The reality is that in many of the environments we go to, including the examples you've cited—and not assuming the more traditional peace support missions we've been on in Haiti—a response to a significant crisis within a country happens on such short notice. Where our capability and our preparedness allow us to react, we can then turn to the units that are at a high level of readiness and used to working together, and we can react on short notice.
I'd like to remind people that because I have received two taskings to go overseas on relatively short notice, I still have my kit packed at home. Other than needing a lawyer to sign a power of attorney in a matter of hours, I can be on a plane to go anywhere in the world. That's something we try to inculcate in the culture of our soldiers: to be adaptive and react to any situation.
The reality for soldiers, though, is that many of the situations they may go into can be benign but there can also be criminal organizations there that can represent a threat, or there may be insurgent activity occurring in the midst of a humanitarian calamity. The soldiers need to be able, first and foremost, to defend themselves and then to work that process through. The fundamental piece of that is working as a team.
The C-17, for example, and the new Hercules aircraft that we're buying provide tremendous capability for us to express Canadian values in a time of great need anywhere in the world. We're just a part of that. So we work with the air force and a variety of organizations beyond the army. It's important to recognize that this is a higher level Canadian Forces piece.
But in terms of training our soldiers, we try to train them with that mentality in mind. They have to be ready to go anywhere anytime and respond with a skill set obtained through a level of training that allows them to react to the greatest range of tasks they could possibly confront.