The Torch: CF drumming up a Congo mission?

Earlier:

Stonewalt

The CF and the Congo

"Out of Afghanistan, Into the Heart of Darkness?"/Agitprop

Now one really has to furiously wonder. Given the strict clampdown this government has imposed on, er, communications, why did this Lt.-Col. effectively advocate a CF Congo mission?

Michaëlle Jean arrives in Congo as speculation swirls over Canada's role

Governor-General’s trip will focus on violence against women, but decision on peacekeeping leadership looms

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean arrived in Congo under heavy security Sunday amid indications Canada could take a leading role in the world's deadliest conflict since the Second World War [and you thought Afstan was a bitch]...

Officials say a decision is expected “within weeks” about whether Canada will take command of a UN peacekeeping force, and send more troops than its 12 soldiers currently there...

One senior Canadian here insists the country is far better than it was a few years ago, and says Canada can help speed up that progress.

But Lt.-Col. Robert Cormier says there's no question about the challenges - which are different from the ones in Afghanistan, the current battle zone Canadians are most familiar with.

“Afghanistan is more dangerous (to soldiers) because of the Taliban's way of doing things,” Cormier said, referring to bombs targeting foreigners.

“But this is probably more complex.”

Cormier, who acts as a liaison between the UN and the Congolese army, said the mission is complicated by the country's enormous size, its central location in an unstable region, and its lack of roads, power, and infrastructure.

The Canadians here are working mainly on logistics and helping the Congolese military set up a legal system to prosecute human-rights offences.

Ottawa is now talking to the UN about the possibility of leading the 20,000-soldier mission, and providing a few dozen troops to support a new mission commander amid rampant speculation it could be Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie.

Any additional presence of combat troops is unlikely while Canada remains engaged in Afghanistan.

Cormier is unequivocal when asked whether more Canadians here might make a difference: “Yes,” he said.

“Canadians are well-trained, and Canadians deliver. When there's something to be done, they get it done. There aren't a lot of Canadians in the headquarters right now. But when they need something done, they turn to the Canadians.”..

As for being a bitch:

...
Although security in the north is "deteriorating," and rape of women and children as a weapon of war is so widespread the country is called the rape capital of the world, Cormier says the UN is having luck persuading some rebels to disarm...

Cormier is one of 12 Canadians deployed to MONUC, as the UN mission is known. More may be soon on the way. Ottawa, which contributes $33 million a year to MONUC, is considering a request to take over command of the 20,000 international peacekeepers here, amid demands by Congolese leaders that foreign troops start to pull out [emphasis added].

With his front-row seat to the problems that plague Congo after decades of dictatorship and warfare, Cormier is cool to any talk of a UN withdrawal.

"I wouldn't pull out of here. There are too many things to resolve. ... The national police and army has to be trained; they have to be fully professional." [Sound flipping familiar? Hey, let's jump in.]

...The Congo mission is complicated by a vast territory the size of western Europe, a lack of basic infrastructure and air resources, tribal rivalries, interprovincial tensions, and the difficulties of coordinating a multinational, multilingual peacekeeping force from 46 countries...

But, heck, it's an honest-to-God UN-run mission (though not "traditional peacekeeping" since it's under Chapter VII of the UN Charter [see 8. here], not Chapter VI) that has been going since 2000 without a clearly-defined exit strategy other than to stay, and that has to work with a miserable government with little respect for human rights and questionable control over much of its vast territory. So let's just jump right in and take command, right? Want a real quagmire? Want allegations of our knowledge of nasty things going on related to the forces under our command, and their government allies, that we do not/cannot prevent?

At least substantial Army forces should not be available until 2012.

One awaits a vigorous and searching Commons' debate on any new mission; and one hopes the Commander-in-Chief isn't playing an advocacy role.

Update thought: In 2008 the government turned down a UN request to take command of the Congo operation:

...Canada opted to contribute to Afghanistan [a UN Security Council-mandated mission itself] instead of the mission in Congo.

We are now even more heavily committed in Afstan than then (e.g. the Air Wing, more here), for over another year. What's the current logic to do Congo too--other than a spare Lt.-Gen.? From first link in this para:

"Finding a lieutenant-general at this time can be a challenge, especially with Afghanistan going on," said Maj. Denys Guay, deputy military attaché at Canada's permanent mission to the UN in New York.