Thank you, Colonel, for being with us today.
I want to ask you to comment on what I say. We've been hearing a lot about the reality on the ground, and we know there has been intense fighting for some time in Panjwai and places such as that. You tell us today and simply confirm that the police are largely corrupt in Afghanistan, and there are all kinds of difficulties.
In fact Brigadier General Howard said that CIDA funding is not flowing to the PRT, and he said that the operational budget was being put into the PRT.
We have your comments, which I believe were reported on October 5, when you said that “the amount of international aid that has poured into the country (like the number of soldiers, not enough) is often invisible, what is sometimes called ‘phantom aid.’” So I'm assuming you share the concern that the aid isn't as much as it ought to be, or isn't getting to where it ought to go.
Then you have a situation where in terms of the security situation, our minister for CIDA wasn't even able to see the aid projects we're responsible for, and Afghan press couldn't attend her press conference in Kabul. Basically that tells me we are in a very difficult situation.
We also have Mr. MacKay's words reported today. Minister MacKay says essentially that the aid workers are not allowed to go do what they need to, because of the limits that have been placed on them after Glyn Berry's death.
Quite a lot of literature tells us that the eradication of poppies, particularly emphasized and pushed by the U.S., creates enemies on the ground, and in fact creates hungry families there. I'm told it creates a situation where particularly men in those families would be willing to fight on the side of the Taliban, given small amounts of money. Some estimates tell me that there are about 80% to 90% of those men in areas such as Kandahar province and Helmand who are hungry because of the destruction of their crops—with emaciated children I've seen in some videos—who would be willing to fight on the opposite side.
The reason I mention all these things, and there are many one could mention, is that I really want you to take us behind the scenes. You've been in Afghanistan; you have a better sense than I could have, never having been there and only reading about these things. Tell us what's happening beyond the stories that we hear of victories or defeats. What's happening on the ground? Are we winning the hearts and minds of ordinary people, or is it true that 80% of them—this is not a scientific estimate—might fight on the other side? I'd really like you to unvarnish the coverage for me and tell me what's happening.