Sir, from my understanding just in reading this over the last few days, that doesn't happen military to military. The kind of discussion you're talking about happens at a diplomatic government-to-government level.
While at any one moment we can assess that the probability is low of anything, we have been abject failures at predicting the future. Had you told me a few years ago that we were going to be in Afghanistan, I would have said, “Okay, where is that?” We've been to places like East Timor, Eritrea, and Kosovo. When they say that we're going to go to Kosovo, we cannot predict what's going to happen next. That's the challenge for the military. The men and women in uniform will always salute the flag, move out the door, and do the best they can, because they have no choice. They signed up. They volunteered. And they do an extraordinary job.
All of that is to say that when we have them in harm's way we have to give them all the tools to be successful because their lives are at risk. That again has been reinforced by the experience in Afghanistan. Really, since Korea, we kind of forgot that piece. Having worn the blue beret a number of times, we actually got into really hot situations in places like Cyprus and places like Bosnia.
I think we need to provide the tools so that the men and women can achieve their mission to bring peace and security to far-off lands, because it affects Canada. The defence of Canada starts 10,000 kilometres away in places like Kabul, Afghanistan.