Canadians have an unprecedented opportunity to understand the complex Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan by reading a new parliamentary report that is available for free on the Internet.

The report Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, prepared by the Standing Committee on National Defence, was presented to the House of Commons on June 18.

Simply stated, the daily news reports on Canada's Afghanistan military mission are to the report what a snapshot is to an encyclopedia.

Those who are willing to invest the time to read the 160-page report will come away with a far deeper understanding of the history, the mandate, the missions, the command structure, the operations, the provincial reconstruction teams, the Afghan-Pakistan border problem, the narco-economy, the status of women, the detainee handling and transfer issue and Afghan national security forces than has been possible before by reading just one document.

...one message rings out clearly: Despite the gloomy news reports, Canadian diplomatic, development and military personnel are unanimous that they are clear on what they have to do, that good progress is being made and now is not the time to waiver.

What the committee feared most if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization coalition pulls out of Afghanistan before the Afghan national army and police are deemed capable of providing adequate security enabling democratic governance is a return to a feudal Taliban regime, a medieval standard of living and an absence of human dignity.

Make no mistake, the challenges facing NATO -- set out in the report in great detail -- are legion.

Interestingly, the report notes that the Canadian military effort faces three general threats.

The first is the obvious threat to the troops from guerrilla tactics, suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, ambushes and the like.

The second is the mix of corruption, the narco-economy and warlord influence outside Kabul.

The third threat is found at home: "our own national impatience with the pace of progress in Afghanistan."

The Committee thinks however, that the central issue in any call to end the mission [in] 2009 or earlier, is the fact that some simply do not like to see the Canadian Forces fighting. As we alluded to earlier, such a view is at odds with our national history, is not in keeping with our demonstrated strength of national character and it certainly is not in keeping with the current reality in Afghanistan.

Much in this conversation troubles us. It all sounds too much like packing our bags and getting out of town because the task is too hard. Is it really in our nature to plan to not complete our work simply because we don’t want to?