that sounds like the practical history of the Canadian armed forces... we tend to build them quick when we need them, and shrink and starve 'em the rest of the time. This helps to mitigate against foreign adventurism; a factor in the decision not to go in with you guys on Iraq is because our commitment to Afghanistan pretty much used up any slack we had in the system, and then some. Of course, the fact that it was very much not supported by the Canadian public (who did, after all, widely support the decision to invade Afghanistan), that it would give Harper (leader of the opposition) fits, and that Chretien by this point had made his opinion of GWB pretty clear (can you say epais?) as was his opinion of the quality of the information that the US was attempting to present to tie Saddam to 9/11.