Chronicle Herald: MacKay should get off ‘blame-Iran’ bandwagon

[tuvor]

SCOTT TAYLOR On Target

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As a show of political solidarity, Defence Minister Peter MacKay accompanied Hillier on this year’s turkey tour to Kandahar. No photo-op can occur without the media’s co-operation and this time MacKay made sure he stole the spotlight from his charismatic CDS.

In a media scrum held shortly after he landed at the airfield, and reading from notes prepared before he left Ottawa, MacKay used the opportunity to point the finger of blame at Iran. That’s right folks, six years after the toppling of the Taliban by the U.S. coalition, it is Iran that is to blame for the renewed insurgency.

In order for Canada and our NATO allies to successfully win the war, we must find a way to stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters entering Afghanistan from Iran.

Since Canada does not have an independent intelligence agency like the CIA or Britain’s MI6, it is not surprising that MacKay’s allegations of Iranian interference echo those currently emanating from the U.S. State Department.

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Scott Taylor is editor-in-chief of military magazine Esprit de Corps.