Shorter Peter MacKay: SHUT UP! Just SHUT UP!

So then, Petey MacKay, addressing a friendly audience, (well, perhaps), turns to page 38 of the Donald Rumsfeld playbook and pulls out the If you don't support the troops (which actually means support my questionable mission) you are aiding and abetting the enemy. Treason!

Waning support for the mission in Afghanistan is a weapon in the hands of the Taliban, said Defence Minister Peter MacKay during a stop in Edmonton yesterday.

"The Taliban are very intelligent - they read newspapers, they go on the Internet.

"When they see Canadian resolve weaken, that's when they up their effort," MacKay said.

That's right. You've heard this all before from the now disgraced Donald Rumsfeld. And then there was this.

The younger generation of Canadians aren't used to seeing flag-draped coffins, he said, and perhaps don't understand sacrifice the way older Canadians do.

Ohhh! I see! It's simply a matter of getting used to it.

Actually Petey, younger Canadians understand sacrifice just as well as older Canadians, and apparently, judging by the statistics, there are a lot of older ones who don't share your Bushian view of war.

So, what MacKay wants you to do is just... shut up! To MacKay, "support the troops" is "support the mission". Anything else is too difficult for him.

I was going to explain it, but this came from comments over at Buckdog and deals with it perfectly.

Having been one in the past, I do support the troops. I don't always support what the government wants them to do, however. A lot of people can't tell the difference between the two, and that's what McKay and Harper are counting on.

Exactly.

And if you want to compare supporting the troops, lets take a little walk back to a nasty rumour that's been floating around the military and naval bazaars in places like Victoria, Edmonton, Ottawa and Halifax, just to name a few.

The federal government is about to stop its practice of giving extra money to Canadian soldiers posted to some of the country's most expensive cities.

Since June 2000, almost half of Canada's soldiers have been receiving a bump in their monthly salary -- the posting's living differential -- for living and working in cities with a high cost of living.

You can excuse the term "soldiers" since sailors and air force personnel are also involved. But, to make a point, that allowance isn't new. It's been around for decades in various forms, Post Differential Allowance being the last mutation. And now, there is more than a strong understanding among "the troops" that PDA or Accommodation Assistance Allowance or whatever you want to call it, is going to be ripped away by a Conservative government which out of the other side its mouth talks about supporting troops and their families.

Now that's support, isn't it? I wonder, MacKay, does the Taliban check out the effects of the Conservative government's morale busting efforts or do they just read me when I bitch that you haven't properly defined what victory is in Afghanistan?

You know what the "older" Canadians who used to wear the uniform (and thus, understand "sacrifice") are telling the "younger" Canadians who now wear the uniform (and therefore don't understand "sacrifice")?

Conservatives will always hack away at the pay and benefits of the armed forces. Diefenbaker did it, Mulroney did it and now you can count on Harper doing it. It's in their blood.*

So, let's see what colour MacKay wears on Fridays after he cuts the pay of some service personnel by up to $450 per month.

* From a conversation across a table full of beer near one of Canada's naval bases. The retired were speaking to the serving. The serving were not happy.