Warriors and Peacekeepers

"This is one of the better things that the Tories have done. I'm really angry at the way they've cut the defence budget and reduced our ability to do things if we ever need to do them in a major way. But at least they recognize that this is a good thing to do, and it juxtaposes very neatly with the Liberals and the NDP, both of whom demonstrated that they would walk away from the table go to the john."
"It is an indication that the battle for Quebec is underway between the NDP and the Liberals, and Trudeau doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize his chances of picking up a lot of seats in Quebec."
Jack Granatstein, Canadian historian

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper receives a standing ovation before outlining his government's plan to participate in a military campaign against Islamic State militants, in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa October 3, 2014. Canadian fighter jets will take part in U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State militants operating in Iraq for up to six months, Harper said on Friday. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

"Nobody has accused Canada of not pulling its weight in the past 20 years, or indeed during the entire period we have been a country. Ultimately, defeating [ISIS] will only happen on the ground, and there are important non-combat contributions Canada can make in this effort."
Marc Garneau, Liberal foreign affairs critic

"We must be careful not to draw a line between security and humanitarian assistance. Sending someone a doctor, lawyer or aid worker is great, but it's not going to stop the people they're trying to help from getting slaughtered in the first place."
"My Canada heeds the call. Protects the vulnerable. Challenges the aggressor."
"There was a time when the Liberal Party believed in that Canada."
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

While the New Democratic Party and Liberal leaders speak disparagingly about the Conservative government's decision to enter militarily the U.S.-led mission to halt the advance of the Islamic State and put a stop to their gruesome atrocities, giving air cover to the Iraqi military and the Kurdish Peshmerga attempting to protect their autonomous region and giving haven to Iraqi ethnic and religious minorities, they speak of the necessity to ensure the debate they demand on the issues not be politicized.

Yet they speak with contempt of "Harper's war", as though this is not an important issue that concerns all of Canada, and cannot be characterized as they are fond of doing as "the Harper adventure". Their contemptible politicizing of an important event of historic and quite horrendous proportions speaks volumes about their morality. Moving "beyond partisanship" made an appealing vision, but neither of the leaders of their respective parties have covered themselves in glory.

"That bombing -- more bombing is a way to peace in a region that has already seen too much war, we respectfully disagree with the government on this", bellowed Tom Mulcair. So bombing is out, and then what's in? Sending flak vests, first-aid kits, our good wishes for a happy conclusion to the misunderstanding now playing out between Muslim Shiites and Sunnis. With the unhappy Kurds squeezed between the implacable enemies. And the minority Christians, Yazidis and others targeted for annihilation.

The NDP and Liberal solutions sound something like "too bad, so sad", and wishing them all the best in the world. Their problem, not ours. Except that in a world becoming more tight and interwoven all the time, our far neighbours' plight makes it incumbent upon us as part of the free world, to try at the very least, to relieve their extreme unction.

According to Sean Maloney, history professor at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Canada never did qualify as pacific peacekeepers. Canada's limited contribution to the campaign against ISIS at the same time does not equate with Canadians becoming fiercely war-like. "This is all internal domestic Canadian politics. It's disconnected from how the rest of the world sees us", he stated dismissively.

Walter Dorn, professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, stated his opinion that through deciding to commit to a however limited combat mission in Iraq Canada would in all likelihood thus be disqualified from a future UN peacekeeping role. "We have to stabilize the region, get a peacekeeping force, get the UN involved", he stated.

"Peacekeeping will necessarily be part of the solution in Iraq and eventually in Syria. What I bemoan is that Canada has lost its edge in peacekeeping. We are no longer the prolific peacekeeper that we once were", he said dismally. The peacekeeping mission in Rwanda worked brilliantly, just ask former general, former senator Romeo Dallaire about that one.

And the UN peacekeeping elsewhere, in Lebanon, on the Golan Heights, the Republic of Congo, etcetera, etcetera, sterling successes every one of them. Toothless tigers accomplishing nothing. Unless we consider the allegations against some UN peacekeeping units as having committed mass rape in places like Africa?