Mr. Speaker, I rise, as my colleague from B.C. has risen, to support the motion before the House. I understand an amendment is pending as well.
I agree with my colleague that the motion before us is a procedural motion that essentially says that the House should take on and do what it has agreed to do through the motion that was passed. It is important for Canadians to know that we are essentially debating whether or not we should do what the House said it would do. There is no controversy there from us.
In the amendment we put forward to extend the war in Afghanistan, we kept this part of the motion. We have been calling for more oversight.
When we look at the trajectory of this war and the previous and present governments' handling of it, reporting to Parliament, the involvement of Parliament and to actually have Parliament engaged in the debate from the point of view of information sharing has been problematic.
My colleague from B.C. noted that the access to information has been more than problematic. I look at the file on detainees. We have a bizarre situation where the American process and procedure is much more transparent than the Canadian process. The Americans put up on their website who has been detained and why. They do not try to play the card that somehow they will be giving the enemy, the Taliban, information that they will use against them. Clearly not because, as I said, the Americans put it on public portals and on the web.
We have had problems with information sharing. Therefore, we need an understanding from the government about what the problems are with the mission, because it is too focused on restricting information, not sharing it. I would argue that in a responsible Parliament, particularly on issues of war, when we share information, we share responsibility. Canadians know and understand that. However, when a government restricts information and does not share knowledge, it is hard for anyone to take the overtures of the government seriously when it says that it is being transparent and accountable.
I have mentioned the detainee issue, but let us look at the issue of aid. Time and again the government's mantra has been that it is building schools, bridges and roads and yet when asked to provide exact details, it has had problems.
Some of the problems have to do with the way aid has been distributed. We heard from a witness at the foreign affairs committee that a lot of the aid was tied up in administration. We see a tendency toward bilateral aid, where money is handed over to institutions like the World Bank and then it kind of disappears. There are no tags on the money, seemingly, and therefore there is no understanding and no accountability as to Canadians' investments, notwithstanding that there is a disproportionate amount of money being allocated for aid. Even the little bit that we are tagging for aid is lost. There is not sufficient oversight so obviously a committee is important.
Some of the other facets that need more oversight and inclusion with the committee have to do with the reasons we are in the war in Afghanistan, because many Canadians, quite rightly, are confused as to the fundamental question of why we are there.
I would cite a recent paper that was delivered by John Foster called “Afghanistan and the New Great Energy Game”. It was a paper that was presented on January 29, 2008, to the group of 78. In his paper, he examines the whole issue of energy and the proposed pipeline to go through Afghanistan, which has not been debated.
The pipeline has been debated at NATO and in Europe and Asia, although more in Asia than in Europe, but what is the role of energy in the whole debate around Afghanistan? We know there have been discussions at NATO about the energy security. We know that in August of 2001 the American administration, which would be of interest to my friends in the Conservative Party, was actually in talks with the Taliban government. The Americans were trying to get the Taliban government to form a government of national unity, believe it or not, to ensure stability so a pipeline could be built from Turkmenistan, which has the fourth largest natural gas resource, through Afghanistan and out, to provide energy security for other parts of the world.
It is not something that has been debated, nor has it been brought forward to committee. However, if we are to have an honest debate in this country about why we are in Afghanistan, the whole issue of Afghanistan, which is what John Foster calls an energy bridge, needs to be laid out.
Is this something that the government is committing us to, the combat mission in the south, because of commitments on energy security?
The other facet that is important for the committee and Parliament to be seized with, which is not only the issue of energy supply and what was happening before 9/11 regarding negotiations with the then Taliban government and the United States on this energy bridge, but it is how the whole issue of peace and reconciliation fits into the government's plan.
I do not need tell members that every expert who came before the foreign affairs committee, the defence committee and who has spoken in public agreed that this war cannot be won militarily. It is not a controversy. It is something everyone agrees on. Therefore, logic would then lead us to ask: If this is not a mission and a war that can be won militarily, what should happen?
We put forward a proposal stating that we should be engaged in a peace and reconciliation process. This is not something we dreamed up. This was after hearing from people in the field. Oxfam, for instance, will be in front of the foreign affairs committee explaining what they think needs to be done.
However, let us hear what a retired Canadian diplomat had to say at committee. He said:
From this moment, from right now, we need to begin the pre-negotiations and support them with inter-ethnic and inter-group dialogue at the local and national level. Capacity, mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution have to be developed at all levels. Afghan civil society, in particular Afghan women's groups, will have an integral role to play in this whole process at the national level, but at the village level as well.
Saddique Wera, who is someone who actually advises the Afghan government, said the following at committee:
...Afghanistan cannot be won without a peace track, a political track. Why? Because there is a big political component in the conflict in Afghanistan, and a political component cannot be resolved through war alone.
If we are actually going to deal with the issues that everyone knows are critical to the war in Afghanistan, we need to look beyond this focus of the counter-insurgency. We see the Americans providing 1,000 troops. Their focus is clear. It is counter-insurgency. We will have more civilian deaths, more recruitment of the Taliban and this vicious cycle will carry on.
I am not sure at this point if the official opposition has buyer's remorse for joining the government in its motion, but let me be clear that we support the idea of having more accountability so Canadians can actually understand the problems with this mission and so we can propose what to do better in the future.