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In Syria, women are being bought and sold, children are being slaughtered, Kurdish and Izadi teenage girls are picking up guns and protecting their families, protecting their homes and protecting their freedom. But here in Canada we are cut between two political sides, a weak left and a far right. One is saying we will not have any involvement and one has a token presence with just bombings and selective refugee policy. We need to be there. We need to be pressuring the United Nations and the Security Council to be involved. We need a Canadian Peace Keeping mission, as a UN sanctioned movement in Syria, supporting those young women who are not leaving their lands, their homes. Canada must be there, on the side of those women, for the sake of humanity. —Shahin Sayadi, artistic director, Onelight Theatre
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2015.
I don’t think people would disagree but this is not the forum in which you should plead your case. I’m surprised The Coast posted it here but then, there is no rhyme nor reason to their foibles.
Well first of all you have no idea of what peacekeeping is or when it is used. In order to have peacekeeping troops BOTH sides need to request peace and that is between nations, not terrorist groups. Peacekeeper are stationed at the borders between the countries involved. Peacekeepers act under a different set of rules than combat troops, the biggest one is they cannot fire until they or their protectorates (civilians) are fired upon and other rules that put the peacekeeper at a disadvantage. Many peacekeepers have been killed in the performance of their duties. I could go further but thse are the basics and barebones.
Peacekeeping will not work in this situation. What is needed is required is a coalition of military forces under one command (UN, NATO, or whatever) with a clear cut mission and the political will to achieve it. But that won’t happen as there is no willingness to do what is necessary. World leaders love to talk but are short on taking action.
So, are you going to enlist and sign up to go? The CF is always hiring.
TY Bro Tim, that’s more or less what I wanted to spit out but I was too pissed. The military’s primary function isn’t peacekeeping, and I wish people who don’t take the time to understand would stop flailing it out like it’s a magic cure-all.
Delusional simpleton.
The only way in my mind we can do a peacekeeping mission in syria is to have our peacekeepers kill everyone who wants to commit any violence. Peace has to be mutual as tim said
We need a Peacekeeping mission to Turks and Caicos more. Its really nice there, the troops would enjoy it.
Shahin – First of all, a Peace Keeping mission would be useless as there is no peace to keep. The only way to achieve peace would be to send in a military force that is stronger than any of combatants and impose a military solution. This would require ground forces and lots of body bags and maimed young men. Please spare me your appeal to women and humanity. If you aren’t willing to do the dirty work yourself, then STFU and stop offering up other people’s children.
Syria can go fuck itself, Canada doesn’t need any more immigrants or refugees, makes me wanna puke. The UN is useless, Canadian peace keeping mission for syria,…. Right….NOT. One less human on the earth, makes a better place for me. It’s already overpopulated.
Nothing to add to what Bro Tim said so well. It would appear though, that with all of the military age males showing up as refugees, Syria could soon become a much safer place for women and children. Eventually things will sort themselves out and Syria will either remain governed by a bloodthirsty secular brute or genocidal religious fanatics. Then the region can return to blaming all of their problems on “you know who”.
There is nothing anyone can do to stop the tribal warfare in the Middle East, period. They have run their societies like this for thousands of years. One group siezes control by force from the governing group, then the previously governing group heads for the hills to regroup and overthrow the government that outed them. This stupid cycle of bullshit continues over and over, with no end. Our political system works much the same way, but we put a better face on it, removing the violence and making people believe we actually have a choice.
Peacekeeping, regardless of the casualties, is always a better role for Canada to play. We have traditionally been known as supporters and rebuilders, not gun toting rednecks with itchy trigger fingers when it comes our international policy, unfortunately not so much in the last 10 years. Who would have thought that running bombing campaigns on foreign soil would make a mess we are responsible for cleaning up? Thanks to our religious zealot of a PM, and his moral superiority, we look like a bunch of idiots wagging our dicks at Russia and fighting wars we cannot possibly win. Personally I find it all embarrassing!!!
That is another misconception about Canada and peacekeeping. We may have contributed maybe 5%, if that, of our troops to peacekeeping. It was a very small part of our mandate.
Seriously Moderator? Are you even able to tell the difference between an offensive comment and one that you simply don’t agree with, anymore. Or do you just roll your D&D dice and excise comments based on what combination of numbers come up? This isn’t a freedom of speech issue. It shines a very bright light on your level of intelligence, or lack thereof.
Just flippin’ pathetic.