Canada’s role in the fight against Da’esh

Canada’s Minister of National Defense, Harjit Sajjan, recently visited the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and met with President Masoud Barzani.

Canada’s Minister of National Defense, Harjit Sajjan, recently visited the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and met with President Masoud Barzani, among other high-ranking political and military leaders. Mr. Sajjan, on an official visit, went to see how Canada could “beef up” the training mission of its sixty-nine Special Forces troops currently working with the Peshmerga, assisting them in the fight against Da’esh (the Islamic State). Canada’s commitment to the international coalition was first made under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative who led Canada for nine years, before losing out to the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau in October. The new prime minister has decided to continue Canada’s commitment to the coalition, increasing its training role but withdrawing its six fighter aircraft.

Mr. Trudeau’s military and political decision is consistent with Canadians’ self-image: it seems peaceable. Yet even from a purely military perspective, it is reasonable. There are enough warplanes bombing Da’esh already, but there is a deficit of capable ground forces. Most observers, including senior U.S. and Russian officials, agree that Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria have been the most effective ground forces fighting Da’esh.

Canada’s training mission is not without risk, however. Generally, wars cannot be won by airpower alone, but western publics have developed an allergy to “boots-on-the ground.” This is certainly true in the U.S., where President Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring U.S. troops home. That promise, however, has proven unattainable and Mr. Obama has turned to using Special Forces, with “officials often resorting to linguistic contortions to mask the forces’ combat role,” the New York Times explains. Both a Canadian and an American have recently been killed in action while supporting Peshmerga forces. Additionally, when Da’esh launched a major attack on December 17, on Kurdistan National Flag Day, Canadian soldiers supported the Peshmerga in repelling the offensive. That precipitated the same questioning in Canada as in the U.S.: Are these troops also involved in combat? The answer is yes; sometimes, there is no choice.

Mr. Trudeau, the telegenic son of another Canadian prime minister, the late Pierre Trudeau, came into office promising a diverse cabinet. His defense minister certainly reflects that. Born in India, Mr. Sajjan arrived in Canada with his family as a young child. He is Sikh and dresses according to Sikh religious injunctions—with a turban and a beard. Mr. Sajjan was an officer in the Canadian Army Reserves and served three tours in Afghanistan. Thus, he is the only defense minister from a major western country with direct experience of counter-insurgency warfare in the American-led war on terror.

Sikhism arose in the Punjab area of the Indian subcontinent out of Hinduism, becoming a separate and distinct religion. To some Americans, however, Sikhs look like Muslims, due to their turbans and beards. Particularly since 9/11, Sikhs have been the target of hate crimes. Most recently, two white males in their twenties beat up a 68-year-old man in California, yelling as they assaulted him, “Why are you here?” The Washington Post described the attack as “the latest in a string of incidents targeting U.S. Sikhs, who are frequently conflated with Muslims and often wind up absorbing the backlash against Islam.”

When Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S., he was appealing to similar sentiments of prejudice and intolerance. In these fevered times, it is virtually impossible to imagine a man with a beard and turban being named to a senior post in the U.S. government. Canada seems a more reasonable, more compassionate country in these matters. During his election campaign, Mr. Trudeau pledged that Canada would accept 25,000 Syrian refugees. By contrast, since 2012, the U.S. has taken in a mere 2,000. Mr. Trudeau is slated to visit Washington in March. It might be a good lesson for Americans, if Mr. Sajjan accompanies him.

 

Laurie Ann Mylroie, Ph.D., taught at Harvard University and the U.S. Naval War College. Most recently, she served as a cultural advisor to the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Kurdistan24.