The six-month mission to battle ISIS that Canada committed to last fall will end on April 7. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he will go to Parliament this to request an extension of the mission to battle ISIS for a further year. The current engagement, limited to Iraq, may be broadened to include Syria. Canada’s role under the current mission has been to conduct air strikes, as well as flying surveillance and reconnaissance missions and training Iraqi and Kurdish fighters. One Canadian soldier, Sgt. Andrew Dorion, was killed earlier this month by Kurds in a friendly fire incident.
Harper does not need to go to Parliament to deploy troops. Unlike former PM Jean Chrétien who did not seek Parliament’s approval before sending troops to Afghanistan in the wake of September 11, Harper did seek approval of the House six months ago and plans to again.
The reason why the Conservatives will seek Parliament’s approval is of course political. The Tories gained an advantage in the fall when Muclair and the NDP opposed going to war against the barbarians while Justin Trudeau’s Liberals squirmed. Little Justin thought Canada’s role in the mission should be restricted to providing winter clothing to the Iraqis and the victims of the Islamic State because Canada has experience in cold weather but in the end the mission was supported by his party. While we have heard a lot about men, women, children and babies being shot, beheaded, crucified and otherwise killed by the warriors of Allah, there has been scant evidence of the Iraqi troops, the Kurds and the victims of the Islamic State freezing to death because they were not properly dressed. As the Conservatives have a majority in the House of Commons, there is no chance the motion will fail.
There have been very few wars the New Democratic Party or their predecessor CCF thought worth fighting. While Mulcair’s party goes on and on about the poor treatment of women, children and everyone other than white men of privilege, they could care less what happens to Christians and Yazidis and innocent Muslims in the territory occupied by the Islamic State.
What makes this mission different from the pacifist NDP’s general opposition to war is the specific reason why Mulcair and his party will vote “no.” Appearing on CTV’s Question Period Sunday, Mulcair said, “When it is a UN mission, when it is a NATO mission, we are open to it. But here it is an American-led mission. We think it’s wrong for Canada to be involved.”
Canadians are set to go to the polls on October 19. The NDP leader added if the mission is still ongoing and his party comes to power (an extremely unlikely scenario), he will withdraw all Canadian troops from the region.
So the NDP is not really opposed to going to war with ISIS; it would be hunky dory if the mission was led by the United Nations or NATO but there is no way the NDP would take part in a war led by those awful Americans. Even if the United States is led by Barack Hussein Obama who is still hailed as a great man by the Canadian left.
Mulcair’s reasons for being opposed, not to the mission but by who is leading it, is that the Americans led the mission in the 2003 Iraq war and Canada was right to stay out of that one. Therefore since the first Iraq war was wrong, Canada should not be involved in this one.
It matters not to the socialist party that ISIS forms a greater threat to the region and the world that includes Canada than Saddam did. To the NDP any war is bad if led by those awful Americans. Simply because the Islamic State happens to be in Iraq is enough to do nothing in an attempt to save innocents from ISIS.
The comparison of 2003 with today is one reason Mulcair will never become prime minister of Canada. Does he really think Canadians are so dumb they cannot understand the difference between now and twelve years ago? All Mulcair is doing is playing to his base that hates all things American. Even the Liberals, who initially opposed the war against ISIs and who saw their leader make a joke about Canada’s military “whipping out their CF-18s” and who thinks Canada’s role should be limited to providing boots and parkas, did not vote according to who was running the mission.
To the moral relativist Mulcair, there is no right or wrong. Battling the Islamic State is good if led by his beloved United Nations or NATO. When led by the United States, bad. Hate for the United States of America trumps the evil of ISIS but then the lefties have no concept of evil.
Anyone who thought the anti-Americanism of the NDP would disappear when Obama took over from Bush was wrong.
