setUoYouRPROFILE's blog: "tufui"

OTTAWA—Canadian fighter jets, warships and weaponry will stick with the military mission in Libya for up to three more months after MPs agreed it is too early to pull out of the newly liberated nation. There are only two Libyan towns — Sirte and Bani Walid — that remain loyal to Moammar Gadhafi,gucci outlet but the threat posed by the former dictator’s remaining fighters is enough to put civilian lives at risk and hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid, said Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay. “Even though most Libyans now enjoy a freedom they have not had for four decades, parts of Libya are still under the iron fist of Gadhafi. And his capacity to attack civilians has been reduced, but not eliminated,” MacKay said in the House of Commons Monday. Civilian safety and aid delivery are two of the key reasons why the international community decided to intervene in Libya’s pro-democracy uprising last spring. But the extended mission will now turn what was supposed to have been a limited, emergency intervention into a possible nine-month operation. In the two holdout towns, the battle between the interim government and Gadhafi loyalists are in full swing with NATO warplanes bombing locations in Sirte, Gadhafi’s birthplace, in support of provisional government forces. The government motion to extend Canada’s mission was supported in a Monday evening vote by the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois, but opposed by the New Democrats, who said it was time to send the jets, ships and personnel home and focus instead on civilian initiatives to bolster governance, human rights and the rule of law. “We are in a totally and entirely different set of circumstances than we were last spring,” said NDP defence critic Jack Harris. A government official said that while the extended mission also calls for Canada to play a greater role in those areas, specific initiatives will have to wait until the National Transitional Council, the rebel government that deposed Gadhafi, decides what help they want and need. That could take “months.” “They will lead. They know we have a role to play,” said the official, speaking on background. “We’ll work with them to support them as best we can.”