Defence minister under fire for smartbombs claim that was contradicted by U.S. brass
Liberal accuses minister of another in ‘endless sequence of fabrications’
Defence Minister Jason Kenney says Canada needs to join the Syrian bombing campaign because it and the United States are the only members of the coalition who have the smart bombs needed for such airstrikes.
But Kenney’s claim is being challenged by critics, and statements from U.S. officials raise questions about its accuracy.
Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, part of the current five-country, U.S.-led coalition bombing targets in Syria, have smart weapons and have already used them against Islamic extremists.
Last fall, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the Arab nations for their role in the bombing campaign and highlighted their use of precision-guided munitions in Syria.
These nations “are performing just as well as we are on the issue of precision and reducing the possibility of collateral damage,” Dempsey said.
Fighter jets from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are equipped with the same U.S. smart bombs that Canada has acquired, or with similar ones.
The Saudis bought their bombs in 2008 as part of a $20-billion arms deal with the U.S.
In addition to its stocks of U.S. smart bombs, the UAE also spent $500 million in 2013 to buy South African-made precision-guided munitions for its fighter jets. In addition, it signed a deal to manufacture the smart bombs in the UAE.
Kenney made the claims about the smart bombs to a number of media outlets Wednesday.
“There are only five coalition partners doing airstrikes against ISIL terror targets in eastern Syria,” the minister explained to CTV. “The United States is the only one of those five that has precisionguided munitions. That is a capability the Royal Canadian Air Force has, so one of the reasons our allies have requested we expand our air sorties into eastern Syria is because with those precision-guided munitions our CF-18s carry, we can be more impactful in the strikes we make against ISIL.”
Kenney’s office did not explain why the minister was claiming other nations involved in the Syrian war did not have smart bombs.
Instead, the Department of National Defence sent the Citizen an emailed statement: “The United States is the only coalition country currently using precision guided munitions for airstrikes against dynamic targets in Syria. This is an important capability that Canada can also bring to the coalition, to contribute to operations against ISIL in Syria.”
Opposition critics say it’s not the first time Kenney has made misleading or wrong statements.
“It’s an endless sequence of fabrications and exaggerations of situations for the advantage to the minister and his political party,” said Liberal defence critic Joyce Murray. “How can we trust this government or the minister to give us answers about what is turning out to be an open-ended war?”
NDP defence critic Jack Harris says Canada needs a minister who
It’s an endless sequence of fabrications and exaggerations of situations for the advantage to the minister and his … party.
is going to provide accurate information at a critical time when the country is in another war.
“Canadians need to trust what he says,” explained Harris.
To back up the government’s case for bombing in Iraq, Kenney recently tweeted a photo he suggested was of Muslim women put in chains by Islamic extremists. The picture was actually from a religious ceremony that re-enacted the persecution of the prophet Muhammad’s family.
Kenney also recently claimed that the NDP had opposed every single military deployment in Canadian history, which wasn’t true. The NDP initially supported Canada’s war in Libya four years ago.