As discussion heats up over Canada's mission in Afghanistan, the military's top soldier says he will not get involved in the debate.

Appearing on CTV's Question Period Sunday from Afghanistan, General Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, said it was not his job to enter into policy disputes.

"We have a great saying in the Canadian Forces, we defend democracy, but we don't necessarily have to practice it inside the Canadian Forces and in fact we don't," he said when asked if he and troops were troubled by the debate back home.

"Speaking as the chief of defence staff, representing the great young men and women here there is no debate. We're here, we're committed and the job every single day. We know what has to be done."

Hillier was speaking as Canadian troops were involved in their biggest operation yet -- a drive to root out Taliban insurgents from rural areas around Kandahar.

Hundreds of troops, helicopter gunships and artillery units are involved in the dangerous operation deep in southern Afghanistan.

"The Taliban influence is very much alive and present in these mountain regions," said CTV's Lisa LaFlamme.

"It's exactly why the Canadians are here in force to basically send the message that if you're going to try and hit the Canadian troops they have got a lot of firepower to hit back."

The general agreed that many Canadians were having difficulty digesting the military's more offensive role over Canada's traditional role as peacekeepers.

"It is a complex mission and that explains why some Canadians have had difficulty understanding what we're doing and why we are doing that... It is in a country far away and it is not necessarily on the front-burner in Canada. So Canadians have not been engaged and involved as much, perhaps, as they should have been until now."

In a recent poll for CTV News and The Globe and Mail, The Strategic Counsel asked Canadians if they would vote in favour or against sending troops to Afghanistan. Just 27 per cent were in favour and 62 per cent were against.

While Hillier said he would not presume to determine how long Canadian troops will remain in Afghanistan, he said he believed it could take decades to rebuild the nation.

"This country has been beaten up for 25 or more years. Everything has been destroyed and you are not going to rebuild a country that has been beaten so badly in anything less that a decade or a decade and a half, or even more than that. The international community will be engaged here in Afghanistan for a long period of time."

Hillier disagreed with the contention that Canadians have little stomach for casualties among their soldiers.

"We've been engaged in significant operations around the world. Particularly, I would go back to the Balkans and the African continent in the early and mid-1990s. We took casualties there and the Canadian public felt that what they were doing was sufficiently valuable that we would make that sacrifice.

"Our aim is to reduce that risk in this theatre of operation to the lowest level that we possible can. But, it is risky. We can't reduce it to zero and I think the Canadian population understands that very well."