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The only way to make sense of the Trudeau government’s new approach to fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is to treat it as the literal manifestation of the Liberals’ campaign promise: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to withdraw Canada’s CF-18 jets from the region, and that’s what he’s doing, amid a diversionary fog of noise and spin.

To suggest some broader meaning — about this administration’s latent pacifism, or romanticized notions of peacekeeping, or Canada’s unique capabilities as a trainer partner — is to run up against inconsistencies in the plan that prove just the opposite, and prevent it from being either an expansion or a reduction of Canada’s military efforts in the region.

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It is both, and neither: Canada is expanding the mission by boosting the number of troops on the ground from 650 to 830, and clawing it back by bringing home the CF-18 bombers. It is expanding peacekeeping efforts by allocating $840 million in humanitarian aid over the next three years, while also reducing the hopes of peace by contributing a steady supply of weapons, ammunition, surveillance and refuelling aircraft and triple the number of Canadian Forces members training troops to fight more effectively.