Canada’s true role in the Mideast conflict – Former PM Chrétien

Amazing op-ed and criticism of a current PM by a former PM: Jean Chrétien’s biting commentary on PM Harper:

For example, all the war in Iraq did was to make the region and the world a much more dangerous place. The legacy of colonialism in the Middle East had not been forgotten and was only exacerbated by the Western military intervention in Iraq in 2003, with the consequences we face today. Unfortunately, Mr. Harper did not understand that history in 2003, and he does not understand it today.

He basically articulates Liberal leader Trudeau’s dismissal of the military option but in a more sophisticated way, not incorrectly, and advocates, in concrete terms, what a meaningful humanitarian response would be ($100 m for the World Food Program for refugees, and accepting 50,000 refugees from those fleeing the Islamic State).

His defence of his government’s decision to participate in Afghanistan and assume the responsibility for Kandahar doesn’t quite jive with the excellent account by Janice Stein and Gene Lang in The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, which, if I recall correctly, was led by DND advocacy, not the political level.

Canada’s true role in the Mideast conflict – The Globe and Mail.