Thank you very much, sir. That is most appropriate.
I think the point, first of all, is that the Canadian Forces is very good at training its people towards that, but I also believe we need a clear understanding of what “comprehensive approach” means, to the broadest level.
I've seen a comprehensive approach in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Bosnia and the Balkans, and in Libya for sure. As a military theatre commander I had my lanes, but what's the linkage with the political entities? We worked that part, as I said before, from political, military, economic, social, cultural, infrastructure, and the like.
We need to continue to train, but also we need to advise—and this is a failure of the military sometimes—our political leaders who give us those directions on how to work it together.
The feedback I gave to SACEUR rarely was based on what my military activities were as much as what I required inside these constructive comprehensive approaches, because it's a mutual approach, and I often asked what, for example, was—and I'm leading to your last question, the last point—the strategy to deal with Gaddafi, because we were the strong arm of NATO, doing kinetic activities and non-kinetic influence activities. What were the diplomatic activities? Who was talking to him? I know President Zuma and the African Union tried their best. The Arab League was doing some work. But was this coordinated, and who was coordinating it at that level? Much of it was done bilaterally, whether it was the U.S. directly, or France, or the U.K., or even Canada. I know everybody was doing some work on that.
My perspective is that we continue to train. You've said it. We train strategic corporals. It's just amazing the way we've done it. Sir, my experience is that not all countries are doing that because not all cultures are doing that. This is what I will go back to: what we can bring to NATO in many ways is the skill, capabilities, and knowledge we have, and therefore it's important to remain because we bring value-added.
I will close my point, sir, by saying that during the operation I told the admiral, “You probably notice there are quite a few more Canadian uniforms floating around your headquarters.” In fact the Canadian flag was floating beside my headquarters, and it was at MOBILE. I had it set up next door. His answer was, “I'd like to see more of those a lot more often and a lot more in a permanent manner.”
We made a difference as Canadians, sir, we make a difference to NATO today, and we can make a difference to NATO in the future by continuing to do what we're doing and what we're good at.