Mr. Chair, thank you for that reminder. I can assure you my colleague was not responding out of any lack of attention for authority, he having served proudly as a Colonel in the Canadian Forces.
As most of us know, Canadians are regarded with huge respect everywhere around the world because of the dual role that we have played historically and that we play today, both as peace makers and peacekeepers. We are there. As our Prime Minister said, we do not cut and run. We stand there and defend people who need to be defended. We will continue to do this and not just in that country. I might add that it is not just in the role in terms of national defence and our armed forces, but also our policing forces.
We have officers from the RCMP and other police forces across the country who also serve in these places. They help train police forces in the proper administration of their duties such as what it is to be honourable police officers and how to apprehend people by following due process and course of law. It is not only our armed forces, but our policing forces from across the country are contributing as well.
It is really important to recognize that our involvement there is not only in the interest of Afghanistan, but it is also in Canada's interest to promote democracy everywhere. Historians record very faithfully that democracies very rarely go to war against each other. The more democracies we can encourage around the world, the more failed states we can encourage to become successful states and the more democracy is promoted and protected, the more peace we will have.