Afghanistan committee  It was certainly a factor, as I suggested, the problems that were arising under Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo; those, however, were.... In the early stages, we didn't know about that. Those were things that were becoming very au courant at the time. I would suggest that the other r

Afghanistan committee  Yes, I think that's absolutely fair to say. It wasn't just in respect of this issue. We know about drugs, corruption, and all of those issues in Afghanistan. We were struggling with trying to correct all of that, for sure.

Afghanistan committee  Absolutely. Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  It depends what we do, obviously, in terms of.... It's very difficult to make an abstract statement to that effect. But I don't think we can be asked to be responsible for all of the problems of Afghanistan once we've gone there. We're there to try to support their improvements.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  I totally agree that, as Canadians, everybody is trying to do their best in Afghanistan in a very difficult situation; absolutely. They're doing their best for Afghanistan, for the international community, and in what we're trying to do as Canadians. Whether there may be one or

Afghanistan committee  I think it's fair to say that we did not. Look at the nature of the equipment we took when we went. We took LAV IIIs and we ended up getting tanks. There was a whole host of assumptions made when we first went to Kandahar in terms of equipment and other things. We had to get heli

Afghanistan committee  Certainly.

Afghanistan committee  We knew that the Red Cross's policy was to report to the nation in which the detainees were being held. We had the same experience with the prison in Guantanamo. The Red Cross said it was reporting to the American authorities and not to other countries. You will recall that this

Afghanistan committee  Yes, although to be fair, sir, I'd been out of teaching international law long enough to know that I'd better rely on people who really knew what they were talking about. As a minister should, I relied on the advice of the officials in the department, who were backed up by the Fo

Afghanistan committee  Absolutely. We felt that it was the best agreement we could get in the circumstances.

Afghanistan committee  Absolutely.

Afghanistan committee  Oh, absolutely. I'm assuming that you do everything in good faith.

Afghanistan committee  It's for others to determine whether that assumption is correct or not.