The words "mission" and "creep" were initially linked in a 1993 Associated Press story about the emerging military quagmire in Somalia. An unnamed Pentagon official was credited with the phrase. A term that crystallizes the messy business of wartime unknowns is rooted in mystery.

Canada's military involvement in Iraq remains a frustratingly ambiguous venture; it is becoming difficult to argue with the contentions from the NDP and other critics that the mission has crept toward something more than originally intended.

The death of special forces Sergeant Andrew Joseph Doiron and the wounds suffered by three of his colleagues in a friendly-fire incident severely undermine the claim that Canada is involved simply in a non-combat role in the fight against Islamic State.

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Some of this involvement concerns training and advising Kurdish fighters and Iraqi troops, but the latest incident – the first fatality involving a Canadian soldier – confirms there is far more going on.

Sgt. Doiron and his mates were apparently involved in the surveillance of strategic targets from advanced front-line positions – a perilous task.

We have previously criticized Ottawa for lacking transparency in defining the mission, measuring progress, and establishing how long Canada can expect to be involved. Strides have been made, but more are required.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney and his immediate predecessor Rob Nicholson have been careful to keep the terms of Canada's Iraq mission vague and open-ended.

Now a Canadian life has been lost. One way to honour that sacrifice would be to provide some specific answers.

Mr. Kenney should lay out, in detail, just how far his government is willing to go in supporting Kurdish and Iraqi fighters on the ground. We have gone far beyond accompaniment.

As the government prepares to extend the current six-month mission next month, Mr. Kenney should be clear about when Canada will next revisit its commitments. He should enumerate the criteria for determining whether that commitment should continue and to quantify what has been accomplished. Sprawl, disorganization and the potential for overreaching are endemic to war – just because mission creep was given its name in 1993 doesn't mean the phenomenon hasn't existed for centuries.

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Clarity of purpose, however, is required to deal with that reality; the lack of that does a disservice both to the electorate and to soldiers put in harm's way in our name.

The government, which cloaks itself in unconditional support of this country's troops, has amply demonstrated its tone-deafness to veterans of Canada's last long-term campaign, in Afghanistan.

It's not too late for it to do right by the Canadians risking their lives on the front lines in Iraq.