Mr. Speaker, of course it is essential that the military personnel know where they are going and it is also essential to make some provision for this. One cannot come out of a meeting with the president of the United States and say “He did not ask me anything”, and not prepare for anything. Come on, this is not the way this works.
The government must do some prevention, be prepared to face the situation and also carry out consultations. The government, the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence will have to see what our capabilities are and not make commitments with both eyes closed and both hands tied behind their backs. That is out of the question. We must protect our people and our military forces. We cannot send them to the front without knowing exactly what role they will be playing.
At present, we know very well how things are going in Afghanistan. They have an army; they have a different mentality. They are prepared to commit suicide for their cause. This means we must pay attention and be careful.
I believe we must also rely on the role of international courts, of NATO and the UN. We must work together with all these organizations in order to ultimately achieve positive results, instead of rushing in without any consultations and without knowing where we are going. We simply ask that democracy be applied here in parliament.