Canada will do its part

Despite much hand-wringing in conservative quarters over Canada shirking its responsibilities in the war on Islamic State by pulling six warplanes from the fray, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama appear to have hit it off remarkably well at their get-together in Manila at the Asia-Pacific summit.

As the Star’s Bruce Campion-Smith reports, Obama had kind words for Trudeau. He called Canada “a very strong partner,” suggested Trudeau would bring “a great boost of energy and reform” to the political scene, and invited him to the White House. After a season of chilly relations under Stephen Harper over the Keystone XL pipeline, climate change and other irritants, it’s good to see this reboot.

Certainly, Obama gave no indication that he thinks Trudeau is “cutting and running” by refocusing our military mission. If anything, Trudeau’s vow that Canada will do “more than its part” to help degrade and defeat the Islamic State by beefing up our small military training effort in Iraq will be music to the president’s ears. So is Trudeau’s recognition that “this is not going be a short engagement.”

A robust, experienced Canadian training force on the ground — one role we shouldered to good effect in Afghanistan, where we deployed 800 trainers after our combat mission ended — would be more valuable, politically and militarily, than a modest six-pack of warplanes.

Obama clearly views Trudeau as a more supportive partner on climate change, and expects the new Liberal government will endorse the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, after some public consultation and parliamentary study. Obama and Trudeau also agree on the need to provide asylum to refugees from Syria’s civil war.

But in the shadow of jihadist attacks on Paris and a Russian jet, which signal that the Islamic State is carrying its war afield, there’s an urgent need to train the ramshackle Iraqi army and other forces to take on the jihadists on their home turf. The Iraqi military crumbled last year in the face of a jihadist onslaught. Training them to fight is a role that Canada and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, including Britain, France and Germany, are well-suited to undertake.

Currently only some of the 65 countries in the U.S.-led coalition, 16 in all, are actively engaged in what’s known as “building partner capacity” and advising and assisting friendly forces on the ground.

Canada has fewer than 70 special forces training Kurds in the north of Iraq, as well as the warplanes, plus surveillance and refuelling aircraft in the region.

Although no decisions have yet been made on an augmented Canadian force, newly appointed Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is now raising the prospect of deploying a “meaningful contribution” that would include more trainers, while possibly leaving the support aircraft in the field.

While the American experience training forces in the Middle East (Afghans, Iraqis, Syrian militias) has not been a happy one, bombing alone will not thwart the jihadists. The forces opposing them must be motivated, and able, to hold their ground and take the fight to the enemy. For better or worse, the Iraqis are important partners. A reformed Iraqi military, better trained and better equipped, is the only realistic hope of liberating areas held by the jihadists.

Big questions still remain unanswered: How many troops might Canada send? What will the training involve? Where will they be deployed? For how long? And how much risk would they be in?

But far from cutting and running, the Trudeau government seems determined to do what it can to help the Americans and their partners help the Iraqis to make life tougher for the jihadists. It’s a riskier role, to be sure, with no guarantee of success. But it is a mission that would more than offset pulling out the jets.

The first meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama seems to have gone well