Stop the Hogs!

Harper says Canada has no plans for Syria mission

[ http://www.cp24.com/news/harper-says-ca ... -1.1432104 ]

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, August 29, 2013 12:50PM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, August 29, 2013 7:54PM EDT

TORONTO -- Canada has no plans for a military intervention in Syria but supports its allies who are contemplating forceful action against that country's regime, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.

Harper admitted that lack of international action in light of the apparent use of chemical weapons would set an "extremely dangerous precedent," but added his government has been reluctant to the idea of a western strike.

"Our government has been a very reluctant convert to the idea that there needs to be some western military action regarding the Syrian situation," he told reporters at an event in Toronto on Thursday.

"At the present time the government of Canada has no plans, we have no plans of our own to have a Canadian military mission."

Harper said the conflict in Syria is "overwhelmingly sectarian in nature" and doesn't appear to have any "ideal or obvious outcomes" for a solution at present.

He added, however, that Canada stood behind other western powers weighing the possibility of a mission involving Syria.

"We do support our allies who are contemplating forceful action to deal with this."

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Ban on fighting ISIL in Syria not a problem, military says

[ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/ ... itary-says ]

LEE BERTHIAUME, OTTAWA CITIZEN Published on: March 20, 2015 Last Updated: March 20, 2015 8:51 PM EDT

As the Conservative government hints at expanding Canada’s war against the Islamic State into Syria, the military says its current inability to operate in that country has not been an obstacle to the war effort.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) controls a large swath of territory that spans the border between Iraq and Syria. But since agreeing to participate in the U.S.-led fight against the militant group last fall, the government has restricted Canadian military operations to Iraq.

Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Jason Kenney have suggested that this could change next week, when the government presents its plan to Parliament to extend and expand the war against ISIL.

“ISIL appears to be increasingly on the defensive in Iraq, and as I’ve mentioned before, they have apparently begun moving some of their heavier equipment back into Syria,” Kenney told reporters Tuesday. “And so we need to be flexible as we consider our options in the future.”

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The fact that the Canadian military is essentially otiose provides one way of understanding our past enthusiasm for peacekeeping – at least it provided some rationale for maintaining something like an able fighting force. Take away the peacekeeping, and what becomes the new raison d’être for the Canadian military? The Conservative government has yet to provide one — indeed, it seems not to be even aware of the need to. The boyish enthusiasm for the military that you find in the current government is essentially a matter of personal temperament and political ideology, but it lacks any underlying national or geopolitical rationale.

Joseph Heath is a professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Toronto. His book Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, our Economy, and Our Lives, recently won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

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[ OTIOSE: 1. Lazy; indolent. 2. Of no use; pointless or superfluous ]

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