The Tory Dilemma

...illustrated nicely by Brian Lilley, who argues:

The fact of the matter is that if Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Defence Minister Peter MacKay or General Rick Hillier are guilty of war crimes, then so are the soldiers that carried out those orders.

Here we see the Tory strategy in a nutshell, which is to hide behind the troops: if the PM is guilty, soldier boy gets it. I'll leave aside Mr. Lilley's interpretation of article 33, other than to say that it has been challenged.

He goes on:

If the members of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition were so confident in their assertions that war crimes occurred, they would be joining Professor Michael Byers from UBC in asking the ICC to investigate Canada. They don’t for two reasons, firstly to do so would rob them of a weapon to beat the government over head with during question period, secondly, the Liberals are smart enough to realize that the Canadian public would not take kindly to our own politicians accusing our own soldiers of war crimes.

I agree with Mr. Lilley that the Liberals are indeed smart enough, which is why they are leaving this kind of accusation to Conservative partisans like Mr. Lilley and Mr. Levant. I would also note that, should any parliamentary inquiry into the detainee scandal be launched, it will be up to those Tory MPs involved in the investigation to make suggestions along the lines of "Hey! lets arrest some soldiers!" The Liberals certainly won't be.

Good luck with that, fellas.