How should Canada deal with the new Islamic State (ISIS)?
Yesterday, 6 October 2014, while our government was holding hearings about going to war again, about 40 anti-war protestors were summoned to Parliament Hill. The Raging Grannies notified me by e-mail, so I went to participate. See 20 photos posted online.
The protestors were from both peace and environment groups — Project Plowshares, Nowar Paix, Hands off Syria & Iraq, Rojava YPG-YPJ (Kurds), a housing co-op, etc. I recognized about half of the people, but many faces were new to me. One fellow did not know about the Ottawa Peace Festival which just finished.
When I got home, I found that others sent e-mails of protest. Most are reacting spontaneously as independent individuals and clusters of peacemakers.
Two days ago Peggy Mason, President of Rideau Institute and former Canadian Disarmament Ambassador, wrote:
Yesterday I got an article from Paul Maillet, retired Canadian Air Force Colonel, founder of the Center for Ethics, an Accredited Peace Professional, and Co-Chair of the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Peace Initiative. Early this morning he posted 2 articles on his blog, Awakening the Peacemaker Within:
Today Tomas Mulcair, leader of the official Opposition in Canada's Parliament, sent this:
Today I got an update from Paul Maillet:
More …
October 12, 2014
- Send the military to the Middle East to engage in more war?
- Negotiate a non-killing peace?
Yesterday, 6 October 2014, while our government was holding hearings about going to war again, about 40 anti-war protestors were summoned to Parliament Hill. The Raging Grannies notified me by e-mail, so I went to participate. See 20 photos posted online.
The protestors were from both peace and environment groups — Project Plowshares, Nowar Paix, Hands off Syria & Iraq, Rojava YPG-YPJ (Kurds), a housing co-op, etc. I recognized about half of the people, but many faces were new to me. One fellow did not know about the Ottawa Peace Festival which just finished.
When I got home, I found that others sent e-mails of protest. Most are reacting spontaneously as independent individuals and clusters of peacemakers.
Two days ago Peggy Mason, President of Rideau Institute and former Canadian Disarmament Ambassador, wrote:
- ‘Harper’s War Plan May Make Matters Worse, Not Better: An intelligent approach’ by Peggy Mason, 5 October 2014.
Yesterday I got an article from Paul Maillet, retired Canadian Air Force Colonel, founder of the Center for Ethics, an Accredited Peace Professional, and Co-Chair of the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Peace Initiative. Early this morning he posted 2 articles on his blog, Awakening the Peacemaker Within:
- 2014 Alternatives for Canada to war fighting against ISIS
- 2014 Air strikes and ISIS, now it begins – civilian casualties
Today Tomas Mulcair, leader of the official Opposition in Canada's Parliament, sent this:
Tonight, Parliament will vote on Stephen Harper's desire to send Canadian soldiers to war in Iraq. However, there is no reason to believe that six months of bombing will succeed where more than ten years of occupation by the US military failed.
Watch my speech on Youtube.com to hear more about why the NDP cannot financially support this combat mission. And, help to spread my message by:
Canada rushing to war is not the answer.
Watch my speech on Youtube.com to hear more about why the NDP cannot financially support this combat mission. And, help to spread my message by:
- Sharing this email with your friends and family
- Posting a link to my speech on social media
- What are this mission's objectives and how do we define success?
- What rules of engagement are in place to avoid civilian causalities?
- How much will this mission cost?
- How many years are we willing to be embroiled in Iraq?
- How can we effectively contain ISIS without deploying substantial ground forces or expanding into Syria?
- What is our exit strategy?
- Do we have a plan to take care of our veterans after we leave Iraq?
Canada rushing to war is not the answer.
Today I got an update from Paul Maillet:
I have been blitzing MPs and the PM with emails yesterday and today. I visited 4 of them including Dewar. I have been on Global TV, CTV Powerplay, and featured in CBC.
Feel free to link to your blog sites if you wish, or use whatever you wish.
In peace, Paul Maillet
Email: pmaillet@magma.ca
Tel: 613.841.9216 Cell: 613.866.2503
- Power Play: Secrecy surrounds Iraq mission (6.5 min). Retired Canadian Air Force Col. Paul Maillet discusses Canada's ability to contribute to the battle against ISIS and what our role may be. CTV, 7 October 2014.
- Canada's ISIS mission: Cabinet to debate sending fighters, surveillance planes, by Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press, CBC News, 29 September 2014.
Do something say something feel something. I have said about all I can. ... and all is now dumped on my blog site: PaulMailletPeacemaker.wordpress.com/
Feel free to link to your blog sites if you wish, or use whatever you wish.
In peace, Paul Maillet
Email: pmaillet@magma.ca
Tel: 613.841.9216 Cell: 613.866.2503
More …
October 12, 2014
- Paul Maillet. ISIS — Is Negotiation possible?
October 13, 2014
- Johan Galtung, Transcend Media Service. ISIS: Negotiation, Not Bombing.
October 16, 2014
- International Peace Bureau. IPB Statement: There is No Military Solution to Fundamentalism.
Dr. Dale Dewar, Wynyard, Sask. Here is my letter to the editor of Saskatoon StarPhoenix before editing:
ReplyDeleteCanada going into the fray? The West supporting the guerrilla Peshmerga? The Peshmerga have been fighting a generations-long battle for an independent Kurdistan. The US was killing them a short decade ago. How could Western Intelligence get it so wrong? How could they failed to predict the rise of ISIS? The joke we’ve had for years is reality: “Military intelligence is an oxymoron.” (an internal contradiction.)
Canada should not be adding violence to violence. What should we be doing? We should be recruiting hearts and minds by prominently supplying humanitarian aid to victims; we should be supplying well-trained peace-keeping troups to provide security. We should be searching for ways to decrease the levels of violence, to give the next generation less fertile ground for extremism. We should supply teachers and community development workers, mental health counselors and “lady health workers”. Diverting the cost of those CF-18’s to decreasing violence would be far more courageous than dropping a bomb from an airplane.
In 2003, we met a convoy of trucks, Iraqi building contractors who were returning from a fruitless attempt to repatriate the contracts for rebuilding infrastructure. The spokesperson said, “Around the construction site are hundreds of young men with nothing to do. If they aren’t given jobs they will make trouble.”
Well, they didn’t get jobs. Billions of dollars went to US contractors to do shoddy work on bridges, sanitation systems, etc.
Another example of what we might do: women are still having babies under those drones and fighter jets – and they and their babies are dying for lack of care. For eight years, the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) sponsored a project in Northern Iraq. We were teaching emergency obstetrical skills. Seems now would be the time to launch another project, one of "working with" doctors, nurses, midwives and others struggling under difficult circumstances to care for the women and newborns. The previous project was cut by the Harper version of CIDA. Maybe it could be revitalized in the light of Harper’s verbal commitment to the health of women and babies.
P.S. The video is called: NICEIS VS ISIS!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this collection of responses to the debate about whether to go to war against ISIS. I particularly appreciated being introduced to Paul Maillet's site. Please go to www.peacequest.ca for my blog, "Why is the war on ISIS a mistake?"
ReplyDelete