Foreign Affairs committee  No. I totally agree with what Mike has said. I would say that I don't believe we've done everything we can at the national level yet. I think more needs to be done. But as we all know, the need is so vast and great in Afghanistan. How do you divvy up the resources that the inte

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of next steps, I covered that in my remarks. I think there's a tremendous opportunity for Canadian parliamentarians and the Government of Canada to develop professional working relationships with the new parliamentarians, both at the national assembly and at the provinci

Foreign Affairs committee  There has been that sort of discussion going on. In the constitutional loya jirga back in 2003-04, there was a discussion about the best form of representation, what kind of system works. As you know, Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country that is made up of a diverse group of cul

Foreign Affairs committee  I agree with what Mike is saying, in the sense that the institutions need to be built out. I think Afghans themselves need to understand what the system is going to do for them. The international community came in along with the senior Afghan officials, presented democracy, and

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just add that there's already a large resource of educated Afghans present in the country. Those are the individuals who have grown up and been educated in Iran and Pakistan and have come back. There's a wealth of talent that just needs to be tapped at this point in time.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, I wouldn't say there's a disconnect. There's just no opportunity for them to get involved. There's a good report that was done by the Afghan research and evaluation unit on public administration reform in Afghanistan a year or two ago that lays out very succinctly what the

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank you and the other members of the committee for the opportunity to be here this afternoon. I'd also like to commend the committee for its methodical and thoughtful deliberations about the challenges that Canada, the international community, and the