On weak points

Let's add one more item to the list of problems with the widely-panned Lib/Green sideshow, as it's taken attention away from issues which highlight the Cons' continued lack of fitness for office. But with only one national opposition party playing its role, James Travers steps into the breach by discussing the continued embarrassment that is Gordon O'Connor:

An awful week for Canadians in Afghanistan and a few bizarre days in federal politics are positioning Gordon O'Connor as a greater potential threat to Stephen Harper than Stéphane Dion.

Truth is being made stranger than fiction here by a confluence of curious events. At their centre is a defence minister with the unerring ability to target Conservative weaknesses the Liberal leader misses.

At a time when the country is mourning new Kandahar losses and beginning to consider the implications of changing Taliban tactics, O'Connor is raising fresh concerns about the war, defence strategy and this "new" government's accountability. Between mid-week and weekend, a minister considered among the Prime Minister's most accident-prone made Afghanistan sound like Iraq, reversed without public debate a three-year-old defence policy by buying 100 surplus battle tanks, and awarded a $30-million contract to a firm that once hired him to lobby...

Remarkably, O'Connor's most hazardous error is drawing little notice. In searching for light at the end of the Kandahar tunnel, he imprudently raised the spectre the Harper government fears most by attaching the Bush administration's empty Iraq promises to Afghanistan.

For those who missed it, O'Connor suggested Canadian troops could be home in 2010 – more than a year after the current commitment ends – as long as Afghanistan's army and police meet international standards set in London last year. That makes superficial sense in that it accepts NATO isn't willing to stay forever and recognizes that ultimate responsibility for security rests in Kabul.

But closer examination reveals the plan is as flawed as the one now failing in Iraq. Current security and infrastructure investments fall far short of the accepted international thresholds for rescuing failed states and there's no reason to suspect that the weak and notoriously corrupt Hamid Karzai regime will gain legitimacy, or control the country, anytime soon...

Protecting lives is a self-evident procurement priority. But having a tank booster and former lobbyist promoting the purchase is awkward for a government still attacking Liberal ethics and accountability.

Remarkably, on the same day Conservatives unveiled another probe centred on the former government's contracting and just one before the tank announcement, O'Connor handed General Dynamics the multi-million dollar deal for new equipment to detect biological threats. As the late, great U.S. writer Molly Ivins liked to say, you can't make this stuff up.

War is always a bad time to have a weak defence minister. Fighting both a war and an election with one is a pratfall waiting to happen.

What's more, Travers misses another (albeit subtle) example of the current disorganization within O'Connor's department. Faced with a deadline this week to respond to a lawsuit surrounding Canadian treatment of Afghan detainees, Defence apparently didn't bother to do anything - when it would have had options to either file a response on time, or at least seek consent in advance rather than risking refusal. Which now leaves it in the entirely unnecessary position of having to seek an extension at a time when it's already failed to comply with the rules - making its claim that "the rough terrain of Afghanistan ate my documents" seem a poor attempt to cover up after the fact.

Needless to say, it would be for the best if this kind of incompetence were a far greater story than it's been to date. Indeed, the surest way to ensure that Harper doesn't remain in government for long is to draw plenty of attention to precisely what he and his party have done behind the photo-ops and public announcements. And with O'Connor still inexplicably holding Harper's confidence, there should be plenty more worth questioning as long as the Cons remain in power.