Readers have asked…

What do I make of the Canada-Iran situation?

It’s most unfortunate. Though despite the tragic loss of life, we should all be relieved that an all out war (which was possible) has been averted for now. That said, I’d like to quickly offer some very general remarks with regards to the noted question (for deeper analysis, the reader may also want to look at other articles iDose has posted). And I’ll answer in a style that is somewhat different than my previous articles/essays…  

Canada’s former Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, incompetently chose to cut formal diplomatic relations with Iran. Harper did so while the United States (under a sane President, Obama) and our European allies (among others) thought it would be constructive to carve out a formal deal with Iran. They were ultimately able to reach the JCPOA, aka “Iran Deal”, after some tricky negotiations. The deal was a major diplomatic accomplishment.

But Harper detested such diplomacy. After he lost against Trudeau in Canada’s 2015 federal election, Harper went on to publicly praise President Trump for ripping up that very deal. As an example of his neoconservative attitude, Harper (along with others) released a huge ad in the New York Times publicly professing his love for Trump’s hostility to Iran. (To be fair, Trump ripped up the deal because he was fixated on destroying all of Obama’s accomplishments, and not because he has any sincere hatred towards Iran – a topic he remains completely ignorant about.)

Trudeau’s predecessor has also appeared on US media outlets while virtually encouraging military confrontation with Iran. A war with Iran is something that Harper appears to still crave given the propaganda coming out of his mouth even on the day these words are being authored (Jan. 14th, 2020).

Why bring up Harper? Well not only because of his foolish decisions as Canada’s former Prime Minister. Those interested in Canadian affairs ought to ask themselves: which current politicians hold strategically incompetent views in relation to a country whose history, culture, politics and society they know absolutely nothing about? (Perhaps its a futile question to ask, as most politicians are hardly symbols of intellectual depth.)  

That said, I’m happy that Prime Minister Trudeau’s approach has been quite different. 

It’s true that the move not to reestablish formal diplomatic relations with Iran has been both misguided and an example of a broken campaign promise (Trudeau 2015 campaign). The Trudeau government should have assumed a more firm diplomatic posture. Though Trudeau’s support for the Iran deal is the correct position.

And while commenting on the downing of the civilian plane (which contained both Canadians and Iranians, as well as others), he was exactly right when he recently said, “I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families.”

As anyone with half a brain knows, those tensions were disproportionately heightened when Trump made the decision to assassinate Qassem Suleimani. Regardless of how one might view Suleimani, you don’t just take out an ancient civilization’s second most powerful leader. Even the radical Bush-Cheney administration didn’t go that far (at least with regards to Iran). Trump’s decision was an unequivocal act of war.

Of course, never failing to show off that he can disobey the law and cause international havoc as he pleases, Trump declared (via tweet) that the political assassination was justified even if there was no imminent threat to the United States. 

So yes, I have sympathy for those who genuinely find the art of Canadian diplomacy trickier given the current imbecile in the White House. Though despite his presence, we still have the ability to play the world’s top diplomat, and our political leaders shouldn’t shy away from doing so because of some orange bully.

The stakes remain too high. And our futures would be better served without yet another unnecessary war in the Middle East.

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Aly Kamadia is Editor-In-Chief of iDose. To read more articles by Kamadia, click here. To read the Editor’s message, click here.