National Defence committee  That's what makes Mali so dangerous, because we are all—not just the white Christians—seen as crusaders by both ISIS and al Qaeda. That's how they refer to the UN force no matter its colour or religion: “They're crusaders here in our country.”

National Defence committee  I'd be delighted to answer that, because I always use East Timor as an example, and Somalia. Both of those were subcontracted. The UN was up to here in the crap in East Timor until it turned to the Australians and said, “Would you please take up a leadership position, and command

National Defence committee  If it's based on, as I think it should be, on the chances for success and there's considered to be no chance of success—and success is not necessarily the establishment of a democratic government in a very western style—then no. Aiming at the latter doesn't work. However, if it s

National Defence committee  That's right. Getting to value added, my interpretation is the second interpretation of it—for example, helicopters as opposed to your basic grunts like the rest of us here. When you send in value-added resources, you must guarantee that you provide them with their own security,

National Defence committee  I don't have concerns about that. I don't have intimate knowledge, but based on my experience, I wouldn't have any concerns. At the same time, I want enough of our own folks around when we do these things. I still have great faith in the leadership of the Canadian forces. They u

National Defence committee  Yes, they're very, very different. I would go back to the point that you're dealing with people who are in the midst of the conflict and have no delegation at UN headquarters in New York. There's no flag flying in front of the building. There are factions. Their headquarters are

National Defence committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Chair and members. It's a pleasure to be here on a nice sunny day. You might not know, but I set a Guinness record. I only served about 13 months in what we call “military capital punishment” here in Ottawa. I'm often introduced as the most experienced pea

National Defence committee  Yes; they'll play with the term like we're playing with “peace ops”. You're absolutely right that it would be a way to sneak it through, perhaps, but then you'd have to find nations willing to contribute. I've always been sort of critical of a standing UN army, a rapid-reaction

National Defence committee  They couldn't care less when they actually talk about it, if they ever do. It's faster. Mind you, it should be faster. Then there are always claims against the process, which delay it once again. So I'm not sure in a foot race whether sole sourcing is actually faster. Sometimes i

National Defence committee  Well, I didn't set a Guinness record. I only did one year in Ottawa in my entire career and that was in the personnel world. I'm not an expert, but I do know when I was running the personnel world for officers in 1985, we had a phenomenal demand for personnel at the captain-major

National Defence committee  Well, I think it's generally accepted that it was getting close to here, the Ottawa city limits. It was no longer looking at Somalia. It was looking at what happened in some of the buildings around here and over there, and therefore it was shut down. It had gone on for a long tim

National Defence committee  Boy oh boy, that's... I'd say large units, yes, adequately sized units in all three environments. Units bring along kit too, but adequately sized battalions and regiments, and squadrons in the air force, and ships at sea with their crews, adequately manned and equipped. During m

National Defence committee  Yes, the Congo is just... The trouble is that all those factions I mentioned, and nations, are fighting over something that's just below the surface of the earth: natural resources. That's the problem. The solution for the international community to provide some level of securi

National Defence committee  I think in Canada we've come a long way--that's because we had a long way to come--by way of coordination between the agencies in this town when we're fighting a war overseas. It took a while, but it's certainly a heck of a lot better now. With regard to utilizing regional forc

National Defence committee  Yes, but those five members of the Security Council have to agree to do that. That's always the challenge, getting the authorization to launch that force and then to pay for it. Normally... You know, two days after we arrived in UNPROFOR, we were told we had a 25% budget cut. We