Alwaght- Canada's defense minister Harjit Sajjan, on Sunday, has called for ground operation against ISIS terrorist groups in Syria instead of airstrike campaigns.
Canada is set to withdraw its fighter jets from the aerial campaign in Iraq and Syria later in the year. The prospective move has disappointed many in the US-led coalition, but Harjit Sajjan, Defense Minister of Canada, explained, that a ground campaign – not airstrikes – should be regarded as the priority right now.
"Of course they want to keep our CF-18s there,” Sajjan noted in a radio program on CBC saying however, an aerial campaign alone is not the “responsible” thing to do in the existing conditions.
“The responsible thing, in my opinion, is to make sure we, as a coalition partner, look at the current situation, the needs of the coalition,” he said. “When you look at the current situation, the conversation is […] ‘How do we target more?’”
At present, an airstrike mission is clearly just not enough – in contrast to the earlier phase of the war, when ISIS was “in the open”.
"Now the fight has gone in to where you need to be able to define and find your target, and then be able to have that impact on the ground,” Sajjan stressed out.
Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets currently take part in air combat missions with the US-led coalition, which is outlawed in many countries. Canada has also deployed 70-strong Special Forces to train Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdistan since 2014.
New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said late last year that all Canadian aircraft will be withdrawn from the conflict by March 31, 2016.
"Just as we phased our training in Afghanistan and were able to slowly pull away, this is one of the effective tools we’re very good at,” Sajjan, who was on military missions in Afghanistan three times, commented.
"The military, even when I was serving, has made strides in trying to connect with all Canadians… but we can do better,” he pointed out.
Currently, women account for under 15 percent of military members and minorities comprise about 5 percent.
