Mr. Chairman, if I could begin, others can pick up and speak on this.
Perhaps picking up very quickly on elements of the member's two earlier questions as well, you must recognize that while we honour the sacrifice that Canadians have made, there are Afghan officials whose lives have been taken. There is a targeted assassination campaign that has been going on for some time. There are Afghan National Police whose lives have been lost in great numbers because of the attacks they have suffered. There's the Afghan National Army.
So it is true to say that in the south as elsewhere, as is common in a counter-insurgency, Afghan officials throughout the government are under threat. Those who cooperate with allied forces are under threat. It would be well for the committee and the Canadian population to understand the sacrifices that the Afghans themselves have made in building and defending their country.
It is certainly true that in the south, as part of the counter-insurgency, creating that fear and instability, undermining efforts to develop adequate governance, and trying to generally instill in the population the sense that they're in control and we're not part of--