Mr. Chair, at times in this chamber there is a happy coincidence of views on some broad issues. What we have heard tonight is that all members of all parties are supportive of the decision to have our troops in Afghanistan for reasons stated throughout the evening, which I will not cover again.
Just as Canadians have proven themselves on the field of battle and on the humanitarian field, Canadians, especially when related to our armed forces, have proven themselves to be courageous, to be willing to sacrifice to the ultimate and to be willing to do what has to be done to preserve human rights, individual freedoms and democracy. Canadians have stood proud and our troops in Afghanistan tonight are proudly doing what they are called upon to do. They are doing it with professionalism and with an eye to the future because they really do believe that an emerging democracy in Afghanistan will be of huge benefit to the people there and in fact to the world. We give the greatest credit to our troops that are there.
However the question that still has not been answered concerns the consistency in the federal government's foreign policy. I want to put the question again because I asked it on a couple of occasions earlier tonight and did not receive an answer. One of my colleagues from the NDP asked a similar question and we did not receive a consistent answer.
As I said before, Canadian citizens, our friends, our allies and our enemies need to know where we stand on different issues. There needs to be predictability in our policy.
If we look back to 1999, Canadian troops were involved in Kosovo. Canadian pilots dropped bombs on Kosovo and killed people. They were joined by other forces, predominantly NATO forces, and they did so because a genocide was unfolding before our eyes. Milosevic at that point was responsible for the slaughter of some 8,000 people and counting, and there had to be intervention. Our troops, along with other troops, bravely did what had to be done to stop what was already horrific enough with 8,000 slaughtered.
In 1999, without the approval of the UN Security Council, we supported our troops taking military action in Kosovo and yet, if we hit the playback button and go back five years earlier to Rwanda, our general on the ground in Rwanda was literally begging for intervention because he foresaw what was about to become one of the most horrific genocides of the 20th century of over a million people mainly macheted and axed to death. Where was Canadian foreign policy then?
The UN could not get its act together, just as it could not get its act together related to Kosovo, but through NATO, Canada took the leadership role in saying that we had to intervene in Kosovo but we failed in Rwanda. This is what I am talking about in terms of the inconsistency of policy.
Let us hit the fast forward button and look to Iraq and the situation there. We went into Kosovo when 8,000 people had been slaughtered. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein had slaughtered, according to the shallow graves found by the Red Cross, some 300,000 people and he had a history of invading other countries. He invaded Kuwait and Iran. He sent Scud missiles into Israel and said that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map and yet we made a decision not to go into Iraq.
I will say it was not the position of the Conservative Party at that time to go into Iraq. We did say we should have our ships in the Persian Gulf because there were Canadians involved in Iraq with American troops. The federal government denied that for quite a period of time. In fact, because we put pressure on the government, it finally acknowledged that there were Canadian soldiers fighting in Iraq. We said we needed to be there to support our troops if we have to get them out. We never did say be part of the invasion, the pre-emptive action into Iraq.
I am asking a question in terms of consistency of policy. Why would the federal government say yes to Kosovo? It said yes, we will go into Kosovo, yes, we will bomb people, yes, we must kill people because 8,000 have been slaughtered, but 300,000 were slaughtered in Iraq and our government said no.
Then we jump to Sudan and what is going on there because of the extremist Islamic front out of Khartoum. The Janjaweed warriors still have free rein. They are slaughtering people, killing, raping. It is estimated now that there are some four million Sudanese and Darfur refugees in Egypt alone, yet our government is not saying we have to go in there.
The Security Council will not give approval because China sits there and China has significant oil interests related to Sudan. The Security Council is not going to do it.
Again I come back to the question, we said yes in Kosovo without Security Council approval and 8,000 people had been slaughtered. In Sudan right now in Darfur it is estimated that 8,000 people every two weeks are being slaughtered, but we sit idle. We are not out trying to put together a multilateral force to go in. The African Union is reticent to take on their own brothers.
Our military vehicles get held up and we do not protest. These are military vehicles that we had committed to go into Sudan, but the Prime Minister had not received clearance. He did not even bother to get clearance from the Khartoum regime. It was only as a result of American action a couple of days ago that those vehicles have been released.
As we close out the debate tonight, we are still asking for an explanation of this inconsistency in policy. As I say that, I do not want there to be any mistake that we are supportive of our troops being in Afghanistan and what they are doing there, but someone has to explain the inconsistency in policy to us.