bad day, for others it’s several years.  

I can tell you that for the past two years, my own life has been particularly challenging. Perhaps the toughest two years of my life. Health issues, an extraordinary professional challenge, a new job, the selling and buying of houses, and the moving of a family across the province. It was stress layered with more stress and t...