Canada’s allies need more than training

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan evidently would like the public to accept the argument that withdrawing the CF-18s and increasing Canadian training of local forces is the best way for Canada to support the war against ISIL. But there is a need for both the CF-18s and an increase in training. It is the least Canada can do to support local fighters giving their all against an increasingly dangerous and powerful enemy.

Training troops without all the air cover available will cost more allied lives and prolong the fight. Withdrawing the CF-18s looks like we’re running away, and encourages ISIL. The politically useful idea that “bombs are bad, ground troops good” ignores and distorts the reality of modern warfare, where bombs are the guided missiles of forward artillery, and essential to saving allied lives.

Sajjan needs to step forward as an experienced soldier and not as a political mouthpiece for out-of-date election promises.

Ralph Nener, Baie-d’Urfé