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Letter to the editor

There is an old saying. “Truth is the first casualty of war.” Our Canadian government with our Prime-Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s Minister of Defence Jason Kenney, have stated that Canada’s military “will not go beyond Syria and Iraq.

There is an old saying. “Truth is the first casualty of war.”

Our Canadian government with our Prime-Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s Minister of Defence Jason Kenney, have stated that Canada’s military “will not go beyond Syria and Iraq.” Does that mean that our government is considering the bombing of ISIS military sites in Syria? Is that what is supposed to bring peace to Syria?

It is estimated there have been about 8000 bombing sorties made on ISIS sites in Iraq. That is not counting the American bombing of Iraq during the so called Shock and Awe war in 2003, stated at about 3000 bombing sorties. Approximately 10 per cent of the recent bombing flights on ISIS targets were  carried out by Canadian Air Force personnel stationed in Kuwait. One really has to wonder, what kind of a peace has all this bombing brought to Iraq? And what is left to bomb there?

After becoming Prime-Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper did comment on Canada’s military role.-- He stated that he did not see Canada’s soldiers as peacekeepers, but “rather as courageous warriors.” Are Canadians now supposed to become a warrior nation, instead of peacemakers?

Recent reports have stated that Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest importer of military weapons. In 2014 Canada sold $10 billion of military equipment to Saudi Arabia. This country has strong ties to Israel. Our Prime- Minister has stated that Canada would support Israel without question.

Most recent annual statistics reported the world’s spending on the weapons of war at about 64 billion dollars.

It would appear that some of the world’s politicians believe that if you drop enough bombs, and shoot enough people, peace will break out automatically. In the meantime the producers of military weapons, are smiling all the way to the bank.

Leo Kurtenbach
Saskatoon, SK