WATCH: The Kurdistan Regional Government representative to the U.S. discusses the objective of the fight against ISIS from her government’s perspective.
Whether it takes months or years, Canada and its Western allies should continue the fight against ISIS until the terrorist group is no longer a threat to Kurds, Iraqis or Syrians, the Kurdish government representative to the United States is urging.
“ISIS is a threat to the West … Everybody needs to be committed for the long term,” said Bayan Abdul Rahman in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. “I don’t remember, for example, during the Cold War, the United States saying we will only deal with the Soviet Union for two years.”
Canadian troops were deployed to Iraq in October, and will likely remain there for at least another year. The initial six-month plan in sending them over was to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters. Although that’s been slow going, some Canadian Forces and Foreign Affairs officials said last week during a private briefing, the peshmerga have become more effective by some estimates, Abdul Rahman said.
READ MORE: Harper seeks expanded airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against ISIS
A government motion tabled in the House of Commons last week seeks to extend the anti-ISIS mission until the end of March 2016 — and expand it into Syria, which has been home to a bloody four-year long civil war. The NDP and Liberals are both against the motion.
WATCH: Defence Minister Jason Kenney discusses the extension of Canada’s ISIS mission and a Parliamentary Budget Office report that says the military needs more money to operate.
Government officials have said the expansion can be accomplished without adding extra aircraft or personnel. In fact, Defence Minister Jason Kenney has already ruled out increasing the size of the special forces contingent that’s already in Iraq, a commitment that the government has consistently insisted — despite the death of a Canadian soldier — is non-combat.
That expansion, Abdul Rahman said, is crucial to any plan of overcoming ISIS.
“I understand there’s a debate or discussion about extending airstrikes to Syria. I think it’s important,” she said. “The nerve centre for ISIS is Syria. You can’t just push them out of Iraq and say you’ve done the job … Dealing with ISIS in Iraq and Syria is step one and two.”
READ MORE: U.S. nudged Canada towards expanding ISIS air campaign to Syria, Kenney says
Step three, she said, is dealing with the threats from “radical terrorist criminal organizations that have infested” the Middle East and North Africa.
“Maybe ultimately there needs to be some kind of peacekeeping force or maybe some kind of international conference, an international dialogue about how to deal with this issue in the long term,” Abdul Rahman said.
As for Canada, the Conservatives leading the charge say they are hopeful Iraqi forces will, with the help of allied airstrikes, be able to make advances on the ground into ISIS territory.
READ MORE: Harper’s full speech on expanding Canada’s mission against ISIS
As for how long Canada might remain involved — whether there could be another extension beyond the one currently up for debate — the minister was ambiguous.
“We hope that our engagement against ISIS is limited and discreet,” Kenney said. “But the broader picture of these organizations does constitute a global security threat that we cannot ignore.”
The minister acknowledged the allies can’t eliminate all terrorist organizations. But, he said, what they must do is “avoid allowing the people motivated by this ideology to create their own states from which they can operate with impunity.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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