Friday, February 27, 2009

Petey "Airshow" MacKay, um, scrambles


Here's a little musical accompaniment to Dave, Boris, and Ed's posts today on DefMin Pete "Airshow" MacKay and the timely fashion in which he, um, scrambled Canadian jet fighters to save Obama from the Russkies in, um, international airspace, um, three days before Obama even arrived here.

MacKay : "I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit, but it was a strong coincidence, which we met with a presence, as we always do, of F-18 fighter planes."

The Star :

It's not clear why Canada chose yesterday to draw attention to what is a fairly common occurrence.
A senior government official said highlighting the mid-air meeting was a good way to show the worth and relevance of NORAD while its commander, U.S. Gen. Victor Renuart, was visiting Ottawa.
It's also a good way to "get some ink" for Canada's contribution to continental security, the official said.

Awesome.

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7 comments:

Q said...

It was probably a decoy Alison.

While we were dominating the Russian menace in the air, another mini submarine was probably planting yet another Russian flag under our north pole...and as they fled... they were probably taunting us with staplers.

Anonymous said...

It's playing quite well in the States though- Russian Bomber Chased hours before Obama's visit...
Petey's audition for SG of Nato must be coming up.



Ian

Anonymous said...

So the Russians didn't fly a routine mission they'd previously advised Canada about three days before Obama's visit deliberately, but "Airshow" did make a silly announcement to deliberately coincide with the visit of U.S. General Renuart.
I guess the NATO job is his then if he wants it.
But shouldn't the DefMin be capable of distinguishing between one type of Russian plane and another?

Oemissions said...

But, but, it was all over the telee: the night before the big ) visit.
Peter didn't say 3 days before, nor did Steve.

RossK said...

I wonder.....Could Peter McKay actually be the real Tony Clifton in Pol's clothing?


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Alison said...

Over at The Beav, Dave explains how completely dumbass this whole "Airshow" PR shtick really is :

21 November, 2008. Arctic patrol - two Bear-H bombers.

11 December, 2008. North Sea patrol - two Blackjack bombers.

21 January, 2008. Arctic patrol - two Bear-H bombers.
Norwegian Sea patrol - two Blackjack bombers.

11 February, 2009. Arctic patrol - two Bear-H bombers.

Anon : Yes, if both Norad and our DefMin got the intel wrong, instead of just lying about it, well then, Houston we really do have us a problem.

Anonymous said...

Paul Wells.

Heh.

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