Peacekeeping: Part of Canada’s Ancient History

The Ottawa Citizen reports that the far majority of Canada’s overseas missions, and its spending, is on NATO- and US-led missions, and not on UN peacekeeping missions, which reverses what was the case a decade ago:

Canada has all but abandoned taking part in United Nations missions and is now on par with Peru and Guatemala in the number of troops it contributes to the world body, a new study to be presented to the Commons finance committee has found.

As of July, Canada had 216 military personnel assigned to UN operations, putting the nation in 36th position as a contributor of soldiers, according to the report by the Polaris Institute of Ottawa. The left-leaning think-tank notes that over the past 10 years, the Liberal government has embarked on a full-scale retreat from UN missions in favour of taking part in ad hoc U.S. or NATO-led operations. Many of the Canadian troops now serving overseas are in Afghanistan taking part in the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“The Canadian public still thinks we’re heavily engaged in peacekeeping operations in support of the United Nations,” said Steve Staples, director of security programs for the institute. “But there’s a real disconnect between where our troops and resources are actually being devoted and what the Canadian public thinks the Canadian Forces are doing.”

In 1992-93, the government spent a little more than $9 of every $10 earmarked for overseas missions on UN operations. Today that spending level for UN missions has dropped to 31 cents out of every $10.

H/t: Nealenews