Posted on 04/20/2009 8:34:32 PM PDT by nuconvert
KABUL, Afghanistan — The United States and NATO have “expressed a desire” for Canada to deploy CF-18 Hornet fighter jets to Afghanistan, according to the Canadian general who leads the coalition’s air war in Afghanistan.
“I can tell you from the senior Canadian in this headquarters that I have been asked on several occasions by AFCENT (United States Air Forces Central) and CENTCOM (Central Command), ‘How can we get Canadian F-18s into the game over here?’” said Maj.-Gen. Duff Sullivan. “And I’ve told them that that is a political decision back in Canada.”
Sullivan, 52, flew sorties in CF-18s over the Balkans and during the first U.S.-led war against Iraq in 1991.
“What has been highlighted to me as the director of the air element here, the commander of AFCENT has said that it would relieve the pressure on his American squadrons if we could have Canadian F-18s come in. I haven’t commented one way or the other, but passed it back to Canada to the chief of defence and I know that issue is well known in his office.”
But Sunday evening Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s director of communications, Dan Dugas, disputed the notion it was a ‘political decision.’
“The general is somehow mistaken on this issue,” he said. “This is something that has not gone through a chain of command and then to the minister’s office . . . so it can hardly be a political decision if it hasn’t made its way through the chain of command.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ottawacitizen.com ...
so that is apparently the entire Canadian Air Force??
/just kidding
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