Canada should stay 'far away' from Strait of Hormuz deployment: Former commander | Power & Politics

 

Canada should stay 'far away' from Strait of Hormuz deployment: Former commander | Power & Politics              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOMkFFweL6U

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As war in the Middle East continues to rock oil prices, US President Donald Trump is calling on both friends and adversaries to help secure the straight

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of Hormuz, warning that NATO will have a bad future if it doesn't get involved.

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I don't do a hard sell on them because my attitude is we don't need anybody. We're the

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strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them. But it's interesting. I'm almost doing it in some

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cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react because I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there. Not all of them, but

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they won't be there. The Straight of Hormuz is a narrow waterway next to Iran. Before the war, about a fifth of the world's oil passed through it, but

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Iran is now completely blocking, almost completely blocking the channel. So,

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with Trump calling on NATO, China, and others to send ships to keep the channel open, will any of them answer? Retired Lieutenant General Andrew Lesley is a

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former Canadian Army commander and a former chief government whip for the Liberals and he joins me now. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, JP.

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So, despite Trump saying many countries will send ships to the street of Hormuse, no countries have actually volunteered any yet. Why do you think

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allies are reluctant to answer that call given that the world really has a mutual interest in stabilizing that oil supply?

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Well, stability is key. Having said all that, the level of strategic incoherence coming out of the White House and specifically the president of the United

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States is unsupportable and I think it results in people trusting him.

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Why is he going uh after China trying to get them, you know, a geopolitical rival, not exactly his best friend, why is he trying to get them involved in this, do you think?

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Well, um, Iran's largest trading partner is China, so they bear an enormous amount of influence over Iran in terms of day-to-day policies and the economy.

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Having said all that, China has, of course, most of its oil coming from that part of the world. And if anybody can sort of gently force contradiction in terms, but I think you know what I mean.

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The the Iranians to let ships buy, then it's probably the Chinese. You mentioned the incoherence of this whole war

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effort. Do you think Canada should be considering military involvement in any way to help secure these ships to get

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them through the street of Hormuz? Is that something that would be a prudent decision to make here in Ottawa for us to deploy military personnel to the region?

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I'm sorry to say no. I would strongly recommend that we stay as far away from that as is possible. mainly because let's just look at the track record of

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what the president of the United States has said of to and with Canada. So the

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belittling comments, the 51st state, the illogical tariff war, uh a variety of

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local issues, border security which was inaccurate, and the list goes on. And recently he did not consult with the

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government of Canada ahead of time visav intentions with Iran. He gave no notice.

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And do we trust him to have our sailors backs should we deploy our warships there and they get into trouble? I mean,

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he's he's warning about perhaps some other trouble for the NATO alliance if folks don't show up and help this effort. I mean, you heard him in that

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clip. He has contended for a long time that ah NATO is never going to show up and help us when we need them. Of course, he ignores the entire Afghan

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conflict. But is there not a risk that by not participating that the NATO alliance could be frayed further than it already is?

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Well, there's people who know a lot lot more than I do President Trump and his an or an analysis of what makes him

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makes him go. But u recently, at least over the last couple years, if you acquies to an illogical demand, he just won't accept it and just say thanks.

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He'll want more. So what level do we actually stretch the capabilities of the Canadian armed forces with a leadership

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regime which we know that deep down perhaps we can't trust. It's not a question of not trusting the US armed forces alongside whom I've had the

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privilege of doing a whole host of missions and and gotten to know a lot of them very well over the last 35 years.

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It's the leadership in the White House that is daunting and quite frankly unacceptable. It's striking really to

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see Trump make these public pleas for allies to participate in it. I mean, he kind of joked about how we don't need them anyways, but he has certainly made

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the request, right? He is asking other allies to step up and help. Why do you think he needs that help? Why is he making that request? What is it about

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the Strait of Hormuz that's such a challenge militarily to handle for the Americans alone?

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Well, a variety of national leaders across the globe believe that they know what they're doing vis the utilization of armed forces and they think they can

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operate at the tactical, the operational, and the strategic all at once. You can't. And President Trump is following in a long line of

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predecessors, not American but from other nations who think that they can manage it all from one office.

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And of course, words matter. He started his threat by saying we don't need anybody. Then he says he wants people to

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go just to see who shows up. That's not a good re good not a good enough reason to put Canadian lives on the line for

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something in which the Canadian government had no say whatsoever. If you want allies, you got to reach out the

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hand and work with people. Haven't been involved in a war or two. It's maybe complicated and frustrating and

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aggravating to have allies, but by golly, it's a lot better than not having any. And thanks to the nature of President Trump, he's turning people away with his mannerisms, his threats,

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and his bluster. And it's unacceptable.

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I can't help but think of the first Gulf War that was led by President George HW Bush when he cobbled together a really

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overwhelming coalition of support from allies from right around the world in that conflict in Kuwait against Iraq.

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And it was such a quick war, right? And they had success in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait and he was able to claim victory,

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you know, total victory in a way rather quickly. That is the polar opposite of what we are seeing frankly with this

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Iran conflict. I think he only really has Israel on his side. Trump at this point, where do you see this conflict going from here? Do you think that they

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will have to expand attacks? Will they have to put boots on the ground? Will we be looking at a similar situation as to what we had with Iraq the second time around?

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Well, it all gets down to the idea of strategic incoherence. And if his own troops are unsure of what the priority of the day might be until the president

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announces them or the secretary of defense and they change every 24 to 48 hours, then that leads to operational and tactical incoherence.

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Right now, the United States and Israel are doing all that they can to reduce the nuclear capability of Iran, which is

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laudable, but it's now expanded into something beyond that relatively simple mission. from regime change to total

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upheaval to the United States president having a say in who will be the next leader of Iran and the list continues.

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So until such times that strategic incoherence can be brought into a rational light, then the strongest

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recommendation I can possibly make is don't send Canadian lives and put them on the line with such leadership in the

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White House because can you deep down be sure that he'll have our troops backs if things go bad. Yeah. All right, let's leave it there.

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Retired Lieutenant General Andrew Lesley, thanks for coming on, sir. Nice to see you. My pleasure. Thanks, JP.