Likewise, I think that your point about our getting away from the ‘peacekeeper training’ has stalled progress in Kandahar is very poignant. The last thing we should be doing is getting away from this sort of training. I believe soldiers to be the front line of diplomacy in areas of conflict, and they should be provided the training and skills to act as diplomats in situations that demand it. As the representatives of our nation in the field the CF can set the tone for how our intentions as a nation are perceived by those we are there to help. To ensure the right tone is set with the local populace our soldiers should be equally schooled in the arts of diplomacy as well as those of war, no matter the type of operation they are engaged in. When it comes to operations centred around the concept of ‘winning hearts and minds’, as we seem to be repeatedly told about those in Kandahar, this becomes all the more important.

As to the image of the CF… that’s a hard question to respond to and gives me pause for thought. In my eagerness to see the CF move away from a public image that I view as having allowed for the neglect it saw under the liberals I realize I probably threw the baby out with the bath water. That is to say, instead of moving away from the peacekeeper image, perhaps we should look at refining it so that it accurately presents and represents the Canadian Forces.

The Swiss have a very professional and well equipped army and have not fought in a war in the last 2 centuries. In Canada’s case, it was simply bad politics and neglect by the liberals that the CF fell into the state of affairs it did.

Do you know more Canadians died in the Balkans than Afghanistan thus far? UN missions are plenty dangerous and it takes a warfighter and a diplomat to succeed there. There’s an argument to be made that getting away from the “Peacekeeper training” has stalled progress in the asymmetric non-contingent, non-linear battle space that is Kandahar.

As to Hillier’s impact on the CF, I leave such speculation to those like yourself who are in a far better place to pass judgement then I.

While the CF got a makeover to look tougher - the expense has been at the lives of soldiers who history will determine if they died in vain.

Seriously though… for whatever people think of Hillier, I will credit him with being the only CDS whom I can name without having to look them up (with the exception of Boyle, but only thanks to the ‘Somalia Affair’). If he did one thing right, I think it was being outspoken and present to the public at large concering current operations. Let’s hope who ever follows him continues that tradition.

Captain Canuck. Maybe we can name a highway after him….or better yet…a dough nut at Tim Horton’s.

We went from Dallaire’s shake hands with the devil and awareness of PTSD and genocide in Africa to “terrorists are scumbags”, tanks in Afghanistan and questionable prisoner transfer.

(Yes I know Romeo was never a CDS)