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If I were to claim that this was my story, that I’d been the one to break it not Matt Fisher, I damn well would be intending to diminish his work and I’d be doing it too. There is no other possible result when you hog all the glory.

The thing is, Sajjan knows the truth. He knows he had a genuinely significant role in Medusa. He also knows that he didn’t run that show, that lots of others had roles as important or more important as his, and that some paid a far greater price than he did, and were killed.

As many times as he said ‘I’m owning my mistake,’ he did nothing of the sort

And he would know too what soldiers think of those who steal credit or crave attention. He knows the army code, rather like the code in hockey, doesn’t look with approval upon the hot dog, the guy who seeks publicity or revels in it too much.

To “own” his inexplicable statement, he should explain why he said what he said. I’m not sure there can be a credible explanation, but he should have tried, and at least explained what his thought processes were — I was tired and had a brain cramp; I was far away and didn’t think anyone at home would hear about it; my vanity got the better of me and I blew it.

In other words, as many times as he said “I’m owning my mistake,” he did nothing of the sort. And he owned up to it only when caught by a reporter squarely in the mess he’d created.

This is a critical time for the army (in the middle of a defence review) and particularly for the perpetually under-loved and always endangered reserves, the very ranks from which Sajjan hails.

Until this debacle, soldiers may have thought that whatever else, they had one of their own as minister, and that that was worth something.

It’s worth a hell of a lot less now.

• Email: cblatchford@postmedia.com | Twitter: blatchkiki