Obviously with our limited resources and our geographic remoteness, we have limited capabilities to contain and degrade an organization like this operating in the Middle East. However, we do have a role to play, as your question suggests, with our allies. So we are there, and there are actually over 60 countries that have joined in one form or another the international coalition against ISIL, against Daesh. Our Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lawson, recently attended a meeting in Riyadh with his counterparts from those more than 60 countries. Approximately 24 of those countries are engaged in active military operations in Iraq and/or in Syria against Daesh. The tradition of Canada is that when our security is threatened, when there is a serious, destabilizing threat to global security such as this, our values dictate, and in this case our interests require, that we play a role and not sit on the sidelines.
I would remind you, Mr. Chisu, that we are taking a whole-of-government approach to the menace of Daesh. We are doing so through what is, I believe, the world's sixth largest humanitarian aid contribution to the internally displaced persons of Iraq. Through our diplomatic efforts, Minister Nicholson just visited Baghdad and Erbil, as well as Amman and Abu Dhabi, to discuss our political efforts in the containment of ISIL. Our encouragement to the Iraqi government and parliamentarians to unify and avoid sectarian divisions in confronting ISIL, but we believe there is an essential military component to this. The military dimension is not sufficient, but it is necessary.