VIDEO: Hillier's public relations operation

The CBC recently ran a documentary called Selling the Forces. It focuses on General Hillier's Operation Connection, which is basically a well-orchestrated PR campaign to sell the Afghan mission and the CF generally. In the clip, we learn:

• Hillier is "a highly sophisticated military scholar who has intensely studied public relations as a key component of strategy".

• Hillier "spends up to 40% of his time meeting the public and politicians".

• In his own writing about the Afghan mission, this military scholar notes that "the objective becomes creating desired perceptions in those one wishes to influence".

• There are "500 uniformed and civilian public affairs staff worldwide in a $23 million a year effort" in public relations.

• "[T]here are three to four times more media officers in Kandahar - usually about a dozen - than the three CIDA civilian aid workers", notes the CBC.