VANCOUVER, Canada, (Jan. 23, 2008) IPS/GIN - Canada has dispatched
yet another top general to the command group overseeing the
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, despite the Canadian government's
official decision to abstain from engaging in combat there.
Brig. Gen. Nicolas Matern, a Special Forces officer and former
commander of Canada's elite counterterrorism unit, will serve as
deputy to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the incoming commander of the
170,000-strong Multinational Corps in Iraq, beginning in
mid-February.
Matern is the third Canadian general to serve in the command group
of Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of an exchange program that
places Canadian Forces officers in leadership positions in the U.S.
military. His deployment is part of a three-year post with the U.S.
Army's 18th Airborne Corps, based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.
Officials at Fort Bragg confirmed that Matern has already been
deployed to Iraq, though no official statement has been made by
Canadian officials.
Meanwhile, 42 Canadian tanks and armored personnel carriers left
Edmonton last week destined for Fort Bliss, Texas, to participate
in predeployment training exercises with the U.S. Army before a
summer rotation in Afghanistan. A Department of National Defense
press release characterized the training as "massive," with more
than 3,000 Canadian soldiers taking part in Exercise Southern Bear.
Such joint exercises are commonplace throughout all branches of
the armed forces and beyond. A report from the U.S. Department of
State's counterterrorism office described how "the governments of
the United States and Canada collaborated on a broad array of
initiatives, exercises and joint operations that spanned virtually
all agencies and every level of government."
During his first visit to Washington as Prime Minister in 2006,
Stephen Harper boasted that the North American alliance was the
"strongest relationship of any two countries, not just on the
planet, but in the history of mankind." As much as 90 percent of
Canadian trade is with the U.S., with upwards of $2 billion a day
in goods and services crossing the border.
There are also economic interests in Iraq itself. The April 2007
Iraq Reconstruction Report lists Canada as the fourth largest
importer of Iraqi oil. Industry Canada records that total Canadian
imports from Iraq have risen from $1.06 billion in 2002 to $1.61
billion in 2006, making Iraq second only to Saudi Arabia as a
Middle Eastern source for Canadian imports.
According to Canada's Defense Policy Statement, the increased
collaboration with the U.S. military will "not see the Canadian
Forces replicate every function of the world's premier militaries,"
but rather fill niche roles that allow Canada's interventionist
capabilities to be relevant and credible.
To this end, Matern's Special Forces background is seen as an
asset. "He comes in with a unique set of skills," Col. Bill Buckner
of the 18th Airborne told the Ottawa Citizen. "We're the home of
the airborne and the special operating forces, so he fits in very
nicely to this warrior ethos we have here."
Matern was a commander in the secretive commando unit, Joint Task
Force-2, before being promoted to deputy commander of the newly
created Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
Canada's most important foreign policy documents list Iraq, along
with Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan and Israel-Palestine, as areas of
"strategic priority."
Canada was an active participant in the 1991 Gulf War and helped
enforce the crippling blockade on Iraq throughout the 1990s, but
it declined to join the "coalition of the willing" in March of 2003
when the U.S. launched the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein
without a final U.N. resolution authorizing the war.
Nevertheless, Canada's contribution to the mission is notable. In
2003, Canada pledged $300 million in aid and reconstruction in
Iraq. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has helped train more than
30,000 Iraqi security forces in neighboring Jordan and has had top
level advisers operating within the Iraqi interior ministry. In
addition, Canadian frigates continue to operate alongside the U.S.
aircraft carriers in the Arabian Gulf that are a primary staging
platform for bombing raids in Iraq.
Indeed, during the first week of the war in 2003, then-U.S.
Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, said Canada had provided "more
support indirectly to this war in Iraq than most of the 46
countries that are fully supporting our efforts there."
Around the same time that Canada opted out of combat in Iraq, it
increased its combat role in Afghanistan, ultimately taking command
of the counterinsurgency war in southern Afghanistan.
Unlike the Canadian deployment in Afghanistan, which is subject to
relatively significant coverage domestically, Canada's
participation in Iraq is handled much more carefully by Canadian
officials.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay did not return a call seeking
comment, and no official statement has accompanied Matern's recent
deployment.
Opposition New Democratic Party defense critic Dawn Black expressed
reservations about the implications of the special military
relationship: "We're concerned about an overemphasis on
interoperability with the U.S," she said from her British Columbia
office. "It affects whether we have an independent foreign policy
and sovereignty as a country."
Though approximately 93 percent of the coalition troops in Iraq
are American, the U.S. has long been keen to emphasize the
multinational component of a war that former U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan described as illegal.
Maj. Gen. Peter Devlin, a Canadian Forces officer currently
operating as deputy commanding general in Iraq, recently told the
Washington Post that the effect of the multinational element is in
bringing "greater legitimacy to the effort here in Iraq."
Link: CANADIAN GENERAL TAKES SENIOR COMMAND ROLE :: The Online Pioneer and Ideals - World News :: Bringing you the International News
yet another top general to the command group overseeing the
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, despite the Canadian government's
official decision to abstain from engaging in combat there.
Brig. Gen. Nicolas Matern, a Special Forces officer and former
commander of Canada's elite counterterrorism unit, will serve as
deputy to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the incoming commander of the
170,000-strong Multinational Corps in Iraq, beginning in
mid-February.
Matern is the third Canadian general to serve in the command group
of Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of an exchange program that
places Canadian Forces officers in leadership positions in the U.S.
military. His deployment is part of a three-year post with the U.S.
Army's 18th Airborne Corps, based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.
Officials at Fort Bragg confirmed that Matern has already been
deployed to Iraq, though no official statement has been made by
Canadian officials.
Meanwhile, 42 Canadian tanks and armored personnel carriers left
Edmonton last week destined for Fort Bliss, Texas, to participate
in predeployment training exercises with the U.S. Army before a
summer rotation in Afghanistan. A Department of National Defense
press release characterized the training as "massive," with more
than 3,000 Canadian soldiers taking part in Exercise Southern Bear.
Such joint exercises are commonplace throughout all branches of
the armed forces and beyond. A report from the U.S. Department of
State's counterterrorism office described how "the governments of
the United States and Canada collaborated on a broad array of
initiatives, exercises and joint operations that spanned virtually
all agencies and every level of government."
During his first visit to Washington as Prime Minister in 2006,
Stephen Harper boasted that the North American alliance was the
"strongest relationship of any two countries, not just on the
planet, but in the history of mankind." As much as 90 percent of
Canadian trade is with the U.S., with upwards of $2 billion a day
in goods and services crossing the border.
There are also economic interests in Iraq itself. The April 2007
Iraq Reconstruction Report lists Canada as the fourth largest
importer of Iraqi oil. Industry Canada records that total Canadian
imports from Iraq have risen from $1.06 billion in 2002 to $1.61
billion in 2006, making Iraq second only to Saudi Arabia as a
Middle Eastern source for Canadian imports.
According to Canada's Defense Policy Statement, the increased
collaboration with the U.S. military will "not see the Canadian
Forces replicate every function of the world's premier militaries,"
but rather fill niche roles that allow Canada's interventionist
capabilities to be relevant and credible.
To this end, Matern's Special Forces background is seen as an
asset. "He comes in with a unique set of skills," Col. Bill Buckner
of the 18th Airborne told the Ottawa Citizen. "We're the home of
the airborne and the special operating forces, so he fits in very
nicely to this warrior ethos we have here."
Matern was a commander in the secretive commando unit, Joint Task
Force-2, before being promoted to deputy commander of the newly
created Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
Canada's most important foreign policy documents list Iraq, along
with Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan and Israel-Palestine, as areas of
"strategic priority."
Canada was an active participant in the 1991 Gulf War and helped
enforce the crippling blockade on Iraq throughout the 1990s, but
it declined to join the "coalition of the willing" in March of 2003
when the U.S. launched the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein
without a final U.N. resolution authorizing the war.
Nevertheless, Canada's contribution to the mission is notable. In
2003, Canada pledged $300 million in aid and reconstruction in
Iraq. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has helped train more than
30,000 Iraqi security forces in neighboring Jordan and has had top
level advisers operating within the Iraqi interior ministry. In
addition, Canadian frigates continue to operate alongside the U.S.
aircraft carriers in the Arabian Gulf that are a primary staging
platform for bombing raids in Iraq.
Indeed, during the first week of the war in 2003, then-U.S.
Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, said Canada had provided "more
support indirectly to this war in Iraq than most of the 46
countries that are fully supporting our efforts there."
Around the same time that Canada opted out of combat in Iraq, it
increased its combat role in Afghanistan, ultimately taking command
of the counterinsurgency war in southern Afghanistan.
Unlike the Canadian deployment in Afghanistan, which is subject to
relatively significant coverage domestically, Canada's
participation in Iraq is handled much more carefully by Canadian
officials.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay did not return a call seeking
comment, and no official statement has accompanied Matern's recent
deployment.
Opposition New Democratic Party defense critic Dawn Black expressed
reservations about the implications of the special military
relationship: "We're concerned about an overemphasis on
interoperability with the U.S," she said from her British Columbia
office. "It affects whether we have an independent foreign policy
and sovereignty as a country."
Though approximately 93 percent of the coalition troops in Iraq
are American, the U.S. has long been keen to emphasize the
multinational component of a war that former U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan described as illegal.
Maj. Gen. Peter Devlin, a Canadian Forces officer currently
operating as deputy commanding general in Iraq, recently told the
Washington Post that the effect of the multinational element is in
bringing "greater legitimacy to the effort here in Iraq."
Link: CANADIAN GENERAL TAKES SENIOR COMMAND ROLE :: The Online Pioneer and Ideals - World News :: Bringing you the International News
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