Mr. Speaker, this changes a bit the respectful tone that we have had in the House most of the day on this issue. It is sad that one member of the House is not adopting the respectful tone that other members in the House have adopted.
What the member contends is simply not true but he gives me the opportunity to read into the record a number of other quotations that I hope the House will take under advisement.
First, the former prime minister of Italy and former president of the European Union, Romano Prodi, said:
The military solution in Afghanistan will not succeed in getting a result, the problem must have a political solution.
Let's be clear, no increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan will be able to resolve such an awful problem as this.
The former head of the UN mission in Afghanistan said:
You can't resolve it by killing the Taliban. You have to win people over. That is done with good governance, decent police, diplomacy with Pakistan, and development.
The NATO secretary general said:
...the final answer in Afghanistan will not be a military one and cannot be a military one.
The final answer in Afghanistan is called reconstruction, development and nation-building.