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are they all lying, cheating, dirty-rotten scumbags like many here claim George Bush & Tony Blair are? I have new respect for Canada with this information, why is this not front page news?
New Socialist: CANADA/IRAQ: Canadian Complicity
A Canadian Brigadier General, Nicolas Matern, has just arrived in Baghdad. This former commander of Canadas Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit is the deputy commander of the US 18th Airborne Corps and he now reports to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, who leads the 170,000-strong Multi-National Corps-Iraq. Its primary task is to conduct offensive operations to defeat remaining non-compliant forces.
Matern is the third Canadian Forces (CF) general to help lead a command group overseeing the U.S.-led war in Iraq. His predecessor, CF Maj. Gen. Peter Devlin was the Deputy Commander General of the Multi-National Force-Iraq since December 2006.
Prior to Devlins posting, which started in January 2004, CF Maj. Gen. Walt Natynczyk commanded ten brigades totaling 35,000 troops stationed throughout Iraq. When Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson gave Natynczyk Canadas Meritorious Service Cross, her office extolled his pivotal role in the development of numerous plans and operations which resulted in a tremendous contribution to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, and brought great credit to the Canadian Forces and to Canada.
It may come as a surprise to most Canadians­, including many peace activists in this country, that Canada is even involved in the Iraq war. Even more shocking may be the news that the provision of top CF personnel to command posts in Iraq is but one example among many contributions that the Canadian government has made to this US-led war.
Unfortunately, the Liberal governments 2003 pretence that Canada was opting out of participation in Iraq has been repeated so many times that it has become accepted as the truth. Even when presented with multifarious examples of Canadas complicity in this war, some Canadians are loath to believe it. The fact that the Canadian government has been a major player in the Iraq war since its very inception, also directly contradicts the powerful national myth that Canada is a global force for peace.
This Canadian myth has taken on the appearance of a state religion and some of its faithful adherents demonstrate a strong reluctance to question it. This is evident in Rabbles online leftwing discussion forum (called Babble) where a debate has raged since the publication of an earlier version of this article appeared in Vancouvers Common Ground magazine (February 2008).
While many Canadians, even some on the left, have difficulty accepting the reality that Canada is deeply engaged in the Iraq war, this fact was admitted early on by then-U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci. On March 25, 2003, during the shock and awe bombardment of Iraq, Cellucci gratefully acknowledged to members of the posh Economic Club of Toronto, that ironically, Canadian naval vessels, aircraft and personnel will supply more support to this war in Iraq indirectly than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting our efforts there.
Although Celluccis statement merely scratched the surface of Canadas initial support for the Iraq war, at least he let the cat out of the bag. As then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had explained a week earlier, We now have a coalition of the willing who have publicly said they could be included in such a listing . And there are 15 other nations, who, for one reason or another do not wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition.
Canada was, and still is, the leading member of this secret group, which we could perhaps call CW-HUSH, the Coalition of the Willing to Help but Unwilling to be Seen Helping.
The plan worked. Most Canadians still proudly believe that their government refused to join the Iraq war. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are some of the ways in which our government joined the fray:
New Socialist: CANADA/IRAQ: Canadian Complicity
A Canadian Brigadier General, Nicolas Matern, has just arrived in Baghdad. This former commander of Canadas Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit is the deputy commander of the US 18th Airborne Corps and he now reports to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, who leads the 170,000-strong Multi-National Corps-Iraq. Its primary task is to conduct offensive operations to defeat remaining non-compliant forces.
Matern is the third Canadian Forces (CF) general to help lead a command group overseeing the U.S.-led war in Iraq. His predecessor, CF Maj. Gen. Peter Devlin was the Deputy Commander General of the Multi-National Force-Iraq since December 2006.
Prior to Devlins posting, which started in January 2004, CF Maj. Gen. Walt Natynczyk commanded ten brigades totaling 35,000 troops stationed throughout Iraq. When Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson gave Natynczyk Canadas Meritorious Service Cross, her office extolled his pivotal role in the development of numerous plans and operations which resulted in a tremendous contribution to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, and brought great credit to the Canadian Forces and to Canada.
It may come as a surprise to most Canadians­, including many peace activists in this country, that Canada is even involved in the Iraq war. Even more shocking may be the news that the provision of top CF personnel to command posts in Iraq is but one example among many contributions that the Canadian government has made to this US-led war.
Unfortunately, the Liberal governments 2003 pretence that Canada was opting out of participation in Iraq has been repeated so many times that it has become accepted as the truth. Even when presented with multifarious examples of Canadas complicity in this war, some Canadians are loath to believe it. The fact that the Canadian government has been a major player in the Iraq war since its very inception, also directly contradicts the powerful national myth that Canada is a global force for peace.
This Canadian myth has taken on the appearance of a state religion and some of its faithful adherents demonstrate a strong reluctance to question it. This is evident in Rabbles online leftwing discussion forum (called Babble) where a debate has raged since the publication of an earlier version of this article appeared in Vancouvers Common Ground magazine (February 2008).
While many Canadians, even some on the left, have difficulty accepting the reality that Canada is deeply engaged in the Iraq war, this fact was admitted early on by then-U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci. On March 25, 2003, during the shock and awe bombardment of Iraq, Cellucci gratefully acknowledged to members of the posh Economic Club of Toronto, that ironically, Canadian naval vessels, aircraft and personnel will supply more support to this war in Iraq indirectly than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting our efforts there.
Although Celluccis statement merely scratched the surface of Canadas initial support for the Iraq war, at least he let the cat out of the bag. As then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had explained a week earlier, We now have a coalition of the willing who have publicly said they could be included in such a listing . And there are 15 other nations, who, for one reason or another do not wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition.
Canada was, and still is, the leading member of this secret group, which we could perhaps call CW-HUSH, the Coalition of the Willing to Help but Unwilling to be Seen Helping.
The plan worked. Most Canadians still proudly believe that their government refused to join the Iraq war. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are some of the ways in which our government joined the fray: