With about eleven months to go before the writ is dropped for the October 19, 2015 fixed date federal election, the Harper government appears to be taking Canada into a protracted war – against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – that at this point is supported by the majority of Canadians.
The Canadian Press reports this morning, “Prime Minister Stephen Harper will tell Canadians on Friday how Canada will further contribute to a combat mission against Islamic jihadists in the Middle East, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed in a statement Thursday evening. A motion will be tabled in the House, a day before the current 30-day mission ends, with a debate and vote expected to follow on Monday. …Harper said in the Commons this week the ISIS Islamic militants represent a direct threat not only to the Middle East, but to Canada as well.”
Harper will reportedly call for sending CF-18 fighter jets and CC-150 refuelling jets to join the U.S.-led combat mission. According to Harper, there are currently 26 Canadian special forces soldiers deployed on the ground in Iraq on a 30-day mission that ends tomorrow.
In terms of opposition party responses, “NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was critical of Harper for not outlining his plan sooner, while Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said the prime minister’s unwillingness to offer Canadians details of the combat mission was ‘troubling’.” The Globe and Mail has reported, “Trudeau said he sees no reason to vote in favour of Canadian air strikes, using an innuendo to deride the eventual deployment of Canada’s ‘aging warplanes’ [and] the NDP has been pestering the government for details on the current non-combat mission in Iraq and any future deployment…” Another Globe and Mail reports says, “While the NDP is not officially opposed to an expanded military mission, Mulcair distanced himself from what he called ‘the Prime Minister’s war in Iraq’…” Reuters adds, “The opposition Liberals and New Democrats accuse Harper of providing few details about the planned mission, and say they fear he could mire Canada in a long and messy war.”
Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson comments, “Syria is a seething cauldron of endemic violence, sectarian strife, religious rivalries, Islamic-style eschatology, foreign agendas, legendary animosities and generalized fear. …Into this cauldron, where it had previously refused to go, the United States and some of its allies are now dropping bombs, hoping (against much experience elsewhere in the region) to pinpoint one adversary for destruction – the Islamic State, the nastiest of all of the Sunni factions but not the only nasty one.”
He warns, “No one in the bombing countries should assume anything but a campaign lasting many years, with very imprecise ambitions and shifting targets.”
Earlier this month, after the announcement that “several dozen” military advisers and two cargo aircraft with weapons would be sent to Iraq, the Canadian Peace Alliance “strongly denounced” the action. They warned, “Some observers have noted that while Prime Minister Harper is claiming Canada’s military presence in Iraq will be for only 30 days, ‘The Americans are talking of a war that will go on for years’. Some war proponents are arguing for at least 35,000 international troops to be sent to Iraq to fight ISIS. Canada’s war in Afghanistan was misleadingly sold as a short-term mission too. Repeatedly. Harper’s record on mission creep shows he can’t be trusted when he claims Canadian soldiers will only be in Iraq 30 days and the mission won’t expand.”
In terms of the rise of ISIS, the peace alliance has commented, “The root causes of the rise of ISIS include the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq (which Harper personally supported wholeheartedly) and the likely support to ISIS in the form of weapons and finances from Saudi Arabia (a country with which Harper recently signed a $10 billion arms deal).” That’s not a dissimilar view to Simpson who argues, “The rise of the Islamic State is a direct result of the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime and its replacement with the Shia-dominated government of former president Nouri al-Maliki. Mr. al-Maliki, a middling functionary-turned-henchman, alienated and frightened his country’s Sunni minority, pushing many of them to support militant groups for self-defence.”
A Global News/ Ipsos Reid poll conducted between September 30 and October 1 found that 64 per cent of Canadians strongly or somewhat support Canada sending fighter jets to launch strikes against ISIS. 71 per cent of respondents in Ontario supported airstrikes, while only 53 per cent support such a mission in Quebec.
