Thank you very much.
Actually, a lot of the questions I was going to ask have been answered.
I want to especially commend the folks from the military. We sit on a committee where the old saying “when in doubt, mumble or use double-speak” seems to be the standard rather than the exception. In both hearings I've had with the Canadian military people, this is very refreshing--straightforward answers to questions. I think everybody on this committee should be impressed with the quality of answers we receive here. We're certainly not getting any of this mumbling or double-speak.
I think some people have described the era leading up to our entry into the war as a “dark decade”, especially in terms of equipment that our forces had when we entered this situation. I'm assuming the supply chain wasn't exactly a Canadian Tire or Wal-Mart operation either, if the equipment was pretty much rusted out as well. So it would go hand in glove with the system we had.
Major-General Benjamin, it's my impression that the supply chain that exists today has improved dramatically over what we had in 2005 or 2004, when we got involved in this operation. Is that a correct assumption?