Thank you very much and thank you for being here, gentlemen.
I might say that I believe I looked snappier in my uniform than I do today in my civvies.
I think it's well known that Canadian soldiers' reputation as peacekeepers was really built in the wars throughout the past century. We can look at the first one, with Vimy Ridge. You can go through Ortona. You can go through D-Day. Perhaps a more comparable one would be Korea. We're recognizing 50 years since the ceasefire in Korea. The PPCLI was engaged in one of the pre-eminent battles there, Kapyong, and in fact won a presidential citation for it.
My point here is I believe that our soldiers’ interoperability is saving lives and has saved lives, many lives. Having restrictions on that capability could keep them from helping out in different world situations that they have been in in the past. I certainly feel, as does everybody in this room, that cluster munitions are just obscene. They really should not be used. All attempts to ban them should be worldwide.
In the meantime, we have another responsibility and that's to the world. We have a responsibility to be engaged. As you said, General, we don't know where the next one is going to be. I hardly knew where Afghanistan was before that came up, but it was necessary for Canada to be on the pointy part of that confrontation with the United States. Whereas many other countries had exceptions to it, and they might not go out at night or they might not do it this way or they might not do it that way, Canada had none of those exclusions in acceptance. Canada was there predominantly with our American partners out in the field.
We owe these soldiers a great deal of respect and we want to protect their rights. I don't believe that we can make side deals with other countries that will better protect our soldiers than we have in this agreement here. In other words, it's our responsibility to protect our soldiers from litigation or possible blame on being involved, from here, not depending on another country whether they're going to or not.
When we're talking about being actively engaged in these units, there's no time for recusing oneself, no time to step out of this or step out of that. You're there to be involved and totally engaged. I think it would be destabilizing if your partners out in the field thought you were going to have these hesitancies from time to time. You said, General, that the way the circumstances are now, the soldiers will be hesitant, that they'll be uncertain, and that can interfere with a proper, solid commanding structure.
General, could you reinforce some of your beliefs to us? Number one, where is it best to have this understanding? To protect our troops, is it better to have the understanding in Canadian law or in foreign law to begin with? I would have hesitancy in our relying on our soldiers for litigation in other countries.
Could you comment on the importance of these clauses that protect our soldiers out in the field?