Foreign Policy: Foreign to Politicians?

A disturbing trend has recently become evident in the media-centred debate over the CF deployment to Afghanistan. It seems that the most fervent supporters of Canada's foreign policy in Afghanistan are soldiers! It seems that the job of selling this mission to Canadians has fallen to those in uniform.

Theirs is not to reason why
I don't mean this literally. I think every soldier should think about why he is doing what he is doing, and for what greater purpose. In an ideal world, the soldier has fully integrated his mission with his personal political beliefs.

However, at the end of the day, our political opinions, as soldiers, are no more relevant than those of a police officer confronting protestors. We are there to do a job, at the behest of the Government of Canada. It is incumbent upon the Government of Canada, at the political level, to justify and defend its foreign policy. In other words, this is Peter Mackay's file.

Soldiers have political opinions like other citizens. Soldiers have the right to make statements with political implications or that belie their political orientations. In fact, many times when soldiers give their educated professional opinion, these cannot help but have political and public policy overtones. Many commentators have noted that highly placed military officers are loathe to express themselves freely, for fear of being politicized. Few generals want their names used as a source in parliamentary debates. There is a fine line to walk between expressing military opinions with political implications, which is the duty of high commanders, and taking on the responsibility of selling the foreign policies of the Government to the Canadian public.

There is one person responsible to Canadians for the deployment of Canadian soldiers. That is the Prime Minister, supported by his cabinet.

Generals and soldiers alike should be very wary of becoming the public voice for Canada's interventionist foreign policy. It is excellent that so many soldiers believe so strongly in what we are doing over there. Yet, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we are the sharp end, the boots on the ground, the arms and legs under the control of the Government. As much as we crave the support of the people back home, it is the responsibility of our government and the people themselves to show this support or bring us home.

Up to now the government and the people of Canada have done a pretty patchy job of showing support for their deployed troops. I find this as problematic as the next person, but I'm not comfortable with soldiers taking on the role of political apologists for Canada's foreign policy.

A Soldier Defends the Afghan Deployment
Mackay Defers to General Hillier on Length of Afghan Deployment