Canadian General Takes Senior Command Role In Iraq

Officials at Fort Bragg confirmed that Matern has already been deployed to Iraq, though no official statement has been made by Canadian officials. Meanwhile, 42 Canadian tanks and armoured personnel carriers left Edmonton last week destined for Fort Bliss, Texas to participate in pre-deployment training exercises with the U.S. Army before a summer rotation in Afghanistan. A Department of National Defence press release characterised the training as "massive", with more than 3,000 Canadian soldiers taking part in Exercise Southern Bear. Such joint exercises are commonplace throughout all branches of the armed forces and beyond. A report from the U.S. Department of State's counterterrorism office described how "the governments of the United States and Canada collaborated on a broad array of initiatives, exercises, and joint operations that spanned virtually all agencies and every level of government." During his first visit to Washington as Prime Minister in 2006, Stephen Harper boasted that the North American alliance was the "strongest relationship of any two countries, not just on the planet, but in the history of mankind." As much as 90 percent of Canadian trade is with the U.S., with upwards of two billion dollars a day in goods and services crossing the border. There are also economic interests in Iraq itself. The April 2007 Iraq Reconstruction Report lists Canada as the fourth largest importer of Iraqi oil. Industry Canada records that total Canadian imports from Iraq have risen from 1.06 billion dollars in 2002 to 1.61 billion dollars in 2006, making Iraq second only to Saudi Arabia as a Middle Eastern source for Canadian imports. ... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40894

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