Secretive Stephen

Now Harper doesn't want to play "Dear Leader In Chief" any more. He wants the Military to do his dirty work for him - primarily so he can blame the bureaucrats when the political temperature gets too high.

“These are operational matters of the Canadian military,” Mr. Harper said as opposition MPs hammered the government for a second day in Question Period with accusations of excessive secrecy and mismanagement of the Afghan mission.

Of course, he was perfectly willing to brag about how we were turning detainees over to Afghan authorities for "justice". Then it became public knowledge just what that "justice" entailed.

The agreements with the Afghan government are political agreements - they don't just magically happen at some obscure level of the bureaucracy - the cabinet knows about them as they play across multiple government departments, and have the potential for some pretty serious consequences if mishandled.

The phrase "Operational Matters", like its equally mealy-mouthed sibling "Matters of National Security" is nothing more than an attempt to put up a political smokescreen. On a day by day basis, the disposition of captives is an operational matter. The policy around it is NOT - especially when even the US government is being more open about their handling of captives than our own is.

The government has been running about claiming that talking about such matters "puts troops in danger". Bull. The troops are already in danger - they are the foreign occupying force in another nation. Being secretive only gives space for rumours to grow and fester - here and in Afghanistan.

Once again, we learn a little more about how thin-skinned Harper really is, and how unwilling he is to own up to when he screwed up or a policy turned out to be truly wrong-headed.

We can guess just how forthcoming the DND will be about this matter - with the HarperCon$ having quite the track record for firing anyone they perceive to be a political liability, saying anything on record could be career-ending. (and yes, I think Linda Keen should sue this government's ass off - the treatment she has received at the hands of the Con$ is reprehensible)

This has been another installment in the "Truly Awful Government" file.