Shut up Harper

While onboard the HMCS Ville de Québec in Port of Spain, Trinidad, yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper essentially called critics of the government's policy of transferring prisoners to Afghan jailers unpatriotic, and that they were undermining the Canadian military:

When some in the political arena do not hesitate before throwing the most serious of allegations at our men and women in uniform, based on the most flimsy of evidence, remember that Canadians from coast to coast to coast are proud of you and stand behind you, and I am proud of you, and I stand beside you.

Nice try Bush. This isn't about the troops. It's about your government's deplorable policies.

Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae hammered Harper (and rightfully so) for his “reprehensible” accusation that the oppostions parties are somehow denigrating the military by enquring about the handling of Afghan detainees. Rae said it's not about looking into the conduct of Canadian soldiers, but rather questioning the actions of the Harper government. To suggest that some political parties are stronger advocates of the Canadian military than others is “reprehensible" and arguing that asking questions regarding Afghan detainees is "somewhat unpatriotic, is frankly beyond the pale.”

To play that card the way he has played it, is I think, grossly unfair. And to suggest that in any question that’s been posed in the House of Commons or in any comment that’s been made — that somehow this is about the conduct of our troops — it’s just completely false.