That Would Be General (S)Hillier, I Presume?

I see that once again General Hillier is sticking his foot into Canada's political debate over Afghanistan.

"Because we are, in the eyes of the Taliban, in a window of extreme vulnerability," he said. "And the longer we go without that clarity, with the issue in doubt, the more the Taliban will target us as a perceived weak link.

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that the suicide bombings of this past week have been related to the debate back here in Canada. But I also cannot stand here and say that they are not.

It's amazing how he pops up making statements like this every time Harper wants to babble on about extending the Afghanistan mission, or when the public becomes concerned about troops coming home in pine boxes.

As usual, the line seems to be that if you dare speak out against the Afghanistan mission, you aren't "supporting the troops".

You know what? If we cannot openly discuss the moral and ethical implications of the Afghanistan mission, then there is no debate. General Hillier's responsibility lies with his men, not with the politics of his orders. If, as Hillier hints, this debate is raising the "danger" level in Afghanistan, then he should focus his energies upon ensuring the well-being of his troops - not attempt to tell Canadians that we should not debate the mission.

Speculating On O'Connor's Future...

I think O'Connor has a very limited "shelf life" as Canada's Minister of Defense.

There's been rumours for a long time that Hillier and O'Connor disagree with each other quite a bit.

Now, Harper has been very quick to protect his cabinet ministers, no matter how inept. However, he's not going to shelter someone whose actions have a political cost. When the warning of that comes from one of his "old mentors" in the Calgary School, it no doubt carries a little more weight:

“Afghanistan has got to be very high on the list of problems he [Mr. Harper] has to fix,” said David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, as the Tories prepare for a caucus in Charlottetown this week to plot their fall political agenda.

Mr. Bercuson and other military and political experts said that there are too many voices speaking out on the Afghan military mission.

This is actually a very revealing tidbit. First, it tells us a little more about Harper's slightly irrational seeming micromanagement of his government's public face. His "mentors" at the University of Calgary no doubt spent a great deal of time and effort drilling home the idea that message is everything. (What Harper misses, in his relative inexperience as a leader, is that a good leader not only delegates, but unites his team)

The second piece of interest is the behind the scenes relationship between Harper and Gen. Hillier. Hillier has been given an amazingly free voice in the public arena - and it's obviously politicized. If Hillier is clashing with O'Connor, the only way that he would be getting that kind of freedom is if Harper was authorizing it. (Remember, everything goes through the PMO these days) In fact, Hillier's public profile is at odds with other senior bureaucrats in high profile departments who have been silenced quite harshly.

As a combination, Hillier's public profile, and the very public clashes with O'Connor spells a very short shelf life for Gordon O'Connor as Canada's Minister of Defense.

While disposing of O'Connor would be an improvement, it's not enough to salvage the Harper's government. (Especially if Harper doesn't wake up and start delegating to his team)

If I Wasn't Convinced Before ...

I'm now absolutely sure that Hillier is a Conservative shill.

According to documents made available to The Globe and Mail, the Strategic Joint Staff, a newly created group that advises Gen. Hillier, has been reviewing all Access to Information requests about detainees since March, shortly after the detainee controversy first erupted.

The Strategic Joint Staff has given strict guidance to National Defence's director of Access to Information, Julie Jansen, on what documents should be withheld. The result is that the flow of documents about detainees has virtually dried up and the department has summarily rejected requests for the same kind of documents it released earlier.

If this doesn't reek of politicking, I don't know what does. Typical of this government, if they can't stand the heat generated by an issue, they try to bury it, stifle discussion of it, etc.

The argument that releasing numbers of detainees and other basic statistical information to Canadians is going to "endanger" the troops doesn't hold water. Even the United States doesn't make such an asinine claim.

Remember, as voters and taxpayers, it's our dollar$ that are financing PMSH's little ego-inflating expedition to Afghanistan. It's also our nation's youth that are being killed by IEDs and other hazards of warfare - and the reasons for our presence are becoming increasingly dubious. Do we not have a right to know just what it is our troops are being ordered to do? Do we not have a right to know what it is our troops are actually doing?

It's time for Hillier to resign and run for public office. If he's going to be a shill for this bunch of bastards in Ottawa, he can damned well be directly accountable to the voters too! (and the sooner we get rid of this bunch of Con$, the better!)

Dear General Hillier: STFU

Cripes, the more Hillier opens his yap lately, the more he sounds like a propaganda shill for the Cons.

Today, Canadians were treated to the General lecturing us about how the detainee issue is detracting from "all the good things" the troops are doing.

Allow me to make something very clear - this critic is not annoyed with the job that the troops on the ground are doing. They are carrying out a difficult job in even more difficult circumstances.

Having said that, those troops are carrying out orders and directives created by the General himself, at the behest of his political masters. When those orders and directives cheapen Canada's name on the world stage, it is my duty as a Canadian to stand up and be heard.

While Hillier complains that we aren't "looking at the good bits" of the picture, the fact is that it's not the "good bits" of the story that Canadians should be concerned about. It is policies and agreements signed on our behalf by a General who seems more interested in lecturing us on "supporting the troops" than taking ownership of questionable decisions that he has made, and that the Harper government is ill-disposed to correct.

We, as Canadian citizens, must ask ourselves repeatedly whether this is the kind of government that we want? Do we want one where challenging government policy is frowned upon? A government that actively uses its armed enforcement agencies as propaganda tools, with the implicit threat of force should we have the temerity to disagree with them?