Marching as to War

One of my fellow scribes at The Monarchist, who blogs mostly at the Gods of the Copybook Headings, nicely captures the incongruity of Rambo Dion:

In a nation with any popular martial tradition the adjacent photograph would be political death. Michael Dukakis atop an M1 Abrams territory. That a political leader, already considered weak and ineffective, would so brazenly attempt to counter this image with so macho a photograph is remarkable. That a political leader who has called for withdrawal from the field of battle should do so strains credulity. The satirists, had we any of note, would find this a gift from the mint. Sounding tough while acting weak is an honoured Liberal tradition, recall Mackenzie King's description of the Progressives as "Liberals in a Hurry." The Liberal policy toward Afghanistan, vis a vis the NDP, has been essentially the same, the Dippers are surrendering in a hurry. Thus Stephan Dion's Douglas MacArthur impression; triumphantly declaring that Afghanistan can only be won by widening the war into Pakistan.

Naturally Dion would be the first to absent the Canadian military from such a campaign, something even the professional warmongers in the Pentagon seem hesitant to propose. All of this is a terribly long winded way of saving Grit face in the event that Dion finds himself in power come the actual withdrawal. We're not running away, it's just that the war can't be won without securing the border, and the border can't be secured, so good luck with this whole freedom thing. In the biting words of an American official during the Cold War, Canada provides all aid short of help. A smaller version of this gambit is being played with the issue of troop rotation. After three years of heaving fighting - in which Canada has lost fewer men than it did in the first few hours of D-Day - it's time for someone else to take over. There is, of course, no one else. In Canada Jack Layton is, in some quarters, still "Taliban" Jack. In much of continental Europe he'd be right of center, something closer to Stephen Harper than the usual Green / Eurocommunist fare.

In many ways Dion's intellectual and political cowardice is encouraging. It's unlikely very many European politicians would feel the need to dress up like a soldier - cradling the helmet is an especially endearing touch - while attempting to undermine their soldiers efforts. When Patrick Henry declared that God would find the American rebels allies to "fight our battles for us," he naturally intended that the Americans would be doing the bulk of the fighting. There has been no dissent, not even from Lord Layton of Haw Haw, from the consensus that keeping the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan is in the interest of the free world. There has been no dissent from the understanding that the Canadian forces are - despite decades of being treated to something between neglect and contempt by their civilian masters - man for man one of the best armies in the world. There is also, though this is mentioned rarely and then fleetingly, the fact that most of the European powers shirking the heavy fighting in the South could not, even if they wished, engage in major combat operations. They are parade ground armies from countries where parades - save those involving acceptable minorities - are considered too militaristic. America, Britain, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. That is what is left of the armies of the free world. The French could almost certainly field a credible force, but as Afghanistan lies far away from their spheres of influence in western and central Africa, it's unlikely we'll see them pitch in.

If not quite alone, Canada is in a rapidly shrinking club. As the death of Theo Van Gogh, and the attempts to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her citizenship suggest, the Dutch are going a bit wobbly, as Mrs T. used to say. In reply to Dion's Rambo rhetoric Peter MacKay observed:

"Mr. Dion can't be serious to suggest NATO "intervene," in another country while simultaneously saying Canada should abandon its United Nations-mandated NATO mission in Afghanistan."

The definition of a Conservative in modern Canada is not one who advocates individual rights and freedoms, or a full throated defense of national interests, it is an elected politician capable of adhering to very basic principles of logical coherence. As the modern world goes, we're doing better than par.

Posted by Publius at the Gods of the Copybook Headings