The Canadian and American militaries operate closely together, and the Chrétien government permitted a number of Canadians Forces members to actively serve in Iraq. Despite Canada's official position to stay out of Iraq, Canada, in fact, was contributing forces
[8]:
On March 31, 2003,
Maclean's reported that "in February [2003], Canada took command of the multinational naval group, known as Task Force 151, patrolling the
Persian Gulf region. Canada is deploying three frigates in the area and the destroyer
HMCS Iroquois is en route. In addition to 30
Canadian Forces personnel working at the
U.S. Central Command in
Qatar, there are 150 Canadian troops on exchange with U.S. and British forces in the area who could see action."
[9]
Canada allowed its
NORAD stationed Air Force members to fly combat missions and deploy with the USAF
E-3 AWACS during the war and allowed its exchange officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force to deploy and fight with their US units. 40-50 Canadian Military Members participated in the conflict, the majority flying on the E-3 AWACS, based out of
Tinker AFB, OK, where they are stationed as part of NORAD.
On October 9, 2008, the
CBC published this statement
[10]:
"Chrétien was attacked by opposition parties for hypocrisy, and asked to bring the exchange officers home. Chrétien's response was that those officers weren't involved in direct conflict, and that Canada had to honour its commitments. But in their book,
The Unexpected War [11],
University of Toronto professor
Janice Gross Stein and public policy consultant Eugene Lang write that the
Liberal government would actually boast of that contribution to Washington. "In an almost schizophrenic way, the government bragged publicly about its decision to stand aside from the war in Iraq because it violated core principles of multilateral-ism and support for the
United Nations. At the same time, senior Canadian officials, military officers and politicians were currying favour in Washington, privately telling anyone in the State Department or the
Pentagon who would listen that, by some measures, Canada's indirect contribution to the American war effort in Iraq — three ships and 100 exchange officers — exceeded that of all but three other countries that were formally part of the coalition.""
[12][13]