At the time, John Baird, the Foreign Affairs minister, claimed the support represented a key victory for both Libya and Canadians. He said there was a well-developed plan that would transform Libya into a democracy. At the time he said: “The one thing we can say categorically is that they couldn’t be any worse than Col. Gadhafi.” However an article in the Ottawa Citizen complains that there was no plan and that nations who helped the rebels overthrow Gadaffi ignored intelligence that among the freedom-loving rebels were Islamic extremists. I don’t believe this for a moment. While there may have been no plan, those involved knew very well there were such groups but considered them indispensable to achieve their desire of overthrowing Gadaffi. What they did not realize is that the Islamists and other groups such as those supporting former Gadaffi officials who had joined the rebellion would not be able to form a unified government. They did not see the development of even more radical Islamists, the Islamic State which would be capable of establishing a considerable territorial base east and west of Gadaffi’s old home town Sirte, on the coast.
In September 2014, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper was still defending Canada’s role in Libya saying that neither it nor NATO were responsible for the subsequent chaos in the country. While the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has not yet requested troops but wants ammunition, weapons and military equipment to aid its own offensive against the IS, the US claims to be on the verge of an agreement with the GNA to send troops.
Back in February of this year, the new Liberal Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, hinted that Canada could soon join a military coalition to take on the Islamic State in Libya. There were already discussions about forming a coalition of countries to fight the IS: “I had a good meeting with my counterpart, the minister of defence from Italy, [on military intervention in Libya],” Sajjan said following a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels.”Italy is willing to take the lead on this; once we have a good understanding of the political situation, that will allow us to figure out what we need to do,” said in an interview with Chris Hall on CBC Radio’s The House.
Sajjit said Canada was assessing the political situation and then would decide if we have the right capabilities to assist in this mission to Libya. Now in May the exact form intervention will take seems still up in the air.
Sanjjit said that any intervention should learn from Canada’s mission in Afghanistan: “It’s all about fighting smarter … there needs to be a political structure in place that you can reinforce so that when you have the military gains you then have a political structure,” to safeguard peace and quell ethnic tensions.
In Libya at present that political foundation does not really seem to be in place as the GNA is challenged by the HoR and its commander in chief of the armed forces, General Khalifa Haftar.
An article in the Star provides the case against Canadian participation in any mission to attack the Islamic State in Libya. The article notes that the Liberals were already in the process of changing their mission in Iraq as they carried out their promise during the election campaign to withdraw from the allied bombing campaign. The article notes Sajjan’s statement that Canada is willing to take on some sort of military involvement in Libya. The article also points out how the last western mission allowed extremists and rival militia to “carve up the country”.
The article claims that Italy leading any coalition is a bit ironic as it ran a brutal colonial regime in Libya for almost half of the last century. The article suggests that it might be a good idea to analyze what was wrong in the last mission before beginning a new one.
In spite of all this, Canada’s top soldier, Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance said that Canada will end up playing a role in any Libyan campaign. He said this at a security and defence conference in Ottawa in March. He did not rule out military action. He said: “I don’t know whether we will be involved militarily, but we will certainly be involved somehow.”
While the Star article argues that Canada should continue talks with its allies it concludes that in the end Canada should just say no to another intervention in the Middle East: We have 15 years of recent experience of botched, costly and frustrating missions across the region. The warning lights are flashing for another looming disaster in Libya.
