Mr. Speaker, this will make my old Conservative colleagues who are history buffs very happy. I have dusted off my old Carl von Clausewitz book, On War.
He said:
War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.
Is anyone here able to express our will with respect to this war? No.
Even better, in chapter four he says:
If our opponent is to be made to comply with our will, we must place him in a situation which is more oppressive to him than the sacrifice which we demand; but the disadvantages of this position must naturally not be of a transitory nature, at least in appearance, otherwise the enemy, instead of yielding, will hold out, in the prospect of a change for the better.
The Vietnam War was lost because the people there said they would hold out. The war in Afghanistan was lost because the Taliban said they would hold out.
Does the government know what is going to happen? I would like to hear my distinguished colleague's opinion. What will the people there do? They will hunker down, lay low and come back in two or three years.
Is that what the government is proposing? That we go back every six months?