Mr. Speaker, I know the member has a demonstrated knowledge of military matters and had a distinguished military career himself, so I say this with great respect. The member is certainly correct in suggesting that continued efforts by the Americans and others, including Canada, to raise the capacity of the Iraqi forces, including peshmerga and Kurdish forces, really is one of the ultimate end goals, to raise their capacity and ability to conduct ground operations and repel ISIL attacks on many communities.
The difficulty, of course, is that they are not respecting orders. They are moving quite freely in certain areas between Syria and Iraq. They have obviously been able to in many ways wreak havoc on many of those communities, because there is not sufficient ground force.
Like Afghanistan, this is an enormous task. We are starting behind the eight ball and trying to bring these forces to a level of professionalism. We have special operation forces there, some with Afghan experience, so that they can impart the type of skills that are necessary. Equipment is obviously going to be part of that equation going forward.
We know there are other countries in the region that are contributing mightily to this training effort, but also to the supply that will be necessary to repel ISIL as we continue this global struggle.