Tuesday, November 24, 2015

More Than the Least We Can Do

Canada's new Prime Minister is facing a tough decision: a campaign promise to pull out of the air mission over Syria/Iraq after the attack in Paris.  Trudeau has discussed sending more trainers to Iraq to help train Iraqis (mostly Kurds) to add to those already doing that.

I have a modest suggestion: Canada has deployed not just CF-18s to engage in air strikes but also two Auroras (reconnaissance aircraft) and a Polaris (refueling and other stuff).  These two kinds of planes are far more "high demand/low density" (military jargon) or valuable and scarce.  Few countries have these capabilities, and fewer still have deployed them to this conflict.  While the US has planes that can do this, the Canadian Auroras and the Polaris have much value-added and are harder to replace than 6 CF-18s. 

So, Prime Minister Trudeau, as you redeploy the CF-18s back home, how about keeping the Auroras and the Polaris in the region, where they provide a particularly valuable Canadian contribution that the allies could use and would appreciate?

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