Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that ultimately, with respect to Iraq, ISIS will only be defeated if it is defeated on the ground by Iraqi forces, and I include peshmerga in that.
The training role is an extremely important one. When we talk about them doing the defeating, and at this point we do not know about Shiite tribal militia, with the help of Iranian Quds forces, as they have certainly played a role in Amerli and they have certainly played a role in the outskirts of Tikrit, but we will see what happens there. Ultimately, it is Iraqi ground forces and peshmerga that will have to do the job. We have trained 650 so far. It seems to me that with what lies ahead in Iraq, for example, the re-taking of Mosul, their second largest city, there is an enormous task ahead. We know that Americans and other allies have been training Iraqi forces.
The government, in its extension, has not decided to put a greater emphasis on a role that Canada could play in terms of training, such as it did in Afghanistan. Could the minister tell us what sort of thinking the government went through to make the decision that that was not something it would put an emphasis on?