Serving military personnel are not supposed to be advocating for government policies, but now it seems that generals are using the media to put pressure on political leaders once again. Is this part of General Hillier’s legacy?
The military has launched its own lobby campaign to convince the Canadian government to increase our combat role in Afghanistan by deploying CF-18 fighter-bombers.
In this case, Maj.-General Duff Sullivan spoke with CanWest News reporter Matthew Fisher. In 2007 Matthew Fisher accepted a $2500 cash prize from the DND-funded lobby group, the Conference of Defence Associations (the President of CDA does not speak well of journalists, ironically).
Fisher reported that General Sullivan is being pressured by U.S. allies to get Canadian CF-18 fighter-bombers “into the game” in Afghanistan. Government representatives said there were no plans to deploy CF-18s, but they did not rule it out either.
This was clearly a trial balloon, and we have seen this kind of thing happen before. Once there rumblings that the military was seeking tanks and attack helicopters in Afghanistan. Go to Afghanistan today and you’ll find plenty of both.
January 27th, 2010 at 1:20 am
The Torch! Ha, that’s a laugh. The Torch is a blog that takes its marching orders from DND public affairs. It specializes in attacking journalists who write less than glowing things about DND and the Canadian Forces.
It’s on par with that other esteemed organization, the Conference of Defence Associations. The CDA gets its money from DND and acts as a mouthpiece for DND. It’s rare that you would get an original thought from those people.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Maj.-Gen. Duff Sullivan may simply have been, with a bit of Air Force enthusiasm, repeating what had been said to him by others. See this post at “The Torch”:
“CF-18s for Afstan? No way”
As for plenty of “attack helicopters”, eight Canadian Air Force Griffons, with a secondary attack role, one for which they are not terribly capable compared to, say, AH-64D Apaches, seems rather a stretch. By the way the Dutch have six Apaches in Afstan.
Mark
Ottawa