Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the NDP does not understand about the situation in Afghanistan.
A hostile militia is seeking to overthrow the democratically elected government and to cause violence and mayhem, an organization that is clearly closely associated with the al-Qaeda network. The Taliban is not interested in developing Kandahar province, which is precisely why it is seeking to destabilize the situation.
We cannot send aid workers in, as the NDP would have us do, to submit themselves to the tender mercies of the Taliban without first establishing security in the region.