Foreign Affairs committee  May I just add to that?

Foreign Affairs committee  We are deeply into the national solidarity program, both in Kandahar, where we obviously feel a particular responsibility, and in the rest of the country, and where it has not yet been expanded it's going to be expanded so that it will cover the entire province. The result has b

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll have a go. Is it winnable? That's actually the title of our paper, Is it Working?, and I'm basically saying not at the present time. I deliberately said that as starkly as I did because I think it's important to draw attention to that fact. Now I've come and I'm answering

Foreign Affairs committee  As well, in those areas that are, as Dr. Rubin pointed out, legally not under the power of Islamabad, I don't think one should assume that.... I think the fact is that they are quite happy with their present state. They're quite happy with the independence they have. They can pla

Foreign Affairs committee  I have nothing to add to that.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think they're pretty obvious thoughts, at least on my part. As Dr. Rubin has said, if we're serious, we'd better be serious, because we're there for a long time. First of all, there's one thing we haven't talked about, but I'm sure all committee members know this. Afghanistan

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won't add to that, but I do have the information on salary support, if I may reply to that question, thanks to Ellen Wright of CIDA. This fiscal year, 2006-07, CIDA provided $18 million to the Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund, and a portion of th

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, I would say that this would be a total disaster for NATO. This would be a failure for NATO. In our report, we described a few scenarios that could happen. There could be a civil war, or the country could be occupied by Pakistan, on one side, and by the Northern All

Foreign Affairs committee  No, I won't add to that.

Foreign Affairs committee  There have been periods of peace in Afghanistan. To say there's continuous conflict I think is a distortion of history. For the last quarter of a century there's a been a lot of warfare, there's no question about that, but if you look back further, there have been periods of peac

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Very quickly, on the corruption issue, one of the things, Mr. Graham, that Canada is now doing is providing some salary support money. There's quite a gap between what civil servants are paid and what they would be paid to work for a warlord, or whatever. So I am told that C

Foreign Affairs committee  No. There may be somebody from CIDA here who knows, but there may not be.

Foreign Affairs committee  He can find out.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I think that's a really important question, and I'd like to answer it even more broadly. I think that a lot of people, when they talk about democracy, human rights, respect for women...these are all important values for us, which we know and accept. But when you're dealing

Foreign Affairs committee  It's sui generis, I think. I think that if we try to put it in western and western democracy terms, we will end up tripping over each other because it won't be credible. The fact is, now people are electing--it may be the people who would otherwise just be chosen as the villag