The Canadian Government remains firmly against the assistance of Iran in the current Iraq crisis, despite Washington and London’s willingness to consider it. In fact, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that Canada’s relations with Iran will remain almost nonexistent until they can prove their trustworthiness.
However, Ottawa has completely ruled out a Canadian intervention in Iraq. Their only ambassador, housed in the British embassy, has already been repatriated. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird was clear about Canada’s position on the situation in Iraq:
“We are committed to working with the Iraqi leadership,” Baird said, before quickly adding: “I should point out that Canada has not been asked to participate in any military effort, nor is it something we are considering.”
While I agree with the current Canadian Government position regarding intervention and the relations with Iran, I cannot stress enough how Iran could turn their back on us at any time. Of course, their help could prove useful, but we’re dealing with a country that has been lying and making the West their number one enemy for years. Instead of the West relying on Iran, NATO countries should provide more support and help the Iraqi government until the situation is fixed.
Canada has some top class SOF teams that could be deployed alongside their American and British counterparts. While Canada is not considering a military intervention, they should still support their allies. That being said, I think the Canadian government should help the Iraqi government by sending CANSOF teams to train and assist their military. The Canadian SOF teams have been really active in Africa doing the exact same thing, which means they have both the experience and the means to do it.
Since the last time the US and the UK were in Iraq, the international community has been pretty quiet on the newly-formed democracy in Iraq. It is the job of that community to support a country who is trying to emerge from tyranny.
As one of the world’s most renowned peacekeepers, I don’t understand why Canada is not more concerned about ISIS and the Kurds. The only reason I can think of is the post-Afghanistan War budget cuts and the current state of the Canadian Forces.
Canadian soldiers fought a bloody war in Afghanistan for more than 13 years and our equipment is seriously in a bad shape. Canada has always had this problem. Instead of keeping a certain state of alert, past governments have been known to demobilize and put our military at the lowest alert levels possible.
In fact, the National Defence budget is being cut by approximately 10%, while the conservative government wants the Canadian Forces to remain at the same level of training and readiness they were during the whole Afghan war. These budgets cuts also imply that the time taken to return our equipment to decent shape will take longer than what it should. However, the CANSOFCOM is always ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, which would make them an ideal organization to support our US brothers in Iraq.
CANSOFCOM has worked with other NATO SOF teams all around the world and even more with their US counterparts in Afghanistan. Sending a few teams aboard one of the USMC LHDs and attached to the US command would clearly demonstrate the willingess of Canada to support democracy and to condemn the actions of ISIS.
Strong words have no effects – action does!
It is unfortunate that Canada will not support its main allies in this crisis, and even if this could become another long conflict, it is our duty as one of the leading countries of the world to intervene and help a population in need. On many occasions, the US has been there to help us, especially in Afghanistan where they would help up with all their assets. Now it’s time for us to do the same for them.
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