National Defence committee  Certainement. We certainly could. There's a risk there--I would be lying to you if I said otherwise--but to my mind it is an issue of will. I mean, if the western world has said Afghanistan is a place where we are going to be counted--that we are going to ensure that this nation will be allowed to prosper, that it is going to be peaceful, that Taliban extremism will not use it as a base of operation and continue to then export it around the world--then we have a collective responsibility to make that happen.

National Defence committee  I made the comment earlier that I'm not an expert in this region of the world and I'm somewhat hesitant to get too far into this. Pakistan is a very complex country. President Musharraf has enough challenges internally as it is, let alone with the problem of Afghanistan. The recent agreement struck with the Taliban is exacerbating the problem in Afghanistan; I don't think there's any doubt about that.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure I can put a measure on it, but I would say considerable. The classic peacekeeping hasn't existed for a very long time--the idea that we have two opposing societies, or states, or portions of the state, and we need blue-helmeted people standing in between keeping them separated until they settle their differences politically.

National Defence committee  In every comment you must always consider where the comment comes from. I can't say much more than that. I'm not familiar with the individual, so I don't have a comment.

National Defence committee  The first thing I have to say, quite honestly, is that I have not been in Afghanistan since 2002, and I have been out of uniform for three years. So I haven't seen the details of exactly what's going on on the ground. I'm basing my comments on open-source material in terms of what I am aware of.

National Defence committee  It's hard to put a timeline on it. I would say that you need to be looking at a minimum of six months in the south in terms of what's happening there. We just haven't been at it long enough. One battle does not a campaign make. Just because we've had a bit of a rough go for a period of time doesn't mean the strategy is not sound.

National Defence committee  I can't resist, Mr. Chair. Mr. Hawn and I would remember the time of recruiting back in the late sixties and early seventies, when the recruiting campaign was a young officer in a nice green uniform getting off a 707 with a briefcase in his hand. It was the sort of the image of the young executive, which is anathema to someone in the combat side of the profession.

National Defence committee  That is not a question that one can provide a simple or quick answer to. There are many factors here, not the least of which is the history of the last 50 years and the sense that Canadians have of themselves and their military, which is changing and needs to change. In my opening remarks, I boiled it down to one thing, and it's called leadership.

National Defence committee  I don't believe our soldiers question why they're there, but I believe many Canadians question why they're there. If Canadian will is not firm in saying we should be there and for this reason, then the impact on the soldiers can be significant. I use that as an opportunity to express something here.

National Defence committee  I don't think we should leave, but I would be irresponsible if I sat here and said there is no choice. There's always a choice. The situation in Afghanistan, as in any region of the world, could actually deteriorate to the point where I'd be sitting here saying we have to get out.

National Defence committee  In the short term, none; in the long term, I think it would be significant. It goes in line with my view that what we're dealing with here is not just trying to look after the burgeoning state of Afghanistan, given their recent or long history. I have a very, very strong view that what we're dealing with here is a long-term campaign for our way of life, for western values and the western way of life.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure I fully understand the question, Mr. Chairman. I'll give a very quick answer. It's all out of the same pot. The army is only so big, the navy is only so big, the air force is only so big. You can't use them interchangeably. Taking a fighter pilot and putting him into a foxhole in Afghanistan might cause me some humour, but it doesn't really solve the problem.

National Defence committee  I guess the bottom line here is that the men and women in uniform are duty bound to go and do what it takes. We sent people into Europe in 1939, and they didn't come back until 1945. If you want an extreme scenario, that's what you could do. We've been shortening that time, loading more and more onto it.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may, I'd like to address that in reverse order. I want to talk about the challenge of the population first. I agree with a number of things you said here, and it is an issue of balance. I'm not a medical man, but let me use a medical analogy, if I may. We're all familiar with streptococcus A infection, this flesh-eating disease that gets hold of the body fairly quickly, such that surgeons have to operate pretty intricately to stop the thing killing the patient.

National Defence committee  If I may, Mr. Chairman, I'll attack this from the perspective of trying to put myself in the position of a commander, like Commander ISAF. A commander in that situation is dealing with a multinational force, and the first thing he has to look at is the nature of the job, the mission, how big an area he has.