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OTTAWA -- Canada's military is "tapped out" with no more troops to spare for missions in strife and poverty-stricken Africa, the chief of defence staff told a Senate committee yesterday.
Gen. Rick Hillier said the Canadian Forces are currently moving through a revolutionary transformation with recruitment, command and capacity-building, but intense operations in Afghanistan have pushed operations to "extreme limits."
Liberal Senator Peter Stollery called it a "disgrace" Canada has spread its resources so thin that we have only 65 soldiers posted to Africa in troubled regions like the Congo and Sudan.
"I think that the military does not want to go to Africa. We're dealing with black African peasants. It's not sexy, and they don't want to go," he said after the meeting.
Stollery believes it is CF brass, not the government, that has resisted going to Africa in substantial numbers.
"Maybe it's because their buddies at NATO aren't there -- the other NATO countries aren't there either," he said.
On the question of sending troops to Sudan's Darfur region, Hillier said a "political settlement" is required as a precondition or else the chances of success are low.
"Otherwise, you truly are wasting your time and more importantly you are wasting the lives of men and women, potentially, and the devastation they would encounter," he said.
Senator Romeo Dallaire said the world has a responsibility to act in cases of genocide like Darfur, where human rights are being "massively abused." Canada is continuing to act as a "banana republic" instead of a middle power that properly invests in its military, he charged.
But Dallaire rejected Stollery's suggestion that Canada is ignoring hotspots in Africa because they are not "sexy" missions like Afghanistan.
Hillier said raging debate over the Afghanistan mission can lead to soldiers questioning Canadians' support for their work abroad.
But those questions are "balanced superbly" by words of support from politicians and the massive Red Rally on Parliament Hill organized last week to show support for the troops, he said.