Mennonite Central Committee

Who is my enemy?

The issues identified above illustrate the ways in which Canada is increasingly choosing military responses to the problem of insecurity in the world. Armed responses such as peacekeeping may reduce violence and prevent further suffering, at least in the short term. At times, armed force may be helpful in providing protection to vulnerable populations as, for instance, in Sudan, Uganda or Lebanon.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that a disturbing paradigm shift may be underway in Canada's defence and security policy. Some signs of such a shift are:

• A preoccupation with responding to terrorist acts rather than understanding and acting on the deeper causes that push people to embrace terrorism or extremism
• A dehumanization of those who are considered the enemy.¹
• Acceptance of the idea that the violence of terrorism must be dealt with by the greater violence of military might
• More use of "national security" and "national interests" language, as opposed to the language of "human security" and "common security" advanced in the past decade.²
  • Human security assumes that security is more about people than about states. It measures the existence of security in terms of the availability of food and water, access to education and healthcare, clean air, personal safety, freedom of expression, and political inclusion.
  • Common security calls for policies that advance the security of all countries and all peoples, not one nation’s security at the expense of the security of others.

Canadians should consider what this new paradigm means. How do we understand insecurity and security? What are helpful ways of responding to terrorism? What is an appropriate role for Canada’s military forces? What do we have to say about the “new militarism” in Canada?

 

 

¹In July 2005, Canada's chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, described the Taliban in Afghanistan in the following way, "These are detestable murderers and scumbags, I'll tell you that right up front. They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties." Quoted in Justin Podur and Sonali Kolhatkar, "Detestable Murderers and Scumbags: Making Sense of Canada's Deployment in Afghanistan," Briarpatch, 5 December 2005, http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?p=50.

²In spring 2006, Project Ploughshares intimated that some of the government's policies, including the combat and counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan, were not in keeping with the human security framework. John Siebert, "Canada Under a New Government," Ploughshares Monitor, Spring 2006 (Vol. 27:1). http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/monitor/monm06b.pdf