Canada’s worst-kept secret
July 09, 2008
There’s nothing like government or the military for serving up pure silliness.
Consider, for instance, Ottawa’s refusal to reveal the location of its Camp Mirage military base in the Middle East.
Officially, the feds will only say it is situated “at an undisclosed location in southwest Asia.”
Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail newspaper has revealed to the entire world that it is located at Al Mindad Air Force Base, near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
And any reasonably computer-literate junior high school student could do a Google search and find out as much.
The location of Camp Mirage is described, over and over, on countless websites, as “Canada’s worst-kept secret.”
For the record, the federal government is not concerned at all that revealing the location of the base will endanger our troops. At Al Mindad Air Force Base, our soldiers are far from enemy combatants.
No, the Conservatives are worried about embarrassing the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by letting their neighbors know they are supporting NATO’s war on Afghanistan.
Of course, that’s ridiculous. They already know.
Ottawa will not acknowledge it, but pretty much anyone who cares, knows that Camp Mirage is used by soldiers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Holland – to provide logistical support for their activities in Afghanistan.
Surely officials in all of the Arab countries in the Middle East are capable of doing an Internet search and learning that the seven states of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain have decided to side with NATO rather than their Islamist Muslim brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.
So why is Ottawa insisting this so-called secret not become more widely known?
Simply because the government dares not step on the toes of its friends in the UAE.
It is, after all, borrowing some of the UAE’s real estate.
Meanwhile, officially at least, it is keeping Canadian voters and taxpayers in the dark about the activities of its soldiers.
What the Canadians government ought to do is come clean with its citizens, and the citizens of the world.
It shouldn’t reveal any information that will endanger our troops, but it makes absolutely no sense to pretend the location of Camp Mirage is a secret. The camp is at Al Mindad Air Force Base and it’s time to simply say so.
As well, it’s time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his colleagues to admit they have abandoned Canada’s proud tradition of peacemaking and chosen to invade a sovereign nation instead.
They have embraced so-called peace-making, instead of peacekeeping.
Surely, former Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson – widely considered to be the father of peacekeeping – would roll over in his grave if he could see what has become of Canada’s peacekeeping heritage.
Ironically, it took the death of just one soldier to bring Camp Mirage back into the news last week.
The subject came up after Cpl. Brendan Anthony Downey was found deceased in his living quarters at Camp Mirage.
When this editorial was written, military officials would only say he was not killed in combat and that they were investigating his death.
Officials would not rule out such possible causes of death as foul play, suicide or accidental discharge of a weapon.
Instead of withholding the truth about its military activities overseas, perhaps it’s time for Canada to bring our soldiers home.
They have served bravely and deserve our thanks, but their limited success in Afghanistan should tell us something: it’s time to come home.
Send them where they might do some good: in a peacekeeping mission to Darfur or the Congo.
New Democrat Leader Jack Layton is on the right side of this issue.
As recently noted in The Toronto Star, even Gordon Smith, Canada’s former ambassador to NATO and a former deputy minister of foreign affairs, admits Canada’s strategy of trying to defeat the Taliban militarily will not work.
As of Tuesday, 87 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
It’s sad to think that any of those lives have been sacrificed in vain, but unfortunately many, if not all of them, probably have.
Afghanistan was a mess when it was occupied by the Soviets years ago; it will not be much better off when the last NATO soldier eventually goes home.
In the meanwhile, however, many NATO soldiers and Afghanis will die in a largely useless war.
Lee Giles is an Advocate editor.
