Iraqis wanted our jets to keep fighting ISIS

Justin Trudeau’s very first foreign affairs decision wasn’t only deeply unpopular with the Canadian people but upset our allies too, a newly unearthed document reveals.

Only days after the 2015 election, as prime minister designate, Trudeau phoned then-president Barack Obama to confirm we’d be withdrawing our CF18 fighter jets from the coalition fight against the Islamic State.

At the time, the Liberals ran with the message our allies were largely OK with his decision. A senior Trudeau adviser, speaking on condition he not be named, told reporters there was “absolutely no pressure for Canada to continue its contribution to the bombing mission.”

However, e-mails obtained by the Conservatives via access to information laws and shared with the

Toronto Sun, show that wasn’t the case — at least not when it came to the Iraqi government.

“On Dec. 20, Canada’s Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan arrived in Baghdad on the first visit to Iraq by a member of the new government,” reads an e-mail report by a deputy director at Global Affairs Canada.

Sajjan met with his Iraqi counterpart, Khalid Obaidi.

“The ensuing discussion touched on a range of issues but the Iraqi minister of defence was clearly focused on Canada’s decision to withdraw its CF18 fighter jets from the coalition air strikes, asking Minister Sajjan to reconsider this decision on numerous occasions.”

Operation Impact saw Canadian fighter jets engage in sorties from October 2014 until February 2016, when Trudeau halted the CF18 component of the mission.

During this time, the jets conducted 251 airstrikes that attacked 267 ISIS fighting positions, 102 pieces of major equipment and vehicles and even 30 explosives factories and storage facilities.

While cynics argued our six planes offered a minimal benefit, the above results show otherwise. Canada’s contribution mattered.

And the unearthed e-mail proves our Iraqi allies thought so, too.

At the same time, the numbers showed that while Canadians had just voted in the Liberals with a majority, they disagreed with the new government on this issue.

“Most Canadians disagree with Trudeau’s plan to withdraw CF-18s,” blared a CBC headline, highlighting a poll that showed only 27 per cent of respondents backed Trudeau’s plan.

As the jets were withdrawn, the Liberals tripled the number of advise and assist officers on the ground working with Iraqi forces.

While the government talking point has consistently been that Canada is better skilled at the advise-and-assist role, at no point has Trudeau ever once actually articulated why it made sense to remove our fighter jets from the mission.

Back then the decision looked like nothing more than a calculated campaign move designed to differentiate the Liberal position from the Conservative one.

Now, with the news that the Iraqi government repeatedly asked us to keep in the fight, it looks even worse.

The Iraqi minister of defence was clearly focused on Canada’s decision to withdraw its CF18 fighter jets from the coalition air strikes, asking Minister Sajjan to reconsider this decision on numerous occasions.” A Global Affair Canada deputy director in a report released through access-to-information law