Last Thursday, the Defence Department staged what can only be described as a victory celebration commemorating Canada’s military campaign in Libya.The festivities included a large contingent from HMCS Charlottetown, the Halifax-based frigate that had been on station in the Mediterranean, enforcing the arms embargo against pro-Gadhafi loyalists.
In recognition of Canada’s not-yet-fully-disclosed special forces role played in Libya, members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment also had a colour party in the parade. The skies above Parliament Hill were filled with a vast array of aircraft, including seven CF-18 fighters, a C-130 Hercules re-fueller, a C-17 cargo plane, an Aurora surveillance aircraft and even an old Sea King maritime helicopter.
Singled out for personal recognition was Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, the Canadian air force officer who had been in overall command of the NATO mission in Libya. While he was applauded by Canadian parliamentarians at the victory ceremony, Bouchard had already received high-level international praise the previous weekend.
In his speech at the Halifax forum on Nov. 18, U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta lauded Bouchard’s efforts to the assembled delegates from 39 countries.
"He was tough, he was able, he took no prisoners," claimed Panetta. "It’s not too strong to say his leadership, steady and sure, proved vital to our eventual success in (the Libyan) mission."
Aside from the fact that Panetta’s comments eerily implied a condoning of Gadhafi’s brutal execution at the hands of his captors, it is safe to say that the American defence secretary was over-egging the pudding just a tad in his assessment of Bouchard’s achievement.
Let’s not forget the fact that this was NATO vs. Libya. That’s right, the world’s most powerful military alliance, armed with the most sophisticated weaponry in existence, was battling against the rudimentary defence forces of tiny Libya.
The final tally speaks for itself: NATO planes flew over 9,000 combat missions during the eight-month campaign and suffered not a single casualty.
The complete supremacy enjoyed by our pilots was best described by Bouchard in a recent interview with Post Media. Responding to the question of whether or not NATO could be implicated for potential war crimes in Libya, Bouchard insisted his pilots had taken all possible precautions to avoid hitting civilians.
The example he provided was an incident where two NATO warplanes circled a Gadhafi-loyalist anti-aircraft site for two hours, waiting for a nearby soccer game to end before they attacked.
If your technological advantage over the enemy allows you to hover for two hours with impunity over an air defence system before destroying it at your leisure, then that is not really war — it’s murder.
If a world champion boxer climbed into the ring against a blind paraplegic in a wheelchair and proceeded to pound the hapless victim to death, we would not consider it a sport. It would be equally laughable if it took eight full rounds — or in the case of combating Libya, eight full months — to pulverize the opponent into submission.
What would make it totally ludicrous is if the U.S. government then gave full credit to the boxer’s Canadian trainer for being "vital to our eventual success in that mission."
I have no doubt that Bouchard is a competent, capable commander. Likewise, I am sure that the Canadian Forces personnel deployed on the Libya mission acquitted themselves in the most exemplary fashion.
Saluting and honouring the dedication of Canadian service members by politicians is always a welcome sight. However, wrapping it up at a ceremony that heralds a military triumph in Libya is not only premature, but borders on a new imperialism.
Canadian Afghanistan veterans are justly upset that the Libyan campaign received such formal recognition, while their decade-long, bloody struggle in Afghanistan is hastily being discarded in the dustbin of history.
Origin
Source: the Chronicle Herald
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