What is it about the thought of Western planes bombing Arab lands that is so alluring to many of our most prominent political, journalistic and academic minds?

I don’t only mean here in Canada, where the heroic cause of six lonely Canadian CF-18 fighter jets and their 230 bombing missions in Iraq and Syria — fewer than three per cent of all coalition missions — have been embraced with such unbridled enthusiasm by a wide range of Canada’s chattering classes.

It captivates other Western capitals as well. In November, after a dramatic debate, the British parliament voted to expand air strikes against so-called Islamic State militants into Syria. Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain must act with expanded bombing: “If not now, when?”

In the U.S. presidential campaign, the political rhetoric about bombing is soaring to the stratosphere. The two front-runners for the Republican nomination appear to be competing over how many war crimes they will commit if elected to office.

Referring to Islamic State, Donald Trump promised he would “bomb the sh-- out of them,” while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz went one step further: “We will utterly destroy (them), and yes, that means carpet bombing them into oblivion.”

For Arabs who know their history, this will come as no surprise. In 1911, the first airplane-delivered bombs were dropped on Arabs by Europeans. In his book, A History of Bombing, Swedish author Sven Lindqvist describes Italian aviators dropping grenades on nomadic camps in the desert outside of Tripoli, in North Africa. He cites newspaper reports about the impact on the ground: “Noncombatants, young and old, were slaughtered ruthlessly, without compunction and without shame.”

Impressed by this apparent effectiveness, other European powers soon joined in. Between 1915 and 1920, Britain bombed Arab towns and villages in Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan and Afghanistan.

That is how the 20th century began. A hundred years later, we have experienced the bombing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the first Gulf War in 1991 against Saddam Hussein and then the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the U.S. and Britain that blew apart the region and led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. And now, we have the bombing campaign against the extremist ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria that emerged from the post-2003 anarchy.

We may choose to blot these events from our memory, but that is the unacknowledged historical background to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement this week. In ending the limited Canadian bombing mission, Trudeau said the people in Iraq and Syria who are suffering at the hands of the Islamic State “don’t need our vengeance, they need our help.”

According to Trudeau, Canada will do what we “do best to help in the region” and that is to focus on Canada’s historic strengths in military training, humanitarian aid and diplomacy. This includes increasing counterterrorism efforts in neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan.

Many have criticized Trudeau for not providing persuasive reasons why the CF-18 bombing mission has been cancelled.

I find that criticism baffling. If you listen to what he and his ministers are saying, and use a bit of perspective to read between the lines, they are providing three very compelling reasons:

One: Bombing is not the sole answer, and never will be.

Two: For any long-term solution, only local forces can triumph.

Three: Canada needs to be laser-focused and strategic in its approach.

In the debate about Canada’s new approach to the Middle East, there has also been little reference to this country’s dismal track record in this region in recent years.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper discarded Canada’s historic role as a “peacekeeping nation” in favour of his idea of Canada as a “warrior nation.”

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But it is worth remembering that Canada’s two major military operations while Harper was in office — Afghanistan and then Libya — produced very little. Although the notion of Canada as a “warrior nation” was a failure, it was embraced by many in Canada’s political, media and academic worlds.

For the Harper era to be relegated truly to the past, it may take some time for this addlebrained conceit to be driven completely out of our body politic.

Tony Burman, former head of CBC News and Al Jazeera English, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com .

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