Angry in the Great White North

In Canada, we had the infamous military ad put forth by the Liberal Party, suggesting the Stephen Harper and the Conservatives would use the military to impose some sort of martial law if they won the election, and that the military would go along with it. Today with the election safely in the past, and the Conservatives forming the new government, our Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, made his disgust clear:

Gen. Rick Hillier, the head of Canada's armed forces, has waded hip deep into federal politics, warmly praising Stephen Harper's ambitious proposals for the military — including a call for Arctic icebreakers — while slamming a Liberal election ad that "insulted" Canadian troops.

The outspoken general didn't mince words in condemning the controversial ad that used ominous music and drumbeats to darkly portray Harper's plan to boost troops in Canadian cities to assist in disaster relief.

"I, like almost every other man and woman in uniform — and I heard from thousands of them and their families — were insulted by that commercial," Hillier told reporters yesterday.

Hillier made his comments following a lavish Ottawa ceremony to mark the creation of four new military commands meant to streamline operations at home and abroad.

Conspicuous by their absence were representatives of the Liberal government, even though the Conservatives don't officially take over until Monday.

Things aren't much better in the United States, where the Washington Post ran a cartoon by Tom Toles. It shows a wounded soldier in a military hospital, missing his arms and legs, and US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, dressed as a doctor, saying "I'm listing your condition as 'battle hardened.'"

That has generated an equally angry reaction the Joint Chiefs, who wrote a letter to the editor:

...While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.

The funny thing is, while the left wing in both Canada and the United States seem happy to portray the military as callous thugs who don't respect democracy and the rule of law when such a portrayal will score political points, when confronted with those insults, the military seems to respond with remarkable constraint, with news conferences and letters instead of bullets and bombs.

The irony seems entirely lost on those who revel in insulting the military.