As the debate on the Iraq combat deployment carries on, with the vote set for later tonight, there are already questions as to just how effective air strikes can actually be given that ISIS has already taken lessons to heart about scattering in advance of a raid and reforming after the planes leave. In other words, could that really be the right use of forces. The government made a bit of a show of also adding another $10 million in aid yesterday, including for victims of sexual violence, which the NDP had specifically asked for – but the NDP responded that it’s not really enough to do anything, and then moved an amendment to the government motion to forbid combat and impose strict time limits. (Aaron Wherry recaps the debate here). Liberal advisor and potential candidate, former lieutenant general Andrew Leslie, made the case that an armed non-combat relief mission was a better use of resources because it wouldn’t divide our attention and resources the way doing both combat and aid would, while Roland Paris later noted on P&P that Canada didn’t necessarily need to participate in combat operations, but simply needed to be part of the coalition to help give political cover and legitimacy to the US-led operation. Hillary Clinton, during her speech in Ottawa yesterday, said that military intervention against ISIS was critical – but also not enough to really stop them. Andrew Coyne writes that there is no safe moral ground in this particular fight.

Cuts to staff at Citizenship and Immigration are being blamed for the backlog in getting Syrian refugee files processed and getting them resettled in Canada.

So that flight we gave to those European officials after convincing them to make that extra stop in Toronto for the big party that Harper had planned for the text of the Canada-EU trade agreement being released? Well, it may not have been necessary and may have been contrary to European government rules. Of course, when asked about this in the Commons yesterday, Ed Fast touted how great the agreement was. Okay then.

In advance of his fact-finding mission to Ukraine, our religious freedom ambassador blasted Russian president Vladimir Putin for the persecution of Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslim Tatars. Erm, that’s the conclusion before the fact-finding mission, is it?

Some senators – some named, some anonymous – are grumbling that they’re not sure that the auditors from the AG’s office know enough about the job of a senator as they go poking through their records.

The Mountie who made headlines for smoking pot while in uniform because of his PTSD was found dead yesterday. No word yet on cause of death.

Over in Alberta, Jim Prentice promises to revisit controversial First Nations policies there, particularly around consulting on resource development projects, given that First Nations there have given up participating in a process they don’t agree with.

Some 400 people, mostly bureaucrats, are meeting in Washington, DC to discuss cross-border regulatory harmonizing, in the hopes of reducing more duplication and ensuring a more easy flow of trade goods across the border. Part of the process will be updating regulations entirely to conform with international standards, and to have both countries to it at the same time to have that uniformity. And also come the concern trolls who figure that harmonization is the first stop to deregulation. Okay then.

Ruby Dhalla wants everyone to know that the Liberals didn’t block her from running, and that it was never her intention to run again, but she wanted to have an event for her old volunteers an supporters to let them know when the media showed up. Okay then.

Jason Kirby looks over the deal in which Postmedia will buy Sun Media’s English print publications, creating a massive print media company across the country. While the fears of media concentration may not be as big of an issue in the Internet era, the promise is that the newsrooms would be run separately as is the case with Postmedia’s two Vancouver papers currently. The deal may also be a nod to the political intentions of Pierre Karl Péladeau, now that he’s running for the leadership of the Bloc.

And my column this week gives the case for paying more attention to QP, rather than ignoring it as we wring our hands about how terrible things have become. This while cabinet takes to the pages of The Hill Times to congratulate themselves about how much work they put into QP prep, while still coming off so very badly at it, with terrible recitations of staid talking points and calling it a success.