National Defence committee  In all other operations I've been involved in, I've been at the deployed end, and I have concerned myself with the six-month window in which I was involved in the operation. It's funny you should mention Yugoslavia, because I led the very first unit into Croatia on March 13, 1992.

National Defence committee  Governments make these decisions, so you're asking a soldier, again, to comment on whether the two-year horizon is or is not correct. I'm not in a position to comment on that.

National Defence committee  I will say, from a purely military perspective, that whether it's from a national or an international perspective, predictability is important. It's important for partners working with each other to have some understanding that they are able to count on other partners for the longer the period the better.

National Defence committee  So longer-term commitments from a military perspective are better than shorter-term commitments, but that's not always possible from a policy perspective.

National Defence committee  I thank you very much for that, and it will be my pleasure to do that.

National Defence committee  I think the committee has a reasonable understanding of the extent of the challenge there. It's been explained by others, so I won't reiterate it. It is a challenge and a concern for us there. From our perspective, the short answer to your question is that Pakistan must be part of the solution.

National Defence committee  We're cooperating with each other. They have their challenges also, but they need to be part of the solution. If they aren't part of the solution, then we will have a huge challenge, so we need to continue to work with them, and that's what we're doing.

National Defence committee  From a purely military standpoint, our military campaign plan laid out a desirable end state. It doesn't necessarily apply to the Canadian Forces, but indicates, rather, at what stage the international forces may step down. The criterion specifically refers to the extent to which the Afghan National Security Forces become self-sufficient.

National Defence committee  Probably, yes.

National Defence committee  Yes, we'll do so.

National Defence committee  It may even be tactics. Tactics may change from day to day and week to week at various levels, but the basic concept of operations and of the campaign is guided by the ISAF level in Kabul, and there is no indication that I'm aware of that it will change in an appreciable way, unless circumstances dictate that it should.

National Defence committee  That's a complex question, because it goes to the relationship between individual nations in this partnership with ISAF and the role of national commanders in relation to the broader effort. The best answer I can provide is that it is absolutely cooperative. You almost asked two questions.

National Defence committee  I suppose the point is that the two really go hand in hand. We have a national commander, General Tim Grant, who has the responsibility to manage the campaign and command operations in theatre. He is under the operational control of a NATO commander, and from a national perspective, there is a three-D effort, which has to be complementary to the NATO approach to operations.

National Defence committee  I don't want to get into a lot of detail. I'm not going to tell the committee exactly how we plan to employ the tanks, because that would be telling many others how we plan to employ the tanks.

National Defence committee  We've not used them yet. They weren't intended to reach final or full operating capability until just about now, so in the coming days.... We have used the armoured engineer vehicles. I saw them in action over there. There was a well-protected bulldozer doing reconstruction work.