Canada punching above its weight in fight against ISIL forces, U.S. military commander says | World Defense

Canada punching above its weight in fight against ISIL forces, U.S. military commander says

Redheart

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Liberal Justin Trudeau has mocked the fighting abilities of Canada’s Hornet fighter jets and the fact that they were more than 30 years old.

Canada punching above its weight in fight against ISIL forces, U.S. military commander says | National Post

A senior planner closely involved in directing the U.S.-led coalition’s air war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant says that Canada had contributed far more to the campaign than the relatively small number of Canadian Special Forces personnel and aircraft might suggest.

“I would submit it is a combination of all the coalition contributions that come together to produce capability. It is the sum of all the parts, if you will, and Canada is a key coalition member,” U.S. Marine Brig.-Gen. Tom Weidley said in an interview at a secret base in the desert where coalition commanders, including some Canadian officers, both collect and analyze intelligence from the battlefields in Iraq and Syria and advise Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

Canada’s deployment of approximately 70 Special Forces advisers with Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq and of 9 RCAF aircraft that have been flying missions out of Kuwait were significant force multipliers, said the general, who commanded a Super Cobra assault helicopter squadron that flew combat missions in Iraq when the U.S. had ground forces there.

Elaborating on the mission of Canada’s elite trainers, whose presence in Iraq has until now largely been clouded in secrecy, Weidley said, “They provide training, education and their experiences to the Kurdish Peshmerga, whether in the conduct of operations, in the integration of aviation fire support or in terminal control advice. They become integral to what the Peshmerga are capable of doing.”

In what were the first public comments from an American general about Canada’s role in the war against ISIL, Weidley added: “Every Peshmerga fighter the Canadians touch enhances a future Peshmerga leader. Those intangibles grow over time. That Peshmerga fighter is going to train his subordinates and it continues to grow as that leader moves up in the chain. Small numbers of trainers have the ability to make a huge impact across the battle space.”

About 6,500 hand-picked Iraqi and Peshmerga security forces had already been trained for between four and six weeks each at five different centres and about 5,000 more were currently in training, according to the general.

The Canadians and mentors from other Western nations such as Britain, France and the Netherlands have been providing training in everything from the law of war, basic marksmanship and counter-IED skills to mine clearing, the integration of aviation fire and squad, platoon and company level attacks.

“We are not looking to create Canadian-equivalent infantry battalion structures,” Weidley said. “The goal is to take those Iraqi units and get them to a level where they can be successful against Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIL) in the current fight.”
 

vegito12

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I, think it is good that Canada is doing well in helping the Iraqi to gain more training as well and it is good that they will be at a level that will be able to fight the ISIS as well. I hope more countries will help out now and see the training is good and also it is nice to see they are getting the help as well in up to date training. It will help them in being able to counter, the ISIS group and also it will be good to see them repel them back as well.
 

pwarbi

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In today's climate I think it's important that every country plays a role, no matter how big or small, in order to show that they're not willing to sit back and do nothing.

While a lot of countries might not have the military muscle, they will certainly have other skills that can be used as this article points out.
 

Rowe992

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Well at least Canada is trying to do something about ISIS while the rest of the West just offers lip service. Why don't the mighty US step in and help since Canada is punching above it's weight? It seems like America will not get serious on ISIS until there is a mass killing of American nationals by these terrorists.
 

Scorpion

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Well at least Canada is trying to do something about ISIS while the rest of the West just offers lip service. Why don't the mighty US step in and help since Canada is punching above it's weight? It seems like America will not get serious on ISIS until there is a mass killing of American nationals by these terrorists.

A peaceful middle east is not in US interests at all. Remember it was the US who invaded Iraq and created all this mess.
 

pwarbi

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While I think it's true that the US invasion of Iraq didn't help, the middle east has been a volatile part of the world since long before then. I have no doubt that if the US and other western countries wanted to step up the campaign against IS then they would.

But would increased action not cause more harm than good as things stand at the moment?
 

gmckee1985

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Really appreciative to have Canada's help in this fight against ISIS. Harper seems to be a pretty strong leader and more commited to military action than previous leaders of Canada. That being said, they are a country that has pretty limited military capacity so we can't really count on them to do much damage in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
 

pwarbi

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I don't think it's so much about what they do, it's more that they're actually prepared to stand up and be counted against the fight against IS.

In the past, like you've said yourself Canada have been the masters of sitting on the fence but now they're definitely coming out more and more with an opinion on matters and that can only be a good thing, for the Canadian people but also for the rest of the world aswell.
 
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