While Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama have agreed that “a firm response” to the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria is needed, it’s unclear whether Canada’s military will be part of any foreign military intervention.
Retired major-general Lewis Mackenzie says the Canadian Forces do not have enough personnel or planes in the region, and only one warship nearby, in the Arabian Sea.
He says that, considering that the United States appears to laying the groundwork for a strike in the coming days, there would not be enough time for Canada to assemble resources in the region. The U.S., meanwhile, already has warships in the Mediterranean as well as an air base on Cyprus, 200 kilometres from the Syrian coast.
Mackenzie says, at this point, there’s no requirement for additional ships in the eastern Mediterranean, and it’s unlikely that there will be a need for special forces on the ground.
“So I think Canada’s role is going to continue to be – and I would certainly endorse this – a sort of moral support, and political support,” Mackenzie told CTV’s Canada AM Wednesday from Ottawa.
CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson reports that the Canadian Forces have not received political direction to prepare for a strike, but sources tell her they are keen and ready to play some role.
The U.S. has been seeking support for military action from Western allies including Britain and France, as well as regional organizations such as the 22-member Arab League, which has signalled its interest in justice for victims of alleged chemical weapons attacks.
The U.S., Britain and France have made it clear they believe the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad was behind the purported Aug. 21 chemical attack that killed hundreds in the suburbs of Damascus. They have said such an act demands a swift international response.
U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said U.S. forces have “moved assets” to the region to allow for any action that Obama might authorize.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the global community to give UN chemical weapons experts on the ground in Syria the time they need to complete their investigation of the alleged Damascus attack.
On Wednesday, United Nations' special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said that evidence gathered so far suggests some kind of chemical "substance" was used. But he too said that any military strike must first gain UN Security Council approval.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is promising that Britain will propose a resolution at the UN Security Council Wednesday, seeking authority to take "necessary measures" to protect Syrian civilians.
Russia continues to vigorously oppose such action and is likely to block UN approval.
‘Neither side will win’
Mackenzie anticipates that any military action will likely involve intense missile strikes against Syrian command and control centres, intelligence centres, and some delivery systems, “from submarines, ships off shore, obviously, and perhaps air (strikes).”
While some have recommended that Syria’s chemical weapons sites be targeted as well, Mackenzie said that “bizarre suggestion” would risk releasing toxins into the air.
Mackenzie, who led a UN peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, added that he thinks the anticipated action against Syria is unique, in that it doesn’t yet have a clear objective or endpoint.
“We’re about to experience, it would seem, a unique phase of military history, and that is an intervention planned by a superpower— or probably a coalition of the willing -- and the result they want is that neither side will win. The rebels won’t win and Assad won’t win,” Mackenzie said.
“So that means that what we’re going to have is a ‘spanking,’ I would call it, of the Assad regime. But yet not so tough that the regime would lose to the rebels, because both results are really bad for the West, in particular.”
SOURCE : Ctvnews
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