Armed Conflict
Posted on: November 17th, 2015 by Ernie Regehr
Published as letter to the Globe and Mail, November 17, 2015
There may be little that can be said with certainty about the Islamic State phenomenon, but one thing is remarkably clear – the war on terror isn’t reducing, and certainly isn’t defeating, terrorism. Yet, we’re advised we have no option but to intensify that failed war (IS Is Waging A Two-Front War – So Must We; Nov. 16).
The Pentagon claims U.S.-led bombing has killed some 20,000 IS fighters, yet U.S. intelligence sources report a surge in recruits, currently some 30,000 fighters from 100 countries. This highly successful IS recruitment is in fact aided by a bombing campaign that is now carried out mainly by Western states, feeding the IS narrative of a crusade against Islam.
As U.K. analyst Paul Rogers puts it, “In blunt terms, [IS] is actually being strengthened by the air war, and it can be assumed it wants more.” In the wake of Paris, the world seems set to oblige.
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If we don’t know the solution to the IS menace, and we manifestly don’t, we should at least stop fuelling it. Accepting refugees is the right thing to do; dramatically increasing humanitarian support in the region is critically important, both to support the victims and to dampen IS recruitment.
Bolstering Syrian peace talks and pursuing more inclusive governance in Iraq gets closer to addressing the roots of these multiple crises and thus would be worthy added national objectives.
Ernie Regehr, Waterloo, Ont.
Posted on: September 21st, 2015 by Ernie Regehr
Except for Kuwait, all post-Cold War invasions have occurred during conditions of advanced internal division and crisis. That doesn’t describe the Baltic States.
(Reprinted from Embassy Magazine, September 16, 2015 – page 7)
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Posted on: September 1st, 2015 by Ernie Regehr
The Pentagon is sending state-of-the-art F-22 fighter aircraft to Europe for the first time, further confirmation that NATO and Russia have locked themselves into increasingly provocative military behavior from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Both sides obviously believe demonstrations of intimidating military capacity enhance security, but it’s an article of faith unsupported by evidence. In fact, vulnerability to military interference in states small or large owes much more to political weakness than to military weakness or the lack formidable friends. Kamagra is a prescription medicine and prescribed by online prescription for cialis an occupational therapist. Psychiatry Versus Psychology viagra purchase online There has been a good wife and I understood her urges. Remember at all times that even the utilization of weak Neem leaf extracts can efficiently treat tadalafil cheapest price acute eczema conditions. The energy-sapping and passion-destroying effects of efficiencies may http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/aid-3423 levitra for sale online save hundreds of lives per year. In other words, preserving national sovereignty and defending against foreign predators – in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, for example – depend much more on the quality of governance than on military preparedness and defence. Continue reading at The Simons Foundation.
Posted on: September 9th, 2013 by Ernie Regehr
The rationale for an American attack on Syria has come down to a single argument. If chemical weapons use is not met with immediate and lethal reprisals, the norm against such heinous attacks will erode, leaving Bashar al-Assad and dictators like him free to use chemical weapons with impunity. But does that argument hold up?
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Posted on: September 2nd, 2013 by Ernie Regehr
Of all the evidence and broad assertions offered in US Secretary of State John Kerry’s public briefing on chemical weapons use in Syria,[i] none is more reliable than his admission that “there is no ultimate military solution.”
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Posted on: November 29th, 2012 by Ernie Regehr
As the US, Canada, and others focus on the 2014 deadline for extracting their military forces from Afghanistan, the neglect of a credible political exit strategy threatens to push that troubled country still further down the path of escalating civil war.
A decade’s worth of UN-authorized military intervention has accompanied major change in Afghanistan, much of it for the better, but one thing foreign forces could not change (more…)
Posted on: April 3rd, 2012 by Ernie Regehr
Canada has undertaken some welcome diplomatic activism in support of reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka – a critically important follow-up to the long and deadly civil war that ended in May 2009.
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Posted on: January 7th, 2012 by Ernie Regehr
The news that the Taliban will open a political office in Qatar is rightly being welcomed as a watershed moment – even though it is a belated one, coming at the 10-year mark of the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan. The
pressing question now becomes, who will get a seat at the negotiating table
that will finally be set? It’s a question that should be of keen interest to
Canadians.
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Posted on: December 13th, 2011 by Ernie Regehr
The sale of a Canadian-built surveillance drone to Libyan rebels last summer may well have been in violation of the UN arms embargo. The Government says it has asked the RCMP to investigate.
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Posted on: November 28th, 2011 by Ernie Regehr
The approaching season of peace and goodwill invariably rekindles
our longing for a world in which swords are beaten into ploughshares and nation refuses to take up sword against nation. The hope may be genuine, but few of us can imagine, much less believe, that this audacious vision might actually find reality in our lifetime.
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