You forget johnpauljones,

that shortly after Harper took office in 2006, he went to Afghanistan and followed up on Gen Rick Hillier's 2005 agreement with NATO that Canada would redeploy from its security, reconstruction and development mission in Kabul to its current combat mission in Kandahar.

2005 to 2007 was a very scary time for Canada. During that time, Canada was ruled by the military. The decision to redeploy to the south made with NATO, the decision to hand PoWs over to Afghan authorities made with the Afghan government and the lesser decision to send tanks to Afghanistan (Afghan insurgents have no large numbers of tanks, we are using tanks to destroy villages, communities and peoples' homes and to terrorize Afghans), were all made by Gen. Rick Hillier and his military staff of lackeys. An often red faced Harper merely stated before the cameras that Hillier's policy was Harper's policy.

My guess is Hillier was given an ultimatum: He was 'voluntold' to take early retirement or be ignominiously fired. If we read accounts of the time, we know that he 'chose' to leave with much fanfare.

I personally lay all the deaths and casualties of Canadians in Afghanistan after our redeployment to the south on Harper's doorstep. Make no mistake, Harper has their blood on his hands. As far as I am concerned, Harper is a war criminal.