National Defence committee  Earlier, we spoke with Mr. Harris about General Allen, who is favourable to another combat element against ISIL. That element consists in addressing some of the challenges you mentioned in a context that is not strictly of a military nature, but affects the government as a whole.

National Defence committee  As General Hood and I explained, the Canadian Armed Forces have a defensive capacity. We defend our own systems, and not all systems.

National Defence committee  There are two aspects—national and international. We are clearly involved on an international level.

National Defence committee  To add to that, the Baghdad element is key to the future of Iraq. One other thing that the Iraqi defence forces are doing is concentrating their main capabilities in that region in order to protect what they see as their vital ground. Without our going in there, one could only

National Defence committee  The element here is that this is all part of the overall campaign plan to make sure that Baghdad is not being seized. The fact that they were using construction equipment to get rid of some of the damming that affected the water allocation within the region certainly affected the

National Defence committee  Sir, if I might add to that, when ISIL moved kind of east towards Iraq, some U.S. equipment was left behind in some areas. We all saw in the press the talk about some of the banks that had been robbed in order to help ISIL finance their work, so that's part of those levels of equ

National Defence committee  But I wouldn't say only western, though. They don't want any foreign forces.

National Defence committee  The goal of the 30-day mission was to send our Special Operations Forces on site to assess what kind of a contribution we could make on the Iraqi soil. We began by holding discussions with the Iraqis to ensure they were open to this mission. We also held discussions with the U.S.

National Defence committee  We have fulfilled our contribution commitment. General Hood provided the exact number of missions. In close collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, we delivered the military equipment to Iraqi forces, in Erbil. They now control that equipment

National Defence committee  If I may add on the peshmerga, they are key to the success of that fight; they are one of the most proficient forces in the region. The fact that we have the opportunity to help them get to the point where they can be an effective force in the region is an important role that we

National Defence committee  The other thing I would add to that, if I may, is that the coalition puts a lot of emphasis on trying to locate, from an intelligence perspective, any indication that those kinds of capabilities are falling into those hands. Yes, it's a great concern for us in Canada, but it's

National Defence committee  It also speaks to the interoperability that we have as we go through all of the exercises that we do all year long. The fact that we can now operate together in a kind of operational setting speaks volumes about the training we've been doing.

National Defence committee  Some of these young soldiers have not experienced Afghanistan for example. For them it's a very good opportunity to test those skills and increase their level of readiness operating with other countries. So they are very enthusiastic about what they are doing right now.

National Defence committee  The opportunity is there. The NATO standard is well recognized by countries in the region. That gives us a basis for communication. It might not be at the same classification level as when there is only one NATO group, but we have the opportunity to exchange information with thos

National Defence committee  One of the basic principles of smart defence is that the integration level of participating countries is quite high. Sometimes, new countries working with us or joining our operations do not have the same level of expertise. Therefore, we have not been able to really test the con