Looks like Canada will participate in a military effort . . .
Canadian military awaits a plan and orders for possible action against terror
JOHN WARD
Canadian Press
17 Sept 01
OTTAWA (CP) - A global campaign against terrorism could cost the lives of Canadian soldiers, sailors or flyers and may end up killing innocent civilians, the government acknowledged Monday. Prime Minister Jean Chretien refused in Parliament to guarantee that no civilians would be killed in an eventual confrontation with terrorism.
"There is nobody who can guarantee to anybody that there will be civilians who unfortunately might lose their lives in any operation," he said. "It would be naive to think so."
Defence Minister Art Eggleton said he foresees Canada playing a major role, even if such a campaign might mean dead Canadian soldiers, sailors or flyers.
"Nobody wants casualties," he said. "But that‘s the nature of conflict.
"It‘s not something anyone wants to see. But there are risks."
Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley said Canada is a fighting nation as well as a peacekeeper.
"Canada has a good reputation, we trade on that reputation in the world, but let‘s make no mistake about it: Canada does not have a history as a pacifist or a neutralist country.
"Canada has soldiers who are buried all over Europe because we fought in defence of liberty, and we‘re not about to back away from the challenge now because we think that somebody might get hurt."
While Parliament debated a motion of condolence over last week‘s terror attacks and while ministers spoke of potential casualties, others pleaded for a peaceful solution.
Outside the Commons, a handful of demonstrators strummed guitars and sang Give Peace a Chance.
"I think we have to be very careful about what we do," said Nancy Bayley of Verona, Ont. "The answer is not to declare war, the answer is to look at the causes of this terrible thing and to address those causes rather than just going out and blindly attacking with more violence."
Eggleton said Canada will stand with its allies.
"I think we‘re going to play a major role, a front line role, just as we did in Kosovo, just as we are doing now in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. We‘re going to do as much as we can."
Eggleton said he‘ll ask the treasury for more money if he needs it. He doesn‘t know if he‘ll have to, because no one yet knows what form Canadian participation will take.
Finance Minister Paul Martin said the money will be there if needed.
Canada‘s role in the coming campaign remains uncertain because there is, as yet, no plan for what Eggleton calls "an intensive campaign against terrorism."
"We will determine what the needs are, what is going to be the campaign plan, what are the needs, what is Canada capable of contributing."
Canada has many assets it can bring to the fight, from CF-18s to intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Analysts say the most obvious contribution to a conflict would be the fighter-bombers currently based in Cold Lake, Alta., and Bagotville, Que.
The twin-engine jets, which last flew over Kosovo in 1999, can drop laser-guided bombs and fire TV-guided Maverick missiles.
To deploy overseas, they would need to borrow a tanker plane for air-to-air refueling. Canada retired its tankers after the Gulf War.
The air force could also provide some tactical transport in the form of C-130 Hercules planes.
Lew MacKenzie, the retired general who won fame in Sarajevo a decade ago, said the Forces could probably scrape up a battle group of 1,400 or so fairly quickly.
"I don‘t think that there will be a requirement, other than tokenism, to respond in the immediate future because all of the polls in the United States indicate that the target has to be defined before we start going after people," he said.
The navy could contribute a flotilla of frigates and perhaps a destroyer with a supply ship.
Canada has a limited domestic anti-terrorism capacity in the form of Joint Task Force Two, a shadowy unit of about 200 to 250 people based at Dwyer Hill, just outside Ottawa.
The unit trains for hostage rescues, has provided bodyguards for politicians visiting trouble spots and took part in joint police-military security operations at events such as the 1995 G-7 summit in Halifax.
It was formed in 1993, when the army took over the RCMP‘s counter-terrorist function. It can‘t be compared to a special operations units like the British Special Air Service or the American Delta force, which are trained to operate in enemy territory.
Eggleton said this is likely to be a long campaign, with less emphasis on conventional war-making capacity and more on the political and economic fronts.
"It‘s a long-term fight," MacKenzie agreed. "There‘s the shutting down of training areas, isolating governments that support terrorism, cutting off the money-laundering and things like that."
