Kurds' Canadian Plea!

From the G & M:

"Kurds plead for more Canadian support against the Islamic State"

 

The top diplomat for northern Iraq’s Kurds is asking Canada to give priority to his people and region over Baghdad’s government forces as Justin Trudeau’s Liberals ponder how they will fulfill a pledge to expand training and assistance in the war against the Islamic State. Falah Mustafa Bakir said the Kurds would prefer Canada continue air strikes in Iraq and Syria but added that if Mr. Trudeau’s government is set on withdrawing fighter planes, then they would ask for a renewed commitment on other forms of aid. “We would like to tell them that the air strikes have been effective, they have helped us a great deal. They have helped save lives. They have helped to destroy the enemy,” Mr. Bakir, foreign affairs minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government, said in an interview. “And if it were for us [to decide], we request that to continue. But if the decision has been made to stop them, we hope that the other type of support would continue,” he said. Mr. Bakir met with Canada’s Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan at the Halifax International Security Forum this weekend. He’s now on a brief tour of the country, including Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa, to thank Canada for all the military aid this country has given the Kurds over the past 14 months but, more importantly, to make the case to Canadians to keep the focus on his region. The Trudeau Liberals are promising to expand training of forces fighting the Islamic State to make up for pulling CF-18 fighters from the fray. In media interviews last week, Mr. Sajjan raised the prospect of moving beyond the Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq to provide military training to Baghdad government forces. Mr. Bakir says his region is in dire need of more help, noting that the Kurdistan Regional Government can’t even make its payroll obligation. “We are three months behind in paying the salaries of peshmerga and the civil servants,” he said. “This has been a costly war … to be engaged in daily confrontation with [the Islamic State] on a front line that is 1,050 kilometres long is not an easy task.” Mr. Bakir argued the Kurds have proven to be a “reliable partner” for Canada, the United States and the rest of the anti-IS coalition. “We have regained territory.” He said the Kurds would like more military training but also help in firefighting, policing and handling chemical and biological hazards. The Kurds recently took back the northwestern Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State militants, and the Kurdish envoy said they could use help rebuilding it. “Now we are challenged with cleaning the area of mines and vehicle-borne bombs, returning it safely to the population and helping rebuild it.” Canada’s military campaign against the Islamic State to date has been largely focused on northern Iraq, in aid of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

 

 

 

^ Canada really needs to rethink how it supports the fight against IS and how it helps those, like the Kurds, who have been fighting them for years and doing a great job.  The recent attacks in Paris, the bombing of the plane in Egypt and even the attacks on Canadian soldiers in Ottawa last year show that Canada can not simply put it's head in the sand and believe everything will magically work itself out or relay solely on the US (which most countries around the world tend to do.) Canada is in the fight whether it wants to be or not and now is the time to show what its made of rather than run-away and hide.  ^

 

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/kurds-plead-for-more-canadian-support-against-the-islamic-state/article27435401/