April 12, 2005

Don't let it stop the beatification

A necessary tonic in the Post today on newest Canadian senator Romeo Dallaire. Dallaire is appreciated, generally speaking, by members of the media far more than soldiers, I find. The former group identifies with his witnessing of tragedy and failed attempts to raise alarm bells. To say he has the conscience of a good journalist is not meant as a slight. But in military terms his catatonia in crisis is, at the absolute best, a cautionary example. As the authors correctly observe, his recent best-selling book does not mention his refusal to testify at a Belgian inquiry into the loss of that country's soldiers in Rwanda, but that omission doesn't hold him back from calling them a lot of racist alcoholics, either. It's rare to see a general so overtly blame the dead for his mission's failure, and it does no credit to Canadian arms at all to have it appear in print.

Posted by BruceR at 04:38 PM