"Hillier Youth"

The depths to which David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen is willing to sink:
...
Some officers inside the Defence department have a disquieting name for the general's loyal and, some say, fanatical followers--Hillier Youth...

For shame. The media long knives are truly out. After all the Chief of Defence Staff is "American-style" and and clearly a megalomaniac.

To his critics, he is a Canadian version of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the high-profile American commander who in the 1940s and '50s made a career out of ignoring direction from political masters and charging ahead with his own agenda.

He represents the growing Americanization of the Canadian military, a world in which peacekeeping — much loved by the Canadian public — is dead and combat operations, such as those occurring now in Afghanistan, become the norm of the future...

This vast article is the most determined case of character assasination disguised as reporting that I have seen for some time.

Disquieting indeed. And truly disgusting. Read it. The 'Teflon General' (Part Two) is here.

Update: Thomas Walkom of the Crvena Zvezda piles on.
...
... [Modern U.S. strategy] requires a smaller set of favoured allies who are willing to send troops anywhere to do anything that the U.S. requires.

This, in turn, requires these allies to have access to sufficient airlift capacity as well as flexible combat units capable of operating seamlessly with American troops.

It's a strategy favoured by the Canadian military (which calls it interoperability) and particularly by Gen. Rick Hiller, the chief of the defence staff.

But it is not necessarily favoured by the Canadian public which, insofar as it pays attention, resists military integration with the U.S. and maintains a nostalgic affection for old-style internationalism...

Cross-posted to Daimnation!