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As the government seeks to prolong Canada’s military mission against the Islamic State (IS), Thomas Mulcair put Stephen Harper on the couch regarding matters of war.

The Official Opposition leader reasoned that if the prime minister’s stance of going to Iraq was a rational choice to stop rapes and other unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by IS, then it should be done for other troubled places as well.

“I would love it if Canada had the same approach in areas like the Congo where five million people have been killed in the last 15 years,” Mulcair told reporters during a press conference in Vancouver today (March 19).

“Rape is used as not only as a weapon of war but as a strategy of war in the Congo. And I’ve never heard Mr. Harper suggest that the Joint Task Force should go into the Congo,” the NDP leader continued, referring to the country’s military special operations forces.

“So what is it that’s particular about the Iraqi fight?” Mulcair asked.

“Well, here’s what’s particular,” the NDP leader said, answering his own question. “Stephen Harper wanted us to be there in 2003. And he’s finally able to give himself his own wish by getting us in there now.”

As Leader of the Official Opposition in 2003, Harper objected to Canada’s decision not to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

On March 20 of that year, the day American forces began the assault, Harper delivered a speech at the House of Commons calling for the deployment of Canadian forces in Iraq.

Years later, during the 2008 federal election campaign, it was revealed that portions of Harper’s speech were copied from an address given two days earlier by then Australian prime minister John Howard.

“There was no reason for Canada to be involved in that fight in 2003,” Mulcair said. “And as far as we’re concerned, there’s no reason for us to be involved in that fight today.”

Completing the reasoning cycle, Mulcair noted that the conflicts currently happening in IS-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria are a consequence of the 2003 invasion.

“Canada wisely stayed out of that war in 2003,” he said. “That was George W. Bush’s war. Don’t forget that. That wasn’t a NATO war. That wasn’t a United Nations mission. That was an American mission led by George W. Bush. The tragedies that we’re seeing are a result of that last misguided war. And Canada should not be involved in this misguided war.”

“Nobody’s trying to say that these aren’t horrors that were seeing,” Mulcair continued. “But more bombing is not the way to find a solution there.”

Flanked by NDP candidates Carol Baird Ellan (Burnaby North-Seymour) and Bill Sundhu (Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo), Mulcair said that his party will oppose the Conservative government’s plan to extend and expand the country’s military mission.

“Although no one’s trying to understate the horrors of what’s occurring there, the question is, ‘Is that Canada’s fight?’,” the NDP leader asked.

Mulcair’s media event, which was mainly aimed at discussing the NDP’s opposition to the proposed antiterrorism bill, came a day after Harper announced that his government will present a motion to extend and expand Canada's presence in Iraq before the House of Commons next week.

Last October, the House approved a six-month mission that includes air combat and training on the ground of Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, with New Democrats and Liberals voting against.

Speaking in Mississauga, Ontario, last Wednesday (March 18), Harper indicated that the current authorization for the mission in Iraq lays open the possibility of extending it to Syria.