Showing Responsible Resolve in the War Against Terror

Truth and moderation will not be found on social media

On rare occasions, a politician can capture the mood of the country by showing their own emotional response to an issue while also appealing to the deep sense of duty of their country. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, it was Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley who tapped the sentiment of Canadians who were feeling a mixture of rage and sadness after the attack on our friends. The surprise attacks came on a sunny September day in the United States and resulted in 2977 innocent civilians being brutally murdered while the world sat transfixed in front of their televisions. The horrific death toll that day including 26 Canadian citizens.

I remember seeing John Manley’s comments on the news and felt that he perfectly captured my feelings at the time as a young military officer in Halifax. I saw the world and the orientation of the Canadian military change in a heartbeat. Within months, Canadians were deployed overseas as our country responded to the attack on our friend and ally. Manley was later named as Time Magazine’s Newsmaker of the Year in Canada, and while it was recognition for all of the leadership he demonstrated following the 9/11 attacks, I know that this clip was central to his selection.

9/11 launched the war on terror and the world has never been the same. Armed conflict changed and the rules related to the right to self-defence for a country adapted to respond to this change and the inherent cowardice of terrorism. Canada participated in the war on terror and our mission in Afghanistan would become the longest single combat deployment in the history of the Canadian Armed Forces. We spent over 12 years and billions of dollars on our military, aid and diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan. 158 soldiers, a diplomat and a journalist were amongst those who died during our mission in that country. Hundreds more have brought injuries home and far too many have died as a result of their trauma from that war.

During the War in Afghanistan, it was difficult for Canadians to watch the ramp ceremonies on the evening news and hundreds cried on the bridges each time there was a repatriation down the highway of heroes. We were not prepared as a country at the outset of the war on terror - either militarily or in support of our injured - but we moved quickly to arm up and began the process of improving the way we care for our veterans. Each and every day there are hundreds of Canadian families who feel pain from our mission in Afghanistan. So with all of this in mind almost a decade after the war ended for Canada, was John Manley wrong with the sentiment he expressed about not backing down in the face of terror? The not-so-simple answer is no, but it can be difficult, at times, to realize this amid the heavy toll of war and loss from conflict.

Many observers - myself included - have compared the horrible October 7th terror attacks on Israel by Hamas to the Al-Qaeda terror attacks on the United States on September 11th. The element of surprise and the breakdown in intelligence is one reason, but the other stems from the horrifically evil fact that terrorism targets innocent civilians with the goal of striking fear in a population and dehumanizing their victims. Crashing planes full of civilians into buildings on 9/11 was brutal enough, but flying paragliders into public festivals to go on a person-to-person killing spree of the young concert goers is a new level of depravity. The reports of these attacks have been hard to comprehend even after a long pause was taken to ensure the veracity of the reports.

I hope that my former colleagues in Parliament, particularly those in the Liberal caucus, remember the wise words of John Manley and demonstrate the resolve needed to properly respond to these attacks. It will be very difficult and we have already seen the united show of support in the days following October 7th dissolve because resolve is much more difficult to maintain in an age of real-time war coverage and the multi-verse of information, misinformation, protest and punditry found on social media. People have become trained by the social media platforms we use to not even pause for a moment of reflection before they succumb to the overpowering need to respond. This is somewhat understandable when it impacts your cultural community or identity and involves brutality towards children or reports of an attack on a hospital. People respond with outrage and accusation because these emotions are the lubricants of social media algorithms. Outrage will travel while reason languishes and the process compounds itself over time. The incendiary mood is made even more stressful by the fact there is near instantaneous reporting from information sources that number in the thousands, if not millions, of sources on various social media platforms. This instantaneous and constant flow of information also changes our appreciation of time as seconds feel like minutes and hours can feel like days of activity. These powerful forces are difficult to resist, but public figures must valiantly try to do so.

Politicians must pause

Politicians have a duty to not be sucked into the social media vortex in an rapidly evolving conflict, or they run the risk of making the ability to detect truth from falsehood even more difficult. They must also demonstrate resolve alongside responsibility in difficult circumstances. To me, it is important to remember a few key principles in the same way John Manley did following the attacks on September 11th.

First, Canada is not a neutral country. It never has been and never should be. We are not Switzerland. We can be proud that we are not a belligerent country, but Canada has a long history of steadfastly standing by our allies particularly during their darkest hours.

Second, Israel is our ally and has been from its founding in the years following the Second World War and the horrors of the holocaust. Much like we did after 9/11, we must support our ally and their ability to defend themselves from these attacks. This is our history as a country. Canada’s great post-war diplomat, Lester Pearson, was a critical participant in the creation of the state of Israel and we cannot lose site of the fact that Canada has supported the state of Israel and the moral underpinnings of its founding. This should also not change. Pearson said this in 1958, as Secretary of State following his work at the United Nations :

Israel's future rests on many things, which mere statistics cannot allow . This land now represents for a gifted but scattered and often frustrated people the possibility of realizing the twin principles of self-liberation and self-help which were advocated in the last century by Leon Pinsker as the only adequate answer to antisemitism.

Third, Hamas is a terror organization and the embodiment of the worst antisemitism since Adolf Hitler. Hamas has also been a brutal force in Gaza and a profound barrier to peace and the possibility of a two-state solution for the region. With the October 7th attacks, Hamas has demonstrated both a capability and a willingness to execute large scale terror attacks that can kill thousands. Hamas must be eliminated or sufficiently degraded to the point of not being able to be a threat in this way to Israel and the people of Gaza. This is inescapable, so the only question must be how to do this.

Fourth, the responsibility that comes with our resolve must manifest itself in diplomatic channels and not social media channels. Tweeting about humanitarian corridors or relief supplies for the people displaced or caught up in the conflict is not leadership, but providing private advice to our ally alongside our public resolve is what leaders do. It is critical for politicians not to inflame tensions by responding to whatever is trending online or by trying to play a misguided form of “honest broker”. We are not such a broker, as per point one above.

Fifth, we must recognize that the Jewish people carry an intergenerational trauma that is similar to what we know exists within Indigenous peoples here in Canada. They are scared following these attacks. There is a deep fear in the Jewish community in Canada that I have never seen before. This should bother every Canadian regardless of religion or background. Centuries of antisemitism, displacement, violence and the recent horrors of the holocaust remain a scar on the Jewish soul and we must remember that. We must show resolve for the Jewish community to ensure that they know they are safe in Canada and around the world.

Resolve and reasonableness are not easy but that is what is needed from politicians in a time of crisis. They need to keep their heads when all those voices on social media are losing theirs and blaming it on the politicians here and abroad. We cannot back away from a challenge, but must responsibly step into it.