Madam Speaker, I know there are age differences in the House. I think I heard the hon. member say that he thought I was minister of external affairs only 10 years ago or whatever it was. He truly is a youthful member of the House. Sic transit gloria , if I may say so to the minister.
I am not sure there is much point in going back to whether that decision was a mistake or not. Going up the road to Baghdad was not as easy as it might seem in retrospect.
On the other issue, I am quite worried that the existing resolutions are limited in the scope that the inspectors can undertake. It is important, particularly dealing with a regime like that of Saddam Hussein, to find some way in which that mandate can be extended. I would not however want to put at risk the accomplishment today reported by Hans Blix. We take these things a step at a time.
The first step obviously is that we do everything we can to ensure that the Iraqis comply with the agreement that they have made. If they do, then we have to look at other means, whatever they are, to try to widen the mandate of the inspectors in Iraq.