One wonders if all those UN-loving Canadians would want us to take part is this possible peacekeeping mission:

U.S. eyes UN peacekeepers for Iraq after 2011

After all the CF are supposed to be out of Afstan then–what an, er, opportunity:

…
Poll after poll, focus group after focus group have screamed for a return to what Canadians see as their traditional role on the world stage — peacekeeping. And those are the surveys carried out by the Department of National Defence itself…

From earlier posts at Daimation!:

1)

Jack Granatstein also indentifies another culprit responsible for opposition to the Canadian military mission: the peacekeeping myth that will not die…

2)

The progressive catechism on Canadian foreign policy, all in one place…

There is mounting unease that Canada has embraced Washington’s counter-insurgency agenda and has abandoned diplomacy, peacekeeping and rebuilding, once the cornerstones of Canada’s foreign policy…

3)

The fruit of Canada’s “invention” of UN peacekeeping…

…was a war. Why do almost all Canadians forget that most salient fact?..

4)

…
To his chagrin, however, Mr. Harper did not fully appreciate that many Canadians cling to the peacekeeping myth, or believe that Canada “punches above its weight” when it talks loud and carries a small stick in places such as Burma or congo. He also did not understand that, for many Canadians, foreign policy is about feeling good about themselves, not about Afghans (including prisoners) or any other people. Anything that involves killing enemies – even “scumbags” – is especially to be eschewed…

5)

…why, why, why do so many Canadians, not just hard-core “progressives” (more on one of them, defeated in the recent election, and his views on “peacekeeping” here and here), want us out–note the date–of Afghanistan and at the same time extol ineffectual UN-run peacekeeping? Ignorance? Attitude? Ideology? Willful unwillingness to face facts?…

Predate: Jack Granatstein (our best military historian) sums things up nicely with a bit of wit:

Peacekeeping if necessary, but not necessarily peacekeeping

If one reads Mr Granatstein carefully, the occasions on which we should take part in UN-run peacekeeping seem, er, necessarily quite limited.  Might staunch Canadian advocates of our greater involvement in UN missions advocate our taking part in one to help the US out of Iraq?  And actually to try and preserve ethnic peace there?

Mark
Ottawa