Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to focus on the work that our troops and the development people are doing. While I was in Afghanistan, I talked with Colonel Dixon, who has extended the writ of the government by taking the ministers out to 17 provinces. I talked to women and children who were very pleased, particularly with the Canadian troops and the development people. Some hundred-odd judges have been trained. There are women judges trained. There are six million boys and girls in schools. There are military operations that are trying to secure electricity for two million people in Afghanistan through the Kajaki dam. There are foreign countries--the United States, Canada, and India--that are trying to invest moneys just south of Kabul in a copper mine and bidding up to $1.8 billion and more.
So I am a little surprised that we're extremely critical of ourselves, and we should be because we want to maintain high standards, but at the same time it would be really appreciated if the troops are given a compliment once in a while. We just buried eight recently, these people who are there.
I don't think people in this room really understand what we're dealing with in Afghanistan. I understand the region. I've lived next door to it and I know their thinking. When you see a woman with a blue burka with a bullet in her head, women not allowed to go out anywhere, all kinds of restrictions, kidnappings, people being assassinated, hung in trees, and shot.... Let's get the perspective here, please.
I think there will be perhaps some lack of compliance on the part of the Afghan people. We're trying to correct the circumstances. There are going to be these...so let's not get into a situation where we become so critical and politicize this entire operation. It's really sad.
I'd like you to comment on our operation in Kajaki and the Kajaki dam, Mr. Minister, if you have the update on that.