Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Those were the sentiments that emerged from a divided Commons Monday as Liberal and NDP MPs lined up to oppose the Conservative decision to go to war, unmoved by arguments that the combat mission was vital for Canada’s place in the world and the safety of Canadians.

In an afternoon-long discussion, MPs debated the Conservative decision to dispatch six CF-18 fighter jets, along with support aircraft and 600 military personnel, to join in coalition air strikes against terror targets in Iraq and possibly Syria. The initial deployment would be for six months.

MPs will vote Tuesday on the motion to join combat operations against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL. However, the vote is certain to pass because of the Conservative majority.

Already, a small team of military planners is in the Middle East, scouting undisclosed locations to serve as bases for the Canadian aircraft, which are expected to arrive in the region within three weeks.

“This is not just another conflict. The struggle is not against a state or even a foreign dictator. This is a struggle against a group of terrorists that rape and pillage, and slaughter anything and anyone that stands in their way,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a speech that kicked off the debate.

“My Canada heeds the call. My Canada protects the vulnerable. It challenges the aggressor. My Canada does not leave all the heavy lifting to others,” Baird told MPs.

As he detailed the “depravity and brutality” conducted by Islamic State extremists, Baird pledged $10 million to help victims of sexual violence in Syria and Iraq and investigate those crimes and other serious human rights abuses.

“Sexual violence and conflict is a despicable crime that targets the most vulnerable,” Baird said.

But opposition MPs across the aisle were not swayed by the government’s warnings that Islamic State, an Al Qaeda splinter group that has claimed vast swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, could bring a “tidal wave of fundamentalist rule” to the Middle East.

Instead, Liberal and NDP MPs claimed the government failed to make a compelling case for war and charged that the Conservatives had gone out of their way to keep them in the dark about the mission.

“The prime minister is taking us across the Rubicon by deciding on a combat mission. Once a country makes that decision, there is no turning back the clock,” Liberal MP Marc Garneau said.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair had sharp words for Harper’s pledge to strike at Islamic State targets in Syria, if the government of President Bashar Assad makes the request.

Mulcair said such a possibility shows a “lack of ethics” and a “lack of rigorous thought” by the Conservatives.

“He is a genocidal maniac, and we should not be giving him any credibility at all,” the NDP leader said of Assad.

Mulcair warned that the United States has been fighting ISIL in one form or another for more than a decade in the region, without success, including the ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“When we realize that everything that is unfolding before our eyes is a direct result of the wrong-headed mission in 2003, we know that more bombing is not the answer,” Mulcair said.

“Military force is not our only option.”

But Baird took aim at opposition MPs, who said Canada should contribute in other ways to ease the crisis, such as humanitarian aid, airlifts and medical assistance.

“Sending someone a doctor, lawyer or aid worker is great, but it will not stop the people who are trying to help from getting slaughtered in the first place, or stop this humanitarian crisis from growing,” Baird said.

There have been more than 300 strikes since the air campaign began, but Islamic State fighters are now changing their tactics in response to the attacks. That could make it tougher for Canadian fighter pilots, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. defence department.

“They, not surprisingly, have gotten better at concealment,” Rear Adm. Rear Adm. John Kirby told a briefing.

“Before the airstrikes happened, . . . they pretty much had free rein. They don’t have that free rein anymore, because they know we’re watching from the air,” he said.