Thank you very much.
Mr. Bouchard, it is a great pleasure to speak with you.
I have two questions. The first concerns an article concerning the mission in Libya. That article is entitled, "NATO Sees Flaws in Air Campaign Against Qaddafi". The author writes as follows:
“Nations did not effectively and efficiently share national intelligence and targeting information among allies and with partners,” the report said. “The inability to share information presented a major hindrance to nations deciding if a target could be engaged” based on information from another country.
I would like to know your opinion. What caused that lack of intelligence sharing, what are the consequences of these problems, and how can they be corrected during future operations?
You also said in your introductory remarks that, if you break things, you have to rebuild them. I would like to discuss that point a little.
I would like to draw a parallel with what I have seen, although it does not concern Canada. I am talking about what happened in Iraq. I was a military member at the time and that enormously affected me. When Hussein fell, we saw—at least in the media, because it may not have happened exactly like that on the ground—military members protecting the oil ministry while hospitals and schools were pillaged. Some people stole x-ray equipment. Ultimately, the country had to rebuild things that it could perhaps have protected.
I would like to know whether there was a specific action plan to provide rapid protection for civilian institutions in operations such as the one conducted in Libya. Did you have a plan? Did you know, as Gadhafi fell, how many military personnel you had to send to such and such a hospital, for example? Was there a specific plan of that kind? Did you know the civilian institutions that had to be protected? Is that something that is generally integrated, if I can put it that way, in missions in which several countries are involved? Do commanders have that vision, and do they immediately think of institutions that must be protected, to prevent them from being destroyed and so they are able to be operational as soon as possible?