Hillier's thin skin

Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier is, well, insulted. He says so.

"I've been shot at."

Me too. Scared the shit out of me the first time it happened. I learned to keep my head down, way down, and get off a snap shot right away. Still, every time it happened, I got scared.

"People have attempted to blow me up."

Same here. Again, scared shitless. Still have a hearing loss in one ear from that.

"I had a suicide bomber targeted against me when I was the commander in Afghanistan."

THAT is an exclusive club. I'm glad that wasn't me. I'll bet it scared the shit out of you, as it would any thinking human being.

"And I've been called every name in the book, I'm certain."

It goes with the job, General. And I'm sure you've called a few people names yourself. Have you ever been called a "murderer and a scumbag"?

"I don't think I've ever been so insulted as to be called a prop for a political party."

So, who's to blame for that?! For one thing, the first three examples have nothing to do with the latter.

Maybe you should learn to choose your words a little more carefully because, whether you admit it or not, it was awfully goddamned easy for Denis Coderre to take what you said and paint you as a political prop. It wasn't an ambush and you didn't walk into a trap. Coderre simply noticed your foot in your mouth and pointed out that your fucking boot was still on. He didn't have to do any work. You did it for him.

Which brings us to another point.

The timing, General, of this latest shot to the media is highly suspicious. Coderre made his remark almost two weeks ago. Given the attention span of both hard-working Canadians and, especially, the news media, we had almost forgotten the whole event.

Almost...

But, here you are keeping it alive, and now you're making it personal. I would have expected, if you were going to answer Coderre at all, that you would have done so in a timely fashion. Like, within no more than two days. Either you just breathed air into an otherwise lifeless issue or someone else is pulling your strings. Or is the prime minister's in-box so full that it took him this long to get around to approving your statement?

Whatever the reason, I would expect you, General, to have enough smarts to know that silence works well in these circumstances and you probably should have kept it. I'm certain it is the same advice you have given subordinates over the years and I'll wager that advice didn't carry the kinder, gentler tone I am using here.

I do not know what you hope to gain by this little foray into the press and by continuing this fight with Denis Coderre, but I hope it's not sympathy. You live in a political world, General. We, all of us who have served a full career in the service, know that by the time you put that broad band on your sleeve that you have been transformed into a political animal. In your particular job, the politics runs deep, thick and smelly.

Don't protest in a way that makes it appear you didn't know.

So, General Hillier, I will send you back to the days when you first cracked your head on the hatch of a tank turret and everyone laughed.

If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between shit and syphilis in the Oxford's Concise Dictionary.

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