Critics are saying the government's defence minister and the armed forces' top general must get on the same page with respects to messaging, especially on Afghanistan.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier haven't appeared to be singing from the same songbook in recent days.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said Tuesday that generals and politicians must stick to their respective jobs.

"And in this case, the politicians -- including the prime minister -- have not been able to establish clear lines of authority as to who ultimately speaks for Canadians in Afghanistan," he said.

NDP defence critic Dawn Black went further, calling for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fire O'Connor, long a target for the opposition.

"The prime minister has to show some leadership, remove this minister of national defence and give Canadians a clear and concise vision of where we are going in Afghanistan," she said.

As examples on the differences, Hillier, chief of defence staff for the Canadian Armed Forces, rejected the idea of establishing new defence battalions in Canada's major cities in one media interview.

On CTV's Question Period on Sunday, Hillier also said it would take "a long while" before the Afghan National Army will ready to take on the bulk of the fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

One week earlier on the same show, O'Connor said, "We're hoping by the, about the end of this rotation it's going in now, this so-called Van Doos rotation, we'll have about 3,000 Afghan army operating within the Kandahar province."

The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday from Afghanistan that officials there estimate that 1,400 Afghan troops will be available for the beginning of fighting season in the spring of 2008.

Those soldiers, while very brave, are poorly equipped compared to the Canadian troops currently engaged in combat operations, the article said.

Perception the problem

Former Canadian general Lew MacKenzie said he thinks O'Connor and Hillier agree on the essentials. But he feels the public perception of difference has created confusion and undermined support for the mission in Afghanistan.

"Those two gentlemen need to get a grip, grab the perception by the scruff of the neck and wrestle it to the ground for the good of the Canadian people trying to understand what's going on over there," he said.

Gen. Andrew Leslie, the army's top general, said perceptions O'Connor and Hillier aren't in tune are wrong.

"I can look you straight in the eye and tell you that the messages I get from the chief of defence staff and the minister are absolutely crystal clear. They are sympatico, coherent and they are both singing from the same sheet of music," he said.

Col. (ret'd) Alain Pellerin of the Conference of Defence Associations suggested the positives of the mission are being lost in the argument over the alleged infighting.

"I think we're losing sight of what we're doing in Afghanistan," he said.

He noted the remarks of outgoing Canadian commander Gen. Tim Grant, who said Canadian efforts mean 40,000 more Afghan children are alive who might have otherwise succumbed to disease or other types of infant mortality.

However, Grant also said Monday that the Afghan army won't be ready to take over frontline responsibilities by next spring.

Analysts quoted by the Globe suggested that poor communications about the Afghanistan mission, particularly the conflicting messages coming from Hillier and O'Connor, is undermining support for the effort.

"I believe all of that undermines our credibility as a country internationally, and the morale of the troops in Afghanistan who we've sent into harm's way," Dosanjh said.

Pellerin said the government should hold a weekly briefing on the mission in Ottawa as was done during the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s.

Dosanjh also said he thinks the military and government should hold regular briefings on what's going on in Afghanistan.

"Part of the problem that Canadians face is this government has not been very, very open about what's going and that's partly why (Canadians) are not very clear on what's going on in Afghanistan," he said.

CTV News' Craig Oliver reported that in the past, the prime minister's office resisted the idea of regular briefings, but sources tell him the PMO is now reconsidering the idea.

With a report from CTV's Craig Oliver