Afghanistan: The PMO's Titanic Mistake

As the Toronto Star points out, if Canadians aren't getting all of the news coming out of our efforts in Afghanistan (the Rumsfeldian Good News™) which Brig. General David Fraser is now openly complaining about, it isn't for a lack of trying either on the part of the media or opposition members of parliament.

"I'll tell you right now, the story Canadians are receiving is like an iceberg. They're only seeing one-third of it." [Fraser said.]
[...]
Fraser's criticism follows similar comments by Prime Minister Stephen Harper who has said several times that the good work Canadians soldiers are doing often goes unreported.

What the Conservative government does not say is that civilian members of government agencies, such as the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs Department, are routinely barred from speaking with journalists on the ground about redevelopment projects.

Last spring, Fraser's own principal political advisor at Kandahar Airfield — a Foreign Affairs staffer — was not allowed to be quoted on the record by the embedded media.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh blamed the information vacuum on the Conservatives and their policy of muzzling ministers and officials.

"I have the utmost respect for Gen. Fraser, the work he's done, and I understand his frustration," said Dosanjh. "But it's really up to the government to provide information. And they have not been providing that information."

Opposition MPs and senators — especially parliamentary defence committees — have "fought tooth and nail" to be briefed on the latest goings on in Afghanistan, he said.

Speaking to NATO parliamentarians last month about anemic support for the mission, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor conceded the government hadn't gone a good job engaging the public on the question of why the country was in Afghanistan.

I think it's time for Fraser to take a vacation and catch up on exactly what's been happening in Canada while he was in Afghanistan. Maybe then he can place the blame squarely where it belongs - at the feet of Harper who makes reporters grovel for every bit of information he allows to be released from his fortress of an office.

There certainly is a need for an icebreaker in Canada to break up that iceberg that Fraser referred to and its course should be 'Iceberg, dead ahead' as it aims for Steve's desk.