I have a bet with Salim Mansur. I bet that Justin Trudeau will become the Prime Minister after (and resulting from) Canada's next federal election.
Several sources are reporting Justin Trudeau's statements about ISIS. Here are excerpts from one:
The sickness and depravity of the Islamic State terrorists knows no bounds. This much should be obvious to everyone. But apparently it isn't to Justin Trudeau. The Liberal leader says that if he's elected, he'll soften how Canada deals with the terror group.
On Tuesday, two major stories about ISIS made headlines in Canada. The first, from Reuters: "ISIS blows up ancient tombs in Palmyra, 2,000-year-old heritage site in Syria."
Palmyra is a city ISIS seized back in May. They blew up the tombs because they considered them sacrilegious -- not consistent with their perverse radical views.
The second story -- much more shocking -- was summarized by Postmedia Network as follows: "The Islamic State has once again displayed the depths of its brutality by releasing a video showing the executions of prisoners by drowning in a cage, wearing exploding necklaces and being locked in a car and shot with a rocket."
So what did Trudeau have to say about this? ...
The Liberal leader appeared on CBC's Power and Politics Tuesday evening and his comments on the Islamic State were nothing short of reckless.
Trudeau told host Terry Milewski: "We'd move away from the CF-18 (bombing) mission."Milewski later asked: "But if you don't want to bomb a group as ghastly as ISIS, when would you ever support real military action, as opposed to just training?"
Trudeau went on to essentially say he prefers talk over action: "I truly believe that Canada has a tremendous role to play on the world stage -- including with our military -- but also around development and diplomacy."...
This is both bad policy and bad politics. Bad policy because ISIS has mentioned Canada as one of their targets a number of times and has effectively drawn Canadian youth into its death cult.
It's no longer something that doesn't impact us. Like it or not, we're involved. Trudeau wants Canadians to believe diplomacy will work instead of the current mission.
Diplomacy with the Islamic State? Diplomacy with the group that puts prisoners in a cage then drowns and explodes them? His comments are at best naive and at worst dangerous.