The gynecological case for the Avro Arrow
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 0 Comments
General Lewis MacKenzie concludes his condemnation of the F-35 and argument for the Avro Arrow thusly.
Critics of this author will opine, “What does a retired Infantry general know about fighter aircraft?” I can only remind them that a significant number of gynaecologists are men and to the best of my knowledge not one of them has ever given birth.
The Prime Minister’s Office says the Arrow won’t fly.
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Enter the Avro?
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 10, 2012 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments
Maj0r-General Lewis MacKenzie says a new Avro Arrow should be considered, but figures the fix is in for the F-35.
Tom Clark: Do you think the fix is in for the F-35?
General Lewis MacKenzie: I do. I do. I think…I worked in a bureaucracy for a while; only one year here in Ottawa but I know how these things work and when a submission or a request comes in, it goes down to the sharp end, sharp end comments and then it comes back up and you get your answer. This feasibility study was in the hands of the PMO, the Minister of National Defence; General Lawson, congratulations now the CDS when he was deputy commander of NORAD. I kept getting the same feedback. It was like talking points coming back. I’d like somebody outside the military family and those that support the military family from within the government to at least pass judgement on it and give us an opinion.
More from the Globe, Canadian Press and Global.
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Outside the wire
By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 4:03 PM - 27 Comments
David Pugliese undoes one of the more popular counters to Richard Colvin’s testimony.
There have also been allegations about the extent of Colvin’s travels in Afghanistan. Retired general Lewis MacKenzie said recently on CTV that based on information “from a very reliable source, (Colvin) was not permitted outside the wire in Kandahar probably once and maybe not more than once, and so was the victim of having to talk to a number of other people, diplomats, military, intelligence, et cetera, to send his opinion out on his now infamous e-mails, doing the very best he could with restrictions that were placed on him.”
The claim that Colvin went off the base only once was also repeated by Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford. It surfaced again on Tuesday, with the Conservatives using it to try to undercut Colvin’s reputation. “Here is a man, Mr. Colvin, who spent about a day out of his entire tour outside of the wire and had these few interviews,” said Treasury Board president Vic Toews.
The Citizen has confirmed, however, that Colvin left the base at least six times to travel into Kandahar, in addition to travelling to other locations in Afghanistan.
