I love it when tax dollars are used so efficiently to manipulate people into believing there’s any good to be gained from having our friends and family members killed in Afghanistan:
The Department of National Defence is intruding on academic financing, spending millions of dollars sponsoring think tanks and scholars to offer up agreeable commentary. When these intellectuals comment, they are not always quick to disclose that the military funds them.
Take the Conference of Defence Associations, a think tank that got $500,000 from DND last year. That money comes not with strings, but with an entire leash. A current DND policy reads that to receive money, CDA must “support activities that give evidence of contributing to Canada’s national policies.” Apparently, if CDA’s activities were neutral and unbiased, or even-handedly supported and questioned government policy, DND would refuse to pay!
…
Maclean’s (magazine) got CDA’s executive director, Colonel Alain Pellerin, to admit that the contract obliges it “to write a number of op-eds to the press” — propaganda paid for by you and me.