Mr. Speaker, we have seen from the hon. member a fairly impressive degree of pomposity in his commentary. There is one thing that I find a paradox and a perverse argument that the member made here and we have heard it from other members of his party. It is their adherence to the belief that somehow the rights, the protections, the ability to provide humanitarian relief, the ability to continue to rebuild that wartorn country is somehow going to mysteriously happen without the assistance of the international security force, without the ability to provide the security, that this will somehow fall from the heavens as if twice blessed upon the people below, as if somehow this could happen mysteriously.
We hear from the NDP members repeatedly their genuine belief, and I do believe it is genuine, that they want to promote women's rights, that they do embrace the diversity that exists within Afghanistan, the religious diversity, the cultural diversity, that they do support the women who were here last week. No one doubts their sincerity in that regard.
What is absolutely irreconcilable is to suggest that those same women who will return to their country could enjoy those protections and those rights and that ability to participate in the democratic society that has been created in Afghanistan. I was reading today about a young woman from Afghanistan who is going to compete in the Beijing Olympics. I heard from the ambassador of Afghanistan today who told a horrific story about a grandmother and her grandchild who were nailed to a tree by the Taliban as a form of assassination, public extermination of human life. We heard about people being thrown down wells, children being barred from education, absolutely atrocious human rights abuses that should be before war tribunals.
How can the member seriously suggest that to go back to that type of life which is what would happen without the presence of the international security force, how can he reconcile those two positions when he stands here today and lectures us in such a haughty and pompous way? How can he suggest that could happen?