Canadians defend strategy for fighting ISIL

PERSIAN GULF — Two senior Canadian generals have defended the current strategy for defeating ISIL in Iraq and Syria, which U.S. officials have put under review following scathing criticism by President Donald Trump.

U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis was in Iraq this week after Trump gave the retired general until the end of the month to come up with a plan for speeding up the campaign. During last year’s election, Trump criticized the slow pace of progress and promised to introduce a new approach that would hasten ISIL’s defeat.

But brigadier-generals David Anderson and Stephen Kelsey say they are hardpressed to think of ways to improve the existing strategy. And they worry that rushing to destroy ISIL could in fact undermine the progress that has been made in dealing with the root causes that led to the extremist group’s rise in the first place.

“I can’t think of a different way to do this that doesn’t create all the problems that have been there from the past,” Anderson said Monday, before Mattis’s unannounced arrival in Iraq. “I think we’ve got it right.”

Anderson and Kelsey are both based in Baghdad. And while they’re Canadian, each holds a key position within the larger international coalition for defeating ISIL.

Mattis hasn’t said what changes he wants to see in the campaign plan, but reports suggest the options under discussion include putting more U.S. troops on the ground and having them do more of the fighting.

Anderson and Kelsey insisted it is up to the U.S. to decide its own approach to defeating ISIL; but any change would impact all countries involved in the effort.

That includes Iraq itself. Kelsey said what he believes will end the cycle of violence, is that Iraqi troops are the ones doing the fighting and dying for their own country.