Thursday, August 19, 2010

Throwing them under the bus, one wheelchair at a time

Back here Dave highlighted a comment I made about the possibility of the Conservatives throwing the armed forces under the bus.

You may be placing too much mistrust in the military brass. They have several interests which separate them from the Harpercrats. Their war is being directed by a government that finds itself in significant hot water over it's handling of the conflict, and is actively attempting to hide from teh public and parliament over it. If that government is willing to throw Parliament under the bus to protect itself, no institution is safe from big black Con Firestones, including the military.

Also, the CF and its uniformed leadership have a long term interest in institutional coherence and stability that goes beyond Afghanistan and Stephen Harper. Under Hillier the frame alignment between the CF and the Cons got pretty incestuous. Now that scandal and coverup is the order of the day from Ottawa, it's in the CF's (under new leadership) interest to get as far from the Harperites as it can.
Now, watching this week's Veteran's Affairs drama unfold, it dawned on me that Conservatives have been throwing the Canadian Forces under the bus for several years now.

Except that they haven't been directly attacking the serving military: they need them too much as a stage prop, and their fetishistic base might almost start to think something was wrong with them if they did.

No, like the consumate sociopathic cowards they are, they've been doing it through the military's softer, less visible underside.

Veterans.

Especially the ones who suffer, often horrendously, as a result of their service. And they do this is as they commit the armed forces to a hot war producing a growing number of seriously wounded men and women.

It is appalling beyond words.

Silver and Sacrifice could not have been a more apt choices of material and name for this medal, struck and issued under the Conservative watch.

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