Canada has sent CF-18’s to participate in the bombing of ISIS. I think this is a very bad idea and I need to tell you a story from my childhood to illustrate why.
This whole sending planes overseas to bomb people reminds me of one Christmas I had the pleasure of spending in Hawaii. Oh let me assure you gentle readers, it was a very merry Mele Kalikimaka for my Mom and I. We saw many wonderful sights, swam on many beaches, drove around for the first couple of days in a standard car that my dear Mum couldn’t reliably drive (which I nearly fell out of on the highway), turned my back on the ocean and was promptly slammed by a monster-wave that sent me cartwheeling underwater up a thirty-foot sandy incline losing my glasses and nearly my life in the process. Like I said, good times. But there was a side story that went along with our little Hawaii get-away and it involves attempting to acquire a certain toy that I reeeeeeeealy wanted.
You see, back at the time I happened to be young and had a certain proclivity toward the latest and greatest toys available at the time – Transformers. Specifically for some reason lost to me now I wanted to get Soundwave – an evil Decepticon robot that could transform into a tape deck. Witness (If you’re really curious, you can see Soundwave in action on youtube):
As I recall, our dynamic mother and son team spent a good deal of time on our vacation looking for the authentic Soundwave toy. Now being that Tranformers were all shiny and new back then, they had not made it to the Big Island yet; and if they did the branded toys were snapped up by savvy Hawaiian shoppers before the likes of our pasty Canadian tourists had even thought about buying them.
What was available were many imitation toys that mimicked the brand name toy precisely. The knock-offs where everywhere in the Hawaiian toy stores. And yes, in retrospect, I’m completely embarrassed at how spoiled I was for dragging my mother to so many malls in Hawaii looking for Mr.Soundwave – only child – I had no choice in the matter :)
Anyhow, we eventually had to settle on getting the very good Soundwave knock-off. It was under the Christmas lamp and promptly opened and played with on that sunny tropical Christmas morning. I remember though, that as much fun as I had with said toy it just wasn’t quite right. It was almost everything I wanted, yet there was a keen edge of disappointment because we had to settle for something wasn’t exactly what I wanted. It was a gift that involved a settlement – the best we could do at the time.
I’m sure we’ve all been in that situation in one form or another. We’ve all wanted “X” soooo bad for so long but then “Y” comes along and we jump at the opportunity to get what we almost wanted because we figure it will do and make us just as happy.
Hint: Settling doesn’t make us as happy.
So why is Canada going in with the Royal Canadian Air Force, when we know that bombing is not the solution to the ISIS problem?
“Air strikes alone are really not enough to defeat Isis in Kobani,” said Idris Nassan, a senior spokesman for the Kurdish fighters desperately trying to defend the important strategic redoubt from the advancing militants. “They are besieging the city on three sides, and fighter jets simply cannot hit each and every Isis fighter on the ground.”
He said Isis had adapted its tactics to military strikes from the air. “Each time a jet approaches, they leave their open positions, they scatter and hide. What we really need is ground support. We need heavy weapons and ammunition in order to fend them off and defeat them.”
Hmm…consider the words of US Army officer who sees a slightly different picture.
“For example, what would happen if the President took Mr. Kristol’s advice and bombed targets “for a few weeks” and then waited just to “see what happens”? The first few iterations of air sorties would have a good chance of taking out numerous ISIS vehicles and personnel. But in short order ISIS would adjust its methods of operation to disguise vehicle movements, reposition troops and embed command and control centers more deeply into civilian areas, becoming indistinguishable from the civil population.
Now, despite having successfully destroyed a few targets, we would have pushed the enemy deeper underground, hardened his resolve, and seen his troops burrow in like ticks among the innocent residents of the cities he occupies. Further targeting from the air becomes next to impossible without killing noncombatants or sending in ground troops to flush the fighters out. Unless the President will entertain deepening American engagement by deploying ground combat units to root ISIS members out of their dug-in positions, house-by-house – decidedly not recommended – those successful bombing runs will have led to dismal failure.”
So our goal is stop the massacre of innocents and the spread of radical islamic notions. It would seem that given our tactics, neither of those goals would be accomplished. So here we are at that fateful time do we get the knock off toy – we have to do something to stop ISIS – and get not quite the result we’re looking for or do we wait for what we authentically want and commit to to bring that ideal to fruition?
Here is a strategy I think that Canada could actually play a role in; specifically point 3,4, and especially 5. Canada’s role in the world used to be synonymous with Peacekeeping as opposed to the murderous imperialistic role that our current PM thinks is a-fucking-okay.
“To protect American and allied interests in and around ISIS, the United States would design and lead an aggressive regional diplomatic campaign to first isolate, and over time defeat this group of thugs; the military would play a supporting role. To accomplish this objective, the United States would isolate ISIS economically, financially, and geographically, while eroding its support from within.
To accomplish this strategic objective, the U.S. should:
1) Work with the states around and near ISIS territory for the purpose of closing the borders leading into and out of ISIS areas including those in Syria as well as Iraq, thus depriving the jihadists of materiel that could support military operations;
2) use aggressive border control to pin ISIS to its current positions;
3) at the same time, separate ISIS from its external financial and material support;
4) conduct a social media campaign that truthfully exposes the grotesque nature of ISIS ideology in ++terms that would-be jihadists can understand;
5) conduct a sustained humanitarian aid effort to ensure the people currently under ISIS bondage will survive; and
6) institute a coalition-supported “no-go zone” between ISIS territory and that of friendly nations. If ISIS vehicles or ground personnel venture into this zone, they will be destroyed.
In short, we would make it clear to the world and the potential recruits that ISIS has fatally overstepped its capabilities. Faced with the stark reality that they have isolated themselves physically, diplomatically, and morally from the rest of their own region, unable to repair broken equipment, provide fuel for their vehicles, unable to replace expended ammunition, and incapable of performing even the basic functions of a state, it will be clear to all both inside and outside the blockade: ISIS is a regime of losers whose singular accomplishment has been butchering the defenseless, and the impoverishment of the civil populations under its domination.”
Jesus-fuck! Isn’t it nice when someone with a whit of sense speaks clearly to the issue at hand. Full marks go out to this individual and his thoughtful take on what needs to be with ISIS. For a handy compare and contrast lets hear our twit of a PM on why Canada should go bomb people…
“If Canada wants to keep its voice in the world…and we should since so many of our challenges are global…being a free rider means you are not taken seriously. Left unchecked, this terrorist threat can only grow and grow quickly.”
Ah, so not participating in breeding more terror and terrorists in Iraq mean that you are “free rider” and are not going to be taken seriously. All I can say is:
Seriously?
Is France not being taken seriously for not contributing to the airstrikes that will serve only to push our goal further way? But wait, there is more apparently bombing people in Iraq is all about saving Canadian Families…
“As a Government, we know our ultimate responsibility… Is to protect Canadians, and to defend our citizens from those who would do harm to us and to our families.”
*sigh* Ratchet up fear and we’ll our darnedest overseas to protect the homeland. You’d think by now we would understand this most basic of propaganda principles. Baa..sorry for the tangent folks, but Steven Harper and the rest of his merry conservative crew of the RCN Clueless forced me to scribe about their relentless vapidity.
So, back on message – Let’s not be disappointed Christmas morning with a knockoff toy, but rather let us have Canada act in the way she knows best – humanitarian aid and assistance – and get the real toy and the real results that will bring us the ending we are anxiously hoping and expecting.
7 comments
November 3, 2014 at 10:02 am
john zande
Australia also has planes there dropping bombs.
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November 3, 2014 at 10:52 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
I fail to see why we’re doing that. Throwing bombs on people doesn’t fix things. Even people who like the war thing admit that. :/
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November 3, 2014 at 9:58 pm
bleatmop
The whole thing is a way for us to be at war without declaring war. It’s bullshit really because a campaign to drop bombs on a group of people should require a declaration of war, as passed by parliament. They won’t do that though because that would be highly unpopular. They get around this whole legal thing (such a nuisance these law things are) because we don’t “recognize” ISIL as a nation, therefore we are just helping our Iraqi “friends” with this rebel problem they seem to be having.
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November 3, 2014 at 11:33 pm
VR Kaine
When ISIS sees us coming through conventional warfare I suspect that they’d be sure to do what every other derka derka jihadist does when faced with a real opponent – grab the closest women and children they can and hold them up in front of the bullets. The government knows that war can’t be won, even if we’re in the right. There’d be too much all over CNN.
However when ISIS can’t see us coming as easily (such as via drone + air strikes), the way I see it there’s likely more of a chance to hit a pure military target and keep casualties much more to a minimum, so from that perspective the air strikes would make a bit of sense – even if not much more.
EIther way, “ISIS is a regime of losers whose singular accomplishment has been butchering the defenseless, and the impoverishment of the civil populations under its domination.”
I agree with doing everything possible diplomatically and economically to put that scenario into play. I disagree with you on this, though:
“Canada’s role in the world used to be synonymous with Peacekeeping as opposed to the murderous imperialistic role that our current PM thinks is a-fucking-okay.”
“Murderous Imperialistic role”?!?! I still don’t get how you can snort that kool-aid. Someone’s getting attacked and you’re standing there watching with a knife – what do you do? I’m guessing you all of a sudden take on a “murderous imperialistic role” and shove that knife into their back while you have the chance. Or, do you continue to stand there and yell “Stop!” until their work is done?
“…used to be synonymous with Peacekeepers”. We didn’t change, they did, but do your best to cling to that romanticized image of a soldier if you have to because I agree – it was a much nicer world then. Now you might as well be talking unicorns if you want to try and apply it to present day.
When our Peacekeepers were actual peacekeepers they were facing other uniformed soldiers who had at least some sort of military code and general sense of honor and dignity, not piece of shit barbarians. Now they fight derkas have ZERO rules of engagement and zero respect for women and children which makes them 180-degrees opposite of what Peacekeeping forces would be facing today. Peace with these ISIS idiots only comes in one form – death – and ,my friend you have to live in the “now”. Peacekeepers are the wrong kind of soldier for the wrong kind of war.
Plus, Harper’s quite right, in my opinion. We can’t sit back and always be the freeloaders, and what we do over there does protect us here at home. For one, the larger the force over there, the more empowered radicals get over here so reducing their numbers by bombing the shit out of them does have a positive impact, even if the $ cost is high.
For another, it shows our allies that we’re willing to do our part and not pull the liberal move of sitting back demanding other countries do our dirty work for us, so that when we need help from other countries militarily (like we invariably do from the US), we have a diplomatic and economic leg to stand on when it comes to discussing payment for their services.
Our disagreement there aside, I’m actually with you on a lot of what the US army officer says in that “Daily Beast” article – it’s what we need to win the war and not just the battles – but it still would be good to see more tactics to win the battles, too, especially day-to-day. The children being butchered and the women repeatedly raped – cutting of some dipshit’s bank card or “pinning them down” in some area somewhere won’t make these peoples’ day-to-day any easier, and a crafty Tweet or two isn’t going to all of a sudden make Jihadi John decide to stop mass-killing or mass-raping that day. What do we do, tell them to “tough out” those daily rapes and slaughters while we take months and years to cut off those bad guys’ ATM’s?
Instead, my hope is that we have in fact sent our special covert forces in there (including Canada’s JTF2s) to be sniping and slitting the throats of these assholes before any air war. Hopefully, we’re just keeping that part of the mission super-silent for now and we’re doing something to take these guys down 1 on 1.
Either way, I know I’m much more hawkish than a lot of people here, but one thing I think I can agree on with everyone is that not declaring a war and political tippy-toeing around even the mere word of it trying to call it anything else is disingenuous, cowardly, and pathetic. Popular or not, a just war can still be fought without lying about it and this war to me is justified right up there with wiping out the Nazi’s. Just call it what it is, put the right resources in place to make sure it’s as swift and decisive as possible, but for once keep a proper force and fund behind to rebuild. Yes it will be stupid expensive, but our money doesn’t mean much anyways and sometimes people have to die to be stopped. In the case of ISIS, they’re too nasty for just a longtail strategy to be played, imho.
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November 4, 2014 at 4:13 am
bleatmop
Maybe we need a few more decades of bombing Iraq to get it into the locals heads that we are on their side so they should just go ahead and support our puppet government there and sell us all their oil without any fuss?
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November 4, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Mystro
@VRKaine
Your comment seems to be mostly emotionally charged and empty war mongering rhetoric. You’ve ignored all the points that directly answer most of your points and threw out a bunch of baseless assertions. I recommend reading the post again, more carefully.
“…the liberal move of sitting back demanding other countries do our dirty work”
I addressed this last time you brought it up. No one here is suggesting other people should undertake the incredibly bad idea of bombing Iraq. Nor did anyone say we should do nothing. There was a whole 6 point plan outlined above. Again, reread the post.
“my hope is that we have in fact sent our special covert forces…”
I find it amusing that you charge us of speaking about unicorns when your plan is to send in chuck norris, rambo, and maybe some ninja mechs to take out the baddies, hollywood style.
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November 5, 2014 at 12:42 pm
The Arbourist
@Vern
Oh! Snorting the koolaid must mean paying attention to the historical and geopolitical context of what is fucking going on in that part of the world. You should try it sometime to avoid leaving such hysterical turds in the comment section of my blog.
Where exactly did ISIS come from? How was it formed? Why is ISIS doing what it is doing now? – Boiling shit down to non-reality corresponding knife fighting examples is not exactly appreciating the greater context of the situation. What it does look like is an soap-box opportunity to finger-wag at those damn “soft on war” liberal types.
We – The West – have been fucking around in the Middle East since well before World War One. One of the express goals of our presence there is to discourage Arab nationalism – the radical idea that the peoplewho live there should determine what is best for their countries. We are explicitly against that.
Our agenda, historically and up to today has been about what we need from the region – we’ve drawn arbitrary borders, supported ruthless dictators, and instigated coups against democratically elected leaders because it’s not in our fucking national interest. Where are all these radicals coming from – well we shouldn’t have to look to far for an answer as it the West’s destruction of moderate nationalist secular Arab leaders and their movements that has brought about much of the chaos in the region. Ya, so we wipe out the people who are reasonably trying to move toward self-determination and who exactly do you have left?
And whose fucking fault is it???
The world has never been a nice place – terrorism and barbarity has always been with us. A conscious choice has been made to move away from the multilateral idea of peacekeeping and has been replaced with following the lead of the bully with the biggest stick on the block.
It is not just, it is not right – what it is – is realpolitik and we should be able to do so much better than that.
Because fighting a holy war against the infidels isn’t the best advertisement for radical Islam? We go in there, bust the shit out of secular nation and wonder why there is a radical islamic insurgence. Did you hear about Al-qaeda in Iraq before we broke it? Me either.
The patter in case you missed it is we go in, break shit – shit gets worse – we break more shit – it gets worse. We declare “victory” and bring the troops home leaving boatloads of angry disenfranchised men and women with no infrastructure, no rule of law, nothing but toxic ideology of religiously mandated hate and then we have the temerity to wonder why they hate us so damn much?
Fuck me, I don’t even know who is holding the goddam knife anymore, so I won’t try and make a facile oranges to apples comparison.
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