Fulfilling a campaign pledge to end his nation’s involvement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that all Canadian airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria will end by February 22 at the latest.
Trudeau campaigned heavily last year on his promise to end Canadian airstrikes, a position that grew in popularity amid reports that the Canadian Defense Ministry had covered up allegations of civilians killed in their airstrikes.
Among the Canadian airstrikes, the deadliest to be made public was an attack against a dairy, which Canadian officials claimed was a “weapons factory.” The strike killed 10 civilian workers and wounded 20 others.
Though the US was seen as annoyed at Canada ending its airstrikes, the Pentagon today ignored the report, and instead announced that Canada had promised to triple the number of ground troops they are committing to Northern Iraq.
At present, Canada has “up to 70” ground troops in Iraq, so the tripling will mean at most another 140 troops. Canadian “trainers” have been involved in some high-profile clashes with ISIS troops in the past, though are believed to have been moved back away from the frontier since then.
Why not just end ’em now?