Rona Ambrose and the Assault On Harjit Sajjan

The grotesque chicken hawk Rona Ambrose has disgraced herself so many times it's almost impossible to keep a body count.

Whether demanding that we should drop more bombs on one country or another, or attacking the Trudeau children, or trying to prevent doctors from helping dying heroin addicts, she simply has no shame.

And now she has disgraced herself again.



By demanding that defence minister Harjit Sajjan resign or be fired for the "crime" of "stolen valour."

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose accused Sajjan of "stolen valour" for taking credit for the actions of another, and called on Trudeau to fire him for dishonouring himself and the military.

Which couldn't be more outrageous for at least three good reasons:

One, you don't accuse a man who served THREE tours of duty in Afghanistan of the "crime" of "stolen valour" without sounding like a coward yourself.

Two, Sajjan may have embellished his role in the battle known as Operation Medusa, as many old soldiers sometimes do. But he has apologized profusely, and at least his claim didn't come out of thin air. 



I must say that Major Sajjan is one of the most remarkable people I have worked with, and his contribution to the success of the mission and the safety of Canadian soldiers was nothing short of remarkable.

Not only did he display a rare high level of intellect and experience in his analysis, he also demonstrated remarkable personal courage in his collection efforts, often working in the face of the enemy to collect data and confirm his suspicions, and placing himself almost daily in situations of grave personal risk.

He tirelessly and selflessly devoted himself to piecing together the ground truth on tribal and Taliban networks in the Kandahar area, and his analysis was so compelling that it drove a number of large scale theatre-resourced efforts, including OPERATION MEDUSA, a large scale conventional combat operation that resulted in the defeat of the largest TB insurgent cell yet identified in Afghanistan, with over 1500 Taliban killed or captured. 

Not with a letter like that from the supreme commander of Operation Medusa, Brigadier General David Fraser, which should allow him to claim that he was AN architect of that operation.

And lastly, but not leastly, claiming to be the architect of Operation Medusa is not the honour it might appear to be, or as good as it sounds...



For while the battle was a so-called tactical success, and our soldiers fought bravely. Fraser's decision to launch an assault on a Taliban stronghold known as the Pashmul 48 hours sooner than planned had tragic results. 

With several vehicles destroyed, four Canadian soldiers killed, and nine others wounded. For no good reason.

Indeed, it’s hard to see what caused the need to hurry–the Taliban were trapped and surrounded, it was now just a matter of lopping their heads off. As Fraser himself notes, the very heart of the Taliban strategy was to draw them into costly ground conflict. 

As one RCR officer said, it’s not like they were racing to save Ottawa from an invading force. “What’s the rush?” said another RCR officer. “We know where they are, it’s a free fire zone.”

Despite the arguments of his tactical commanders, Fraser would not be deterred. “The decision was ‘we’re gonna go in’ and 26 years of experience in seven different operations told me now was the time to go in there and finish this thing off.”

In the end, of course, the only thing that was very nearly finished off was Charles Company.

So the question Canadians should be asking themselves is not what was Sajjan's role in that battle?

But whether Fraser was pressured to attack prematurely by the self styled Great Warrior Leader Stephen Harper...



For the usual crass political purposes.

And of course the larger tragedy is that it was all for nothing. 

And the bottom line?

This whole hyper inflated controversy is being driven by racism more than anything else.

And the next time the ghastly chicken hawk Rona Ambrose accuses a Canadian soldier of the "crime" of "stolen valour."

She should be accused of the very real crime of stolen decency. 

Told to put up or shut up.

Or suit up herself...



Harjit Sajjan may have embarrassed himself, but he did not dishonour himself or our military.

While Rona Ambrose managed to disgrace herself, her party, and our country.

Her name will live in infamy, and she cannot be fired soon enough...



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P.S. I'd like to thank readers for all the get well messages and e-mails I have received. I'm still in some pain so blogging will be limited, but should be back to normal by the beginning of next week.