In order to have a greater impact in the world, particularly in failed in failing states, our new Defence Policy Statement will increase the capacity of the Canadian Forces to participate in overseas operations.

The addition of significant new equipment and five thousand Regular Force personnel – the bulk of which will go to the army – will essentially double the capacity of our land forces to undertake challenging international operations anywhere in the world.

This is an important datapoint with regard to the outlook for the War on Terror in the medium term future.

Canada is engaged in a major strategic effort to restructure their armed forces for offensive military operations. Canada's roll in Afghanistan has been converted from policing Kandahar to relieving US forces in the south facing a beefed up Taliban that is getting equipment and training from Iraq. They are also running prominent terror attack response exercises.

A related datapoint concerns rumblings that Japan may follow.

Canada has not committed a large military force to an offensive operation since the Korean War. They usually provide funding and specialists, but not large standing forces. The fact that they are restructuring and beefing up directly reflects a feeling by their leadership that they will be involved in large military conflicts outside of Canada in the future. Insofaras Canada does not engage in conflicts that aren't approved by the UN security council this means we're not talking about Iraq.