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Old soldiers never die – and won't shut up, either

November 8, 2007 | Globe and Mail |LAWRENCE MARTIN.

'You can muzzle everyone else in this town, Prime Minister. Not me." That, in so many words, was the response from General Rick Hillier this week to suggestions from Stephen Harper's office that he'd better tighten his tongue.

A healthy surmise might be that the Sun King is not amused.

Speaking of the military, our Chief of the Defence Staff said on Tuesday: "I will be the public champion of those brave men and women. They are Canada's sons and daughters, ladies and gentleman. If we can't market Canada's sons and daughters back to Canada's moms and dads, we need to find somebody to replace us to do the job."

There is no backdown in this guy. Newfoundlanders, as Stephen Harper is discovering, don't bend. In addition to the general, there is the flame-throwing Premier Danny Williams. Both seem to take their cue from the same film reel. "Frankly, my dear Stephen, I don't give a damn."

In a noteworthy moment, the two Newfoundlanders came together recently at Ottawa's Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner. When Mr. Williams encountered the general, he lit up. "Nice to see I'm not the only Newfoundlander here who the Prime Minister is pissed off at," he said.

Laughs all around. But no slapping of the knees at the PMO.

The question is, how many pushbacks will the Sun King take before sending his top gun back to the Rock? Last week, a senior Harper official was quoted as saying that Gen. Hillier had been given his marching orders to tone it down. "He was reminded what his role is. His role is not to be the chief spokesman for the mission."

Gen. Hillier seemingly missed - though he might argue differently - this message, just like he has seemingly missed several others. In the Throne Speech, the government said Afghan security forces should be ready to defend their people in four years, by 2011. Gen. Hillier was soon before the mikes, tripling the estimate. Ten to 15 years, he said.

There appears to be a problem here. Old soldiers never die - and it seems they won't shut up, either. Gen. Hillier later backpedalled to say he was on the same page as the Throne Speech. Before this, there were other Hillier feuds with the PMO as well as with Gordon O'Connor, who, to no one's disappointment, was dumped from the defence post.

Early last month, when CTV reported that Gen. Hillier was on the way out, Mr. Harper issued what amounted to only a half-denial. It could well be construed, viewing the top soldier's comportment since then, that he thinks he is indeed going and that he has no intention of going quietly.

It's not exactly in league with Douglas MacArthur v. Harry Truman. But, in Canadian terms, this is getting quite serious.

Many feel the general is too popular and too effective to be canned. He has rebuilt the military. He has led an Afghan mission that has the worthy goal - one that should be pursued - of keeping the Taliban from regaining power in that country.

But, while dropping the engaging Gen. Hillier would anger the military and other constituencies, the public at large might not react so disdainfully. Many aren't comfortable with his militaristic vision of Canada, his seeming readiness to move the country off its peace-brokering, peacekeeping tradition toward a more American mindset.

He is forever criticizing what he calls "the decade of darkness" that preceded his becoming Chief of the Defence Staff in early 2005. In military spending and in foreign aid terms, they were hardly good years. But how dark were they? At the end of the Cold War, defence spending was going down all over, especially in countries such as Canada that faced record-breaking deficits. Still, we answered the call in the Balkans conflicts, we brought soft power, with some successes, to the table and there was the landmark foreign policy moment on Iraq. In more recent years, with the budget coffers full, the defence spending problem has been addressed.

Gen. Hillier has done his thing and has done it efficiently. It is no longer imperative that he stay on as our military leader. As opposed to his style, Canadians seem to prefer the moderation that has infused our foreign policy for decades and that has served us well.

While Mr. Harper would hear all kinds of screaming from his right-wing base, he could probably get away with junking the general.

lmartin@globeandmail.com