BRIGHT SPOTS

This week saw two rare pieces of good news in the war in Afghanistan.

The first comes, like a German battalion, with multiple caveats --
Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's top military commander and the single
most powerful voice in support of the conflict, stepped down as chief
of defence staff on Tuesday.

Admittedly, Hillier's resignation is not cause to break out the back
flips and pinatas. Canadian troops will have to endure the transition
from Hillier's fiercely charismatic tenure and his replacement has
some heavy boots to fill.

There's also the unsavoury tang of politics surrounding his
departure. Was the outspoken general -- whose unabashedly blunt
assessments may have caused former defence minister Gordon O'Connor
to be shuffled -- another black-bag collar by the thought police who
run Tory communications? Was he disheartened by the government's
intention to shift his troops' mandate from a combat role to a
fuzzier "reconstruction" strategy? Or was his resignation a show of
disgust over Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier's recent crude calls for
the replacement of the governor of Kandahar, the notoriously violent
Afghan province where Canadian troops serve?

Yet, most hearteningly, the manner of his departure has at least
alleviated those concerns. The Tories and the general part as
friends, at least superficially, with both sides taking pains to
mollify the other.

The Canadian Press also pointed out the timing of his departure is
the least politically-charged situation possible for a general
beloved by the press as much as the troops, with Manley's report
delivered, the parliamentary vote on the mission passed, NATO
providing some help and the prospect of an imminent election on simmer.

More importantly, though, it's the right decision for Hillier and the
Canadian military. Canada's top generals usually serve three years
and his tenure was up Feb. 5 -- Hillier deserves some relief from one
of the most terrible burdens there is: commanding troops at war. He
also leaves with the lustre of his legacy intact; hopefully he'll be
remembered as one of the finest soldiers ever to serve this country.

The second piece of good news is Bernier's aforementioned comments on
Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar.

Again, at first blush, the foreign minister's hamfistedness -- he
publicly demanded Afghan president Hamid Karzai replace Khalid, a
grievous diplomatic insult -- is both cause for his immediate
resignation and yet another example of a Conservative foreign policy
that seems to have been concocted in a backwoods' still.

But not so fast. First, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while saying
he regretted Bernier speaking out loud (modern Tories don't do that),
backed the gist of his minister's comments, indicating Canada is
serious Khalid has to go. Second, it's a move that reflects the
realities on the ground: while there's a grassroots movement to
replace Khalid, who's been accused of personally torturing Taliban
prisoners, he's all but untouchable since he's a Karzai, and
American, favourite.

In fact, according to the Senlis Council, Khalid got his job largely
because the U.S. loves his hardline support of the other conflict in
Afghanistan: the war on drugs. Khalid is unpopular because locals
feel his harsh policies on destroying the poppy fields that produce
heroin unfairly punish farmers doing whatever they can to exist in a war zone.

Canadian troops are caught in the middle of this situation, where
their work winning the hearts and minds of Afghanis is being
jeopardized by the blind narcotics jihad the U.S. is currently waging
in that country (to not much success: in 2007, 93 per cent of the
world's opiates came from Afghanistan.) Calling out Khalid at least
sends a message to Karzai that Canada isn't happy with the situation,
and is also a not-so-subtle rebuke of the U.S.'s badly flawed drug
policies in the region.

Seen in this light, it's a vicious, underhanded diplomatic manoeuvre
and, if intentional, one the Conservatives should be proud of. It's
also a sign, by taking on the sensibilities of the U.S. and its Drug
Enforcement Agency, that the Tories are finally willing to start
playing with the hefty clay chips at the big boys' table when it
comes to Afghanistan.

And that might be the best news of all.