By Ray Rivers
April 1, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Canada’s former General, Rick Hillier, has struck out at those MP’s who didn’t show up to vote for ‘Harper’s War’ – the resolution extending Canadian bombing of ISIS into Syria. Hillier was the guy who oversaw Canada’s most active role in Afghanistan, so he should know about the costs of war and the value of war’s benefits.
And Harper’s War, like the one his government inherited in Afghanistan, has nothing to do with self-defence, despite our PM’s protestations to the contrary. Although there are potentially all kinds of enemies out there in the shadows, only a fool would believe that ISIS poses an imminent military threat to Canada. We are half a world away. How can they bomb us without an air force or invade us without a navy?
Canada’s former General, Rick Hillier, has struck out at those MP’s who didn’t show up to vote for ‘Harper’s War’
ISIS is a consequence of GW Bush’s extrajudicial invasion of Iraq in 2003. Yes, that was the war which Mr. Harper believed we needed to also fight. Bush’s people won the war but lost the peace. Or more accurately, they won the battles and lost the war – since peace was never an outcome.
Defeated, demobilized and shut out, Saddam’s political and military organization, the Baathist Sunni party, re-grouped and re-engineered themselves as ISIS, then went to work taking back what Bush had taken away. History shows us how it gets more complicated, in that part of the world, with each new wave of outside intervention. I mean, just ask the Libyans, whom we helped liberate from Gaddafi with our CF-18s, how much they are enjoying their freedom.
Of course ISIS is nasty group of people and I wouldn’t want them as my neighbours – but they’re not. And some of their neighbours are almost as evil as they are. For example, Syria’s dictator Assad has murdered over two hundred thousand of his people, some with chemical weapons. And Iraq’s Shias have done their fair share of slaughtering their Sunni brethren.
ISIS seems to be killing everybody. Iran and the Kurds are fighting ISIS. And once this skirmish is over, Iran and Turkey will be gunning for the Kurds who have long sought their own national state in Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Meanwhile, Turkey, with the largest land army in the area, has refused to fight ISIS unless the US completely obliterates Syria’s Assad.
Syria, supported by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, is also fighting ISIS and other rebel groups, including al Qaeda and the ones supported by the Americans. The Americans are bombing in Iraq, as we are, but also in Syria, where we are going. But at least the Americans have apparently got some deal, brokered by Russia or Iran, granting them immunity from counter-attack by Assad’s still intact forces, though we haven’t
ISIS seems to be killing everybody
Jordan is also bombing in Iraq and its neighbour and former enemy, Israel, has offered to help should ISIS invade the kingdom. Egypt has gone from dictatorship to Islamic quasi-democracy and back to military quasi-dictatorship, and has been bombing its neighbour, rebel-dominated Libya. Iranian backed rebels have taken over Yemen and are now being bombed by the Saudis, who are in the process of creating a twenty-plus nation pan-Arab army, with America’s blessing.
Israelis may remember, without fondness, the last pan-Arab army, which nearly drove it into the ground during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. We should always be careful what we wish for. And what about Hamas and those west-bank Palestinians, besieged by wave after wave of invading Israeli settlements, and who now know for sure that Israel will never agree to a two-state solution?
Prime Minister Harper speaking in the |House of Commons during the debate of the the resolution extending Canadian bombing of ISIS into Syria
Into this hornets’ nest, Mr. Harper’s government has decided to extend our ISIS bombing mission into Syria, with no military objectives, no timelines and no authority to invade a sovereign state (Syria). Syria used to be a real country in every sense of the word. Even besieged by civil war as it is today, it still has enough powerful high-tech Russian supplied anti-aircraft weapons to take down one, or all, of our CF-18s, if they wanted to.
It’s crazier than a flea circus, and nobody should know that better than former military chief of staff, Hillier. But he is the guy who said “we’re not the public service of Canada. We’re not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people.” Over a hundred of our soldiers died in battle during his watch and our reward is the chaos that still characterizes Afghanistan today.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran as a Liberal against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.
Background links:
Syria’s Moral Maze Injured Soldiers ISIS Alliance Infighting Shaky Ground
Saddam’s Old Party Pan-Arab Army General Hillier’s Anger Rick Hillier
This country has a responsibility to our allies and there is a defacto obligation to participate in all of this insanity. I don’t think we have a choice. I just hope our expanded role does not trigger justification for some extremist activity here. ISIS would score big points hitting Canada.
It must be mentioned too, that Mr. Harper has not stopped his War on Canada. His attack here is aimed at more than just unarmed seniors, children, veterans, unemployed, immigrants, scientific research, public servants, the environment, farmers, Medicare, AIDS prevention, and the economy. Unless defeated in October, he won’t stop until Canada is just another bankrupt third-world lackey to multi-national corporate interests, which, republicans see as the perfect role for government.
A very thorough and realistic assessment of the current situation, with pointed and accurate reminders of its causes. The author admirably avoids the cloak of supreme advisor, asking us instead to exercise fundamental logic as we consider the “revealed wisdom” of those who pose themselves as able to predict the outcomes of their actions despite the unlearned lessons of their own history.