Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I think in some ways, as we've had debate here or questions here, it really underlines how proud I was to be with Jean Chrétien when we debated this whole issue on the war in Iraq, and it really was one of my proudest moments as a member of Parliament when the Prime Minister said no to joining the war in Iraq. When I listened to Mr. Batters' rationale or presentation, it really reinforced that whole timeframe in which we made the decision.
I said the last time we dealt with this issue that I had lived through the Vietnam War experience in Canada, with many war resisters coming to Canada. I met many--not the 50,000 all told--on the west coast, in Vancouver and British Columbia, and when I was at the University of Waterloo I had many instructors and teachers who had fled the war in Vietnam. The poster child for that was Kim Phuc. If you remember, she was the young girl, nine years old, running from Napalm with her clothes burned off. Clearly that was an unjust war.
Mr. McDowell, I took your testimony...and that's what I was concerned about: people joining up for what they believed to be a just cause and finding out that it isn't a just cause. When one looks at what's happening at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, there are many people who are now being tried for war crimes who wish they had deserted or had said no, they weren't going to fight anymore.