Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I believe this motion is timely, given that we're going to have a six-hour debate on this topic in the House tomorrow. Basically, we'll be debating a topic that we really don't know that much about. I know the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister said we're in for the long haul, but we have no idea what the “long haul” means. In Afghanistan that could mean a heck of a long haul, but we don't know. We just know that the government says we're there for the long haul. I think our party agrees that we should be there and that we should be making our contribution to the effort.
I think we should have more intelligence on what is actually happening there. What is the state of troop recruitment? How is our equipment holding up? Is there a reason to have better equipped personnel? Is there the rollover of troops? Are there numbers available to actually carry out the mission in the long term? I don't think we can expect our soldiers, the same people, to stay there year after year, so there has to be a turnover. Do we have the people trained to do that?
It is a war situation, and it's unpredictable. That particular country has a pretty tough history as far as war is concerned, whether it's dealing with the English or the Russians or the Americans or the Canadians. So I think this committee should look into the situation in Afghanistan prior to having a parliamentary debate. I think there's a lot of information we have to have before we can have a proper debate in the House. For that reason, we're supporting the motion to have this committee look more in-depth at the situation before we have a parliamentary debate.