General Rick Hillier Makes a Foray into Politics

Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier says Canadian soldiers are mighty disgruntled that their mission in Afghanistan has been eclipsed by allegations that prisoners handed over to the Afghans by Canadians have been tortured.

“Let me just come out and say very frankly here that I’ve met a variety of soldiers who are pissed off,” Hillier told reporters in Kandahar.

Over the past two weeks, the Harper government has been raked over the coals in the House of Commons and in media reports over the issue of prisoner abuse. With his comments in Kandahar, General Hillier has crossed the line into the terrain of political debate. That is not the job of a military commander in a country where the civilian political leadership establishes national policy.

The “pissed off” comment is clearly aimed at cooling the ardor of the opposition parties in pressing their case on the prisoner abuse issue in the House of Commons. If Hillier wants to participate in national political debates, he should resign his military commission and go into politics.

He might find the going tough on the hustings. Unlike Americans who love to reward generals with high political office----George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all generals who became president---Canadians don’t turn to men in uniform for political leadership.

Even in the United States, when generals get too big for their britches, the civilian leadership calls them to account. In the spring of 1951, at the climax of a great national debate between President Harry S. Truman and General Douglas MacArthur, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, about who should call the shots in the war, the president relieved the General of his command. MacArthur returned to the U.S. after a fourteen year absence and was feted by millions of Americans in the streets of the great cities, the finale being a ticker-tape parade in New York City. He went to Washington and testified before a Congressional Committee. From there his political fortunes dwindled. While he had seemed likely to become an unstoppable presidential candidate in the next election, his vanity and imperial bearing frightened Americans. It would be sometime before the old soldier died, but he did fade away. In the next election, Americans turned to a general, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was a firm believer in civilian control. He did not have a Caesar-like glint in his eye.

It’s time for Hillier to stop quoting soldiers he does not name as though their service in Afghanistan ought to give them extra standing in determining Canadian policies in the war.

Meanwhile the politicians ought to spend more time considering the fact that on a per capita basis more Canadians soldiers have died in Afghanistan than has been the case for any other NATO country. That’s something that does "piss off" Canadians.