i know this is going to upset people on both the left and the right, but this is the right choice and that will become clear over time.

to win this fight, you don't need to merely destroy targets - and the bombing can make the problem worse through further radicalization if it hits the wrong targets. to be successful, the logical conclusion of the approach taken by our allies will necessarily require committing war crimes on a broad scale over a very long period. france is committing itself to a decades long quagmire that can only end with the area in a crater, or with a withdrawal. and, the idea of a lasting peace becomes out of reach. it's a formula for perpetual war.

nor do you need to merely occupy the region with just any troops. western troops will always be viewed as illegitimate occupiers, and will always be targets.

nor do you need to merely occupy the region with local troops, although this is a necessary precondition.

what you need to do is to find a way to convince the local population to work with the local troops in rebuilding. in germany, that was easy. it's not going to be so easy here. this is a propaganda war and a hard propaganda war at that....

if we cannot find a way to convince the local population to work with local troops, the war will never end.

what that means is that trudeau doesn't just have a task ahead of him in adjusting our own role. he also has a task ahead of him in convincing our allies that he's right, and that his approach is the only approach that can end the conflict. if we switch to training, and they keep bombing, there's still no end in sight.

but, do our allies want to end the conflict? and, how are we to react if we learn that they don't?

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-iraq-trainers-military-1.3322288