Watch out for Mali ‘mission creep’

Re: “Five things to know about mission to Mali,” March 20.

“Mission creep” is a common military descriptor for a more demanding mission than originally assigned. We’ve recently avoided major UN peacekeeping operations, but Canadian forces have committed to more than 35 such UN missions since peacekeeping was conceived in 1956.

Canada’s early peacekeeping commitments made sense from an international defence alliance perspective. Henry Cabot Lodge, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, convinced Lester Pearson, then Canada’s minister of external affairs, to have Canada lead the first UN peacekeeping force, which kept the NATO-critical Suez Canal open for oil shipments to Europe during military crises between 1956 and 1979.

Another NATO-oriented priority from 1964 to 1993 was the UN facilitation of conflict resolution between our Greek and Turkish NATO allies in Cyprus, where about 25,000 Canadian forces personnel completed sixmonth peacekeeping tours.

As the UN Mali mission totals about 13,000 troops from multiple countries, and given our prime minister’s stated intent to seek a seat on the UN Security Council, our minimal participation in Mali with two logistical-support and four armed helicopters with a total of 250 personnel makes eminent sense.

Pearson, before he became prime minister, was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his successful promotion of UN peacekeeping in the Suez crisis. There’ll be no such awards for the Mali adventure, which is not peacekeeping and might, at best, be called peacemaking.

Let’s avoid “mission creep” growth from Canada’s present minimal UN Mali commitment.

Ron Johnson Saanich