Reality check for Sajjan on ISIS

How “badass” is Canada’s defence minister looking today?

Harjit Sajjan, a veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, is no fool. He and his service to our country and our military deserve our respect but his recent comments to CBC about the threat of ISIS and the Trudeau government’s decision to pull Canada back from the fight look like pure foolishness today.

"ISIS is a threat, no doubt about that. Should we fear it? No. The Canadian population should have full confidence in all the security services to keep us safe,” Sajjan said.

Tell that to residents of Paris where the French security forces failed to stop a cell that carried out a series of coordinated, sophisticated attacks that left more than 150 people dead and shattered a nation.

Paris was put under curfew for the first time since 1944. 

In the waking hours after the attacks ISIS claimed responsibility saying that France was at the “top of the list” of its targets. If only the French had sent some diplomats to the caliphate maybe this could have all been avoided.

That line may sound glib but Minister Sajjan actually told CBC that we could have dealt with ISIS diplomatically rather than militarily if we had been smarter.

"They were smaller at one time, we need to get better at identifying the subtle indicators so we might be able to have dealt with it diplomatically,” Sajjan said.

This tells me that whatever honours and praise were sent his way after his time in Afghanistan, including a glowing letter about his value as an intelligence asset, Minister Sajjan doesn’t know the first thing about ISIS.

Read this text from their claim of responsibility for the Paris attacks.

“The stench of death will not leave their noses as long as they remain at the forefront of the Crusaders’ campaign, dare to curse our prophet, boast of a war on Islam in France, and strike Muslims in the lands of the caliphate with warplanes that were of no use to them in the streets and rotten alleys of Paris,” it said.

Of course a Liberal supporter might say that if we all just pull our planes back and leave “Muslim lands” this will stop. Wrong.

ISIS, from the beginning, has been about one thing – the caliphate.

Those of us willing to listen to what they were saying have understood this.

The people fighting and dying for this bloodthirsty organization are not doing so for national pride or for riches. They come from around the world to help support the idea of Muslim dominance in the Middle East and beyond.

Their proper name translated to English is The Islamic State in Syria and the Levant. What on earth does that mean? What territory does it encompass?

Historic Syria is much more than its present day borders and the Levant includes Iraq, Israel, parts of Egypt and more.

The leaders of ISIS have declared the return of the caliphate and are working hard to bring that about. That means taking back lands throughout the Middle East, across North Africa and into Spain, France and other parts of Europe that the leaders of ISIS believe belong under their control with all submitting to their view of Islam.

I’d like to know how you deal diplomatically with an organization that holds these beliefs, that has used rape, slavery and genocide to achieve their goals.

How do you negotiate with people whose opening and closing positions are submit or die?

Minister Sajjan may have done exemplary work dealing with Afghan villagers loyal to the Taliban but ISIS is a much different beast.

I hope he is up to the job but so far his comments leave me doubtful.

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