One of the more chilling aspects of the harpercon government's recent challenge to supremacy over the Afghan detainee documents was the repeated resort of the anti-democratic, pro-war, "conservative" crowd to babble that they would stand up for "the honour of the Canadian military" against the MPs who wanted to see the documents.

Militarism is a blight. It is one of the first slippery-steps to authoritarian dictatorship. It is antithetical to Canada's political traditions. But I read self-described "conservatives" professing just such values. (Obviously, there's been a consistent encouragement of militarist values on the part of our chicken-hawk harpercon government, to help drag our political culture down this level.)

And, what makes this even more revolting is that it's often the same anti-democratic stooges who will haul out the tired old inaccurate doggerel that we owe our freedom to the soldiers!

They'll say this while they demand that Parliament not be allowed oversight over the troops' actions in a war-zone. All the while they insist that to even question the mission the soldiers are on is treason. When Parliament DEMANDS to have oversight they call for Parliament to be resisted in the name of the honour of the Canadian military.

"I won't tell you what I do with my prisoners. It's a question of defending my honour!" It's absolutely insane. If they have any honour then they won't be afraid to account for their behaviour. If the politicians who put them in the war-zone have forced them into a dishonourable position then force those politicians to be accountable.

"Freedom" is something more than a word shouted by anti-Semitic actor-director Mel Gibson before a battle scene. "Freedom" is something more than something that "isn't free" but which comes with a video-game.

Some people need to grow-up.