The Canadian Military Evacuating Iraq

The Canadian Military Evacuating Iraq

"For Canada and a number of the other nations, some of the soldiers that were retrograded in March will not be coming back because there is no longer a requirement for them to do the more hands-on, tactical-level tasks that they were performing."

"There is still very much a requirement to work at the higher levels, to work at the operational level and the strategic level. But for the low-level tactical training, that is no longer required. Which should be the normal progression for any capacity-building mission."

"[ISIL has become a] low-level insurgency [despite concerns late last year that the militants had been allowed to regroup in Syria]."

"Is there still a threat? Yes. But they tried to play up through media that they were increasing their tempo in May and June, and all evidence points to the contrary."

Brig.-Gen.Michael Wright, commander, Joint Task Force Impact

Warrant Officer Gord Cutting, an instructor of the Winter Mobile Training Team, assists the soldiers of the Lebanon Border Regiment with the construction of their snow shelters in the Bcharre region of Lebanon on February 19, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Department of National Defence-Cpl. Nicolas Alonso)

Up to 850 personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces have been stationed in the Middle East since 2014 focused on helping to defeat the presence in Iraq and Syria of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, hundreds representing Canadian military trainers, tutoring the basics of military practise to Iraqi forces representing a part of the global fight against ISIL. In March when the global pandemic became a universal health threat, the Canadian Military moved half its contingent back to Canada, resulting in a temporary halt to military exercises.

Most of those who had been returned to Canada were expected in the near future to return to the Middle East as needed. Since then plans have undergone a change. The military command feels it unnecessary to return, a reflection of allied commanders having decided the Iraqi military now stands trained and prepared to fight on their own against the terrorists. Unsaid, but a reality is that the Islamic Republic of Iran's al Quds division of the Republican National Guard Corps and Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based militia, now well integrated into the government of Lebanon, form a Shiite triangle in Iraq.

This has, for the most part, been a sectarian war, Sunni terrorists groups challenging Shiite terrorist groups. And the most organized and powerful of the terrorist Shia groups is Iran itself, an Aryan power seeking conquest within a greater Arab presence, that has succeeded in amassing a Shiite clique, a triangle of command encompassing, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Qatar as the honourary part of the group though a Sunni majority country.

In January the United States targeted the head of the Iranian al-Quds division of the IRGC for assassination, an event that caused friction between the U.S. and Iraq with Iraqi legislators calling for the U.S. to leave Iraq. Iran had retaliated over the loss of Brig.-General Qassem Soleimani, launching ballistic missile attacks against two U.S. military bases, one of which was also used by Canadian special forces. Western forces have overstayed their welcome in Iraq, where the country has had to juggle its dependence on both Iran and the U.S.-led coalition.

Canada's experience with Iran has not been without its pain. A Canadian-Iranian photojournalist had been imprisoned in Tehran and murdered there. Canada had under a previous government, cut off diplomatic relations with Iran. During the time of the Iranian Revolution many Iranians sought refugee status in Canada, and there is now a sizable Canadian-Iranian population. The IRGC shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet in January -- in the belief it was an incoming U.S. war plane --  killing all 176 passengers and crew; among the dead 57 Canadians.

Cpl. Brenna Baverstock of the Winter Mobile Training Team conducts a snowshoe lesson for the soldiers of the Lebanon Border Regiment in the Bcharre region of Lebanon, on February 17, 2020. Canada's war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has quietly entered a new phase, resulting in plans to keep fewer troops in the Middle East even after the COVID-19 pandemic passes. Cpl. Nicolas Alonso / THE CANADIAN PRESS

In very fact, the Middle East has always been a quagmire of intrigue and violence, with tribal and religious sectarian hatred easily fired into conflagrations. Syria, a more recent case in point of a dysfunctional, violent Alawite Shiite government preying on its majority Sunni Syrian population, committing countless atrocities to still a civil insurrection. The only nobility of defensive and protective forces arose from among the embattled Kurdish militias, fighting the Islamic State and protecting targeted Yazidis and Christians.

The decision to withdraw Canadian forces represents a permanent reduction in the Canadian military footprint for the first time in years. Mired in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Syria, it is past time to allow these Islamic nations to find peace with one another and to man their own barricades against those who seek war, not peace. All Western forces are set to retire their military troops and return whence they came. Iraqi militias loyal to Iran are on the rise.

Doubtless there will remain some selected Canadian military staff to continue training senior Iraqi commanders.There are ISIL cells remaining in northern Iraq where special forces are aiding to root the local ISIL cells out. Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait are additional sites where Canadian military teams, albeit reduced, remain. It is past time, however, for the countries comprising the Middle East and Asia to turn their attention to evolving into normal, tolerant nations.