Canada's ISIS Airstrikes Halted by Liberal PM Justin Trudeau

Canada's ISIS airstrikes are being halted by its new liberal prime minister in favor of building up military forces on the ground to train Iraqi soldiers over the next two years, according to CBC News.

Justin Trudeau said that by Feb. 22 he will be trading Canada's six jet fighters currently on bombing missions for tripling its ground troops, upping the number by 230.

"It is important to understand that while airstrike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities," Trudeau said on Monday.

"Canadians learned this lesson first-hand during a very difficult decade in Afghanistan, where our forces became expert military trainers renowned around the world." 

Trudeau drew criticism from interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, who said the prime minister was "is taking a shameful step backward from our proud traditions by pulling our CF-18s and Canada out of a combat role against the greatest terror threat in the world," according to The Guardian.

"There's no greater threat to human rights in the world than the Islamic state and Mr. Trudeau doesn't think it's our fight," Ambrose added in comments to the Toronto Star. "If he doesn't think we should use our military against this group I don't know when he thinks we would ever use our military."

Canada's New Democratic Party foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière complained, said CBC News, that Trudeau's government had committed Canadian soldiers to an "open-ended combat military mission in Iraq."

"Liberals are tripling the size of so-called advisers to the Iraqi military, with some forces working in a 'battlefield context' and others working to 'enhance in-theatre tactical transport,'" Laverdière told CBC News. "… With so many unanswered questions, it is crucial that Canadians get better answers than we heard today."

Trudeau said the conclusion of bombing runs should not be interpreted that Canada was backing out of the fight against ISIS, per The Guardian.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman said in a statement, per the Toronto Star, that the Canadian government's announcement was in "line with the coalition's current needs."

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