I’ve caused a good deal of huffing and puffing among Stephen Harper lovers for my claim that Mr. Harper is a coward. I made my statement in the harshest of terms, evoking the expected reaction from loyal Tories. What surprised me though, was not the visceral reaction to my polemics, but the amount of support I’ve received from fellow conservatives on and off line.
Allow me to enunciate, in the starkest of terms, why I would call my leader a coward.
An American criminal soldier stole state secrets and passed them onto Wikileak, which in turn published the material. Among those American state secrets were Canadian state secrets, written by Canadian soldiers in the combat theatre.
Those who prepared the Canadian documents operate under strict security. Only they and the immediate members of their team ever share the material before it is passed on to higher authorities. If those who prepare the documents were, for instance, to speak about these materials in the Kandahar gym or in one of the mess halls, they would find themselves in deep guano. Most soldiers serving in Afghanistan never see these documents.
The secrecy is designed to protect our soldiers and their Afghan allies and to assist tacticians in improving our methods. Once in the hands of the enemy, these reports become a gold mine allowing the enemy to ground proof his tactics, our tactics, and to adjust his activities accordingly. In other words, it makes it easier for him to kill our soldiers. In the cat and mouse game of ambush and IED, every little advantage counts. Once the reports have been archived and made searchable, they essentially become a Taliban Research Library, which is exactly what the CBC has done. Let’s put this into concrete terms.
Canadian forces find most of the IEDs that are planted. Only a few score. Let’s imagine that in village X, our troops tend to find all IEDs, as is the case in most of our zone. The Taliban have no way of knowing whether these devices are discovered by our technology, or through informants. But now, our enemy just needs to punch in the right dates at Canada’s very own publicly paid broadcaster and read through the reports that deal specifically with village X on specific dates of interest to Taliban operatives. And what do they find?
They find that villagers have been informing our soldiers, and what’s more, they find names of Afghans in the CBC Taliban Research Library. What this means is that the fog of war gets parted and the Taliban now know where to send their thugs to have a “come to Muhammad” meeting with locals. And then, guess what ... the hapless civilians in village X aren’t so loyal to our soldiers anymore, and perhaps the next IED will be missed by our techs and another Canadian family will be grieving ... not to mention the Afghans who have been brutalized because of the handy Taliban Research Library provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
It matters not that Wikileak has already made public the 9000 plus docs. What matters is that CBC, an organization which owes its entire existence to tax payers, has taken the time to archive and post secret documents that belong to Canada and which were stolen via criminal action. What this means, is that while tax payers fund the military effort in Afghanistan where our soldiers die and are maimed, and where Afghans risk their very lives to support them, another government funded organization knowingly and willingly puts those very same soldiers and civilians at risk.
Put another way, it's like one branch of government offering policing service, while another fences stolen goods.
The CBC have become an enemy of our troops. And, the CBC does this for no purpose other than public mischief. A few short decades ago we would’ve called their action treason.
Public mischief ? Indeed. The CBC archive provides the Canadian people no service, but it certainly makes the CBC complicate in escalating the risk to our soldiers, and it most certainly assists the enemy in picking its murder victims more precisely from among the Afghan people. Were the CBC to report “on” the wikileak, it would be doing its job in “reporting” the news. Were its op-ed personnel to crow about this or that; it would be simply getting on its op-ed soapbox. Were the CBC to privately find hidden within the docs a scandal that the Canadian people should know about and would report it after doing due diligence; we would call it investigative journalism. But, the CBC Taliban Research Library is none of these ... it is out and out mischief and complicity in a crime using tax payer dollars.
Now you may ask, where does cowardice in the PMO fit in?
Given the above; given that the CBC is engaged in public mischief and complicit now in the publishing of classified Canadian documents that assist the enemy in adjusting his tactics and in hunting down our Afghan civilian friends, it is unconscionable that our government would not in the very least publicly condemn the CBC. After all, over 140 soldiers have died at the behest of our government ... that is, the Canadian Parliament. Many times more have been maimed. For the chief executive officer of the country to remain speechless in this situation is a stunning abrogation of responsibility to our soldiers and our nation.
Cowardly ... for certain. But, if our PM and his government remain silent because of political machinations, then the cowardice on display is all the more egregious. It is the kind of behaviour one would come to expect from the most cynical of political classes ... some would call it sleaze. It is the kind of behaviour expected of hacks and soulless tribalists, so hell bent on destroying each other that they can’t take a clear, concise, and transparent stand for what is right; that they can’t take a stand for those they send to die. In essence, this kind of political class has lost sense of what is decent, right, and wrong, and won’t take a stand on anything unless it can justify it for the political advantage gained.
Cowards indeed. But, coming from a Prime Minister whose grip on power is so controlling that the PMO will hardly let MPs speak to a senior’s group without first approving the talking points ... it’s utterly repugnant, because the silence is planned. Coming from the Prime Minister who once warmed our heart when he spoke to the troops in Kandahar, where he said that “we don’t cut and run”, it’s simply a tragic sign of how deep the rot in Ottawa has grown ... where our top man can't stir himself from the barbecue circuit long enough to condemn the CBC. While he and others make the rounds gladhanding; our soldiers toil and die in the Afghan heat.
Sometimes, the most cowardly act a man can do, is to do nothing.
Titus Plautus, a Roman playwright once said: A brave man benefits more his country than the finest, cleverest speakers.
Given the state of Canada’s political class, truer words were never spoken ... especially since we can’t even describe them as fine and clever speakers.
Update: Essay by Marc Theissen
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