The Calgary School

Marching Orders
How Canada abandoned peacekeeping – and why the UN needs us now more than ever

The Calgary School

David Bercuson, who heads the DND-funded Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, has been supportive of General Hillier and his new approach to war- fighting.

Bercuson is wrongly presented as a middle-of-the-road commentator by media outlets. In reality he speaks for the hawks of the Canadian defence lobby. From his academic post at the University of Calgary, he disseminates his views, which are widely held to be almost identical to those of the current Conservative government. Just as the neo-conservatives at the University of Chicago, or “Chicago School,” have had a major influence on Republican Party policies, “the Calgary School” lends credence to the Conservative Party’s agenda.

In a recent column that is typical of his views, published in Legion Magazine, Bercuson berated Canadians for their increasing reluctance, as shown by several opinion polls, to support the military’s mission in Afghanistan. In an article titled “Canada’s Changing Role in Afghanistan,” Bercuson lets his cannons loose on the Liberals and the public in the wake of the January death by a suicide bomber of Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry:

It took the dramatic suicide bombing of Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry near Kandahar on Sunday, Jan.15, for many Canadians to finally awake to the death of Canadian peacekeeping . . . .

Canadians are not there to do peacekeeping, they do not wear blue United Nations helmets, they are not present to give two warring factions a chance to make peace . . . .

They are there to kill “bad guys” before the bad guys can kill them. And although the Liberal government tried to explain this to Canadians in the spring and summer of 2005, hardly anyone listened . . . .

The ISAF mission in Kabul was sold to Canadians as another form of peacekeeping, though the soldiers who went there knew full well that it was not . . . .

Canadians are now in the process of waking up to what soldiers do. Soldiers fight wars and prepare to fight wars – big wars, small wars, asymmetric wars, wars against terror, wars against tyranny. Soldier is not a synonym for peacekeeper. For all the long history of this country Canadians have gone into harm’s way for reasons of both national pride and national interests. They are doing it once again and the sooner the veil of national naïveté drops from Canadians’ collective consciousness, the better. Once they know what the stakes are, and where Canadian pride and interests lie, Canadians will be far less inclined to cut and run.12

Today, the full cost of Canada’s nearly five-year-long fight against the “scumbags and terrorists” is greater than $5 billion, and rising. The human cost in lives is incalculable, but at the time of this writing, the death toll stands at 42 soldiers and one diplomat.

Canada’s contribution to the U.S-led War on Terror is being trumpeted loudly in Washington, D.C. Michael Wilson, Canada’s new Ambassador to the United States (and former finance minister to prime minister Brian Mulroney), has been boasting of our military’s role to American audiences this year: “Canada is an active contributor and partner in the war on terror, particularly with our activities in Afghanistan,” he told the D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.13

Not dissuaded by Canadian polls showing dropping support, he added, “in the words of our Prime Minister, [Canada] does not cut and run.”

To ensure the message of Canada’s military role was known by Washington decision makers, the Canadian Embassy spent thousands of dollars to hang banners in the Washington subway system, especially at the stations nearest the Pentagon. The banners showed a photo of Canadian soldiers, and read, “Canadian Troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Boots on the Ground. U.S.-Canada Relations – Security Is Our Business.”

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