Mr. Chair, let me tell my hon. colleague what we did when we were in government. The then minister of defence and current leader of my party went across the country articulating why we were in Afghanistan, what we were doing and what our objectives were. We stated those objectives very clearly.
General Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, whom we appointed, has also been very vocal and very explicit about the objectives of this particular intervention in Afghanistan.
Op-eds have been written.
A take note debate took place in the House when we were in government.
Also, I was the former parliamentary secretary of defence and I can tell the House that these questions were brought up repeatedly in the defence committee.
If the public is having difficulty with this, it is because of particular questions and doubts that have been foisted on them by the NDP and perhaps by the Bloc Québécois, about falsehoods they are portraying and complete mythologies they are putting out about this particular intervention. I am sure the public will listen to the very eloquent comments that have been made by members across the House about the truth of the matter.