Canada's Own MacArthur has a fan club

I've made this MacArthur analogy about Hillier before. Apparently some people like him that way:

"Almost begrudging respect is paid to the intellect and skill of current Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, who it says, single-handedly bamboozled the best minds in Ottawa into adopting Canada’s International Policy statement. That should come as no surprise, given that Lang was quoted in The Globe and Mail on Aug. 10, 2006, saying: “The problem is, there isn’t anyone who can take him (Hillier) on with a counterworld view. He blows them away.” The problem wasn’t Rick Hillier: the problem was with the Liberals who were supposed to exercise informed oversight over him..."

No one in the military command structure should be "bamboozling" their civilian overseers. The military works for civilians, Hillier needs to understand this. One can only wonder what the Torch gang would say if Hillier made an end run around Harper.

It just boggles my mind that the military essentially selected its own mission in Afghanistan. I'm not sure whether it was Hillier's war-is-a-force-that-gives-us-meaning mentality or Martin's indecisiveness or combination thereof, but it seems as though it was far from inevitable that we got stuck with the worst assignment in Afghanistan.