Ending 22nd

From the BBC:
"Canada IS airstrikes: Trudeau announces 22 February end date"

Canada will stop bombing targets in Syria and Iraq belonging to the militant group known as Islamic State by 22 February at the latest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said. Speaking in Ottawa on Monday, he said air strikes alone did not secure lasting stability for local people.  Mr Trudeau, who was elected in October, promised to withdraw six fighter jets from the region during his campaign.   But Canada will keep two surveillance planes in the region, he said. It will also keep refuelling aircraft in the area and will increase the number of Canadian soldiers training local troops who are fighting Islamic State (IS). "It is important to understand that while air strike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities," Mr Trudeau said. "Canadians learned this lesson first hand during a very difficult decade in Afghanistan where our forces became expert military trainers, renowned around the world."  He said Canadian armed forces would instead allocate more military resources to training Iraqi security forces so that "a murderous gang of thugs who are terrorising some of the most vulnerable people on Earth" could be defeated.  Mr Trudeau's move has been criticised by the opposition, whose leader Rona Ambrose in parliament accused the government of "stepping back from the fight against IS when our allies are stepping up". "The reality is that when we talk about Canada's new approach to fighting IS... Canada is backing away," she said. But Mr Trudeau is adamant that his announcement on Monday makes sound strategic sense. "Call us old-fashioned, but we think that we ought to avoid doing precisely what our enemies want us to do. They want us to elevate them, to give in to fear, to indulge in hatred, to eye one another with suspicion and to take leave of our faculties," he said.  Many Canadians have lost enthusiasm for overseas military missions after a decade of involvement in Afghanistan that ended in 2011, correspondents say. More than 150 Canadian soldiers were killed over that period.

 

^ Trudeau contradicts himself in his own speech. He states that the airstrikes can be very useful, but don't solve the problem alone. I understand that part. What I don't understand is if they are useful as part of a wider military action then why get rid of them? If anything they should be continued alongside the new training and support operations. Trudeau is as green as Obama in dealing with military operations. Obama learned the hard way when he took the US out of Iraq completely and let ISIS become more powerful and deadly and then he had to "shallow" his pride, admit his mistake and bring the US back into Iraq and then into Syria. I have a feeling Trudeau will have to do the same. ISIS isn't just attacking Iraq and Syria. They are attacking  Russian planes over Egypt, holiday parties in California and different locations in Paris (not to mention all the operations around the world that have stopped potential attacks.) Canada can pull-back from the fight, but then will have to put it's head in the sand and ignore the reality around itself. Of course Canadians (and Americans and other nationalities) are sick and tired of having to fight Islamist terrorists for so many years. But ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away. It only helps ISIS achieve its goals because ISIS (and other terrorist groups) want Canada, the US, etc. to become so tired of fighting them that we give up. Then ISIS will have even more power and can carry out even more attacks in the Middle East, Europe and North America. It is better to stop them before Canadians wake up to an attack inside Canada. Then it is too late. We know what ISIS has done and is currently doing so anyone (individual or country) that doesn't support the fight against them now can't claim ignorance tomorrow when they attack again - they can only claim stupidity. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35526255