Thank you.
One of the aspects of the war in Afghanistan is that the public does not seem to be really concerned by what is going on. We have not yet been convinced, not made to see what is happening over there. It is a difficult position to be in. It is not that people do not want to help Afghanistan, quite the opposite. But we have not managed to get real answers. There has been a lot of talk about the lack of transparency. We have been trying to find out what is going on over there for several months and people line up to tell us that things are bad and that they will get worse if we leave. Is that enough? You will probably not be able to answer that question?
Let me tell you about a memory from my childhood. Earlier, Mr. Burney spoke about the need to put flags so that people can see what Canada is doing. It seems that people who receive aid do not see what Canada is doing any more than we see what our country is doing over there. I was born in Haiti, and unfortunately, people often talk about Haiti as being one of the poorest countries in the world, without having lived there or knowing what it is about. But that is reality, after all.
I remember when I was a child and we had natural disasters, provisions and flags were provided by the United Nations. I do not want to seem cynical when I say this, but the flags meant that you could identify the provisions when they were sold in the local market. As a child, I wondered why they did that and why those who gave the aid did it in a way that it ended up being sold in the market.
We who are in Parliament are trying to get answers and we get none. We are constantly asking why we went to that country. What exactly are we going to do? We see the focus changing all the time. First we went to Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban. Then we were told that it was to save women. Then we spend money so that we can tell people to look at the good we are doing. On the other end, the people receiving the aid are clearly pleased to get it, but, at the same time, they never get out of their poverty. Come what may, they have most of the casualties. I am conflicted when I hear all this. These are living, breathing people whom we say we are trying to help, but, when all is said and done, the strategy makes me think that we really cannot solve the world's problems.
It may be heart-breaking, but this is really how this situation makes me feel. We have never had a true picture of what is going on, much less a true assessment of our ability to solve the problems.
Do you have any comments?