Afghanistan committee  I did, but if the same political energy were given to diplomacy and in trying to seek a way—political support from the Prime Minister on down—to Canada contributing to a diplomatic resolution, if that happened, and my ideal world came to be, we're still talking about many years of engagement.

Afghanistan committee  A significant contribution and focus. You know, I will certainly grant that the nature of the engagement of the military requires a certain amount of equipment and training and those things. Military options are always expensive. The good news is diplomatic options, compared to them, are relatively inexpensive.

Afghanistan committee  The delivery of humanitarian and development aid in most parts of the world is done on the basis of neutrality and delivery of aid to all comers, regardless of various categories: religion, ethnic, and what have you. Properly done, the security of NGOs delivering aid comes from the confidence built among the people who exist in that society.

Afghanistan committee  I think it would be extremely difficult. I take your point. But there were Canadian and other aid agencies delivering aid during the Taliban period. In effect, they negotiated with the Taliban for access and security.

Afghanistan committee  It is a dangerous operation. Along with Canadian Forces and other militaries, Canadian aid and other aid workers have also suffered losses that are substantial and horrific.

Afghanistan committee  I'd like to add that Islam is not monolithic, and there are experiences in many Islamic countries where the role of women and women's rights are viewed differently from the predominantly rural, very conservative Taliban or village elder type of person. So part of the solution is not in our hands, either as NGO, church, and civil society organizations, but it can be in the hands, quite properly, through a dialogue within the Islamic world, which already is engaged, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, where there are very different experiences....

Afghanistan committee  In certain parts of the country.

Afghanistan committee  To the extent that I heard a question? I take your caution about the difficulty and complexity, in that it is a Muslim country and there are things that we don't know. What we have tried to do is partner and work with Afghans in country and also Afghans who now live in Canada--whether they're Canadian citizens or more recently arrived--to ask how it is that we can support civil society in an appropriate way.

Afghanistan committee  Certainly there should be an Afghan national security apparatus that includes police and military.

Afghanistan committee  They need to be brought into the process of national governance in an appropriate way that Afghans will work with.

Afghanistan committee  It means that they're going to participate in the government through following a negotiated process. In other words, if I can go back to the notion of civil war, my understanding--we can disagree on this--is that effectively what happened in 2001 is that international forces worked with the Northern Alliance, which represented parts of Afghanistan against the Taliban and other insurgents that represented other parts of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan committee  They could be trained by the current international forces. They are pretty good at what they do in their own country. They may not need training, but the important point is how you get to a stable, national context in which the national police or military presence can be generally accepted.

Afghanistan committee  The special envoy would have a broader international mandate, a regional mandate. I happen to know what an ambassador does, because I was in the diplomatic corps when I was quite young and quite foolish. I know how that functions, and there are myriad operational activities that need to take place within the country.

Afghanistan committee  Certainly it's regrettable that a drop in development assistance to Afghanistan would take place at the same time as these other changes are taking place. Afghanistan is one of the poorest places in the world. The aid assistance would support a range of activities that could address the kinds of conflict sparks that exist in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan committee  Certainly there are a lot of dialogues and conversations taking place involving the government of Afghanistan as well as various insurgent groups, including the Taliban, now. Regarding the training and the substitution of Afghan national forces for ISAF or NATO, there are a couple of points worth making.