Iraqi security forces and Kurds gain ground against Islamic State

In a vote 157 for and 134 against Canada will once again put our military to task.
In 1990 I was a crewman of HMCS Saskatchewan. The ship was about to go through a refit process and prior to reassignment to HMCS Mackenzie I was assigned to the Saskatchewan’s cleanup crew prior to the docks taking control. Basically I was hauling crap from the boat to where ever it was deemed to go. There was a lot of crap. We were the night crew and started around six in the evening and finished around six the next morning.
One day, while walking into the base, sirens started going off, and kept going.
I walked up to the PO (Petty Officer) in charge of our crew and asked, “What’s going on?” There had been no fire drills, no rushing around the base that would indicate a threat or problem. He replied, “We’re at war.”
This, of course, was Gulf 1.
After my duty was done, and I headed back to the duplex I shared, there were concrete blocks zig-zag’d in front of the base. I turned on the TV. CNN became CNN during this time. The next four months were probably the most stressful period of my life.
They didn’t need volunteers on the boats that went, they were full because many, many of us volunteered.
So we watched. We watched missiles fired on Israel in an attempt to bring them into the war. We watched those civilians donning gas-masks in fear of the chemicals Iraq had poured on Iranian troops. We watched dramatic fireballs behind Peter Arnett and Bernard Shaw.
It was very exhilarating. Except…I couldn’t get over the what-ifs. What if Israel retaliated? What if Iraq used chemical weapons? What if….
Those were my wingers over there.
So, yeah. a vote was held to send our pilots, crews and ground crews over to rain judgment on those who would despoil the gift of life.
But there is no trepidation, no hesitation. They are still my wingers, but they’ll be in far less danger than our ships and pilots during Gulf 1. Far less danger than Afghanistan. Far less danger than Kosovo. And they’ll be on the side of angels.
God speed, men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Calgary Herald Editorial:

“If the U.S. airplanes had not been here at the right moment, Irbil would have fallen and ISIL would be here,” said Shobhan Kunda. “Everybody knows it,” he added.
Everybody, it seems but Canada’s opposition parties.

Today: The Association for Canadian Studies/Leger survey indicates 49% of Canadians agreed that “military strength is the only way to deal with the threat of state terrorism.”
Updated: 64% from I-R.
Prediction tomorrow: The Liberal party holds an un-whipped vote.

Canada delivers military supplies to Iraq.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-177 Globemaster III strategic airlifter has completed its first delivery of military equipment, donated by the Republic of Albania, to security forces in Iraq fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Operation IMPACT is Canada’s contribution to international efforts to deliver military supplies, such as small arms and ammunition, to those fighting ISIL. Staged out of locations in the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe, the Canadian Air Task Force Iraq (CATFI) is working in concert with our Allies – including the United States and the United Kingdom – and the Government of Iraq to provide this critical aid.

Related.

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