National Defence committee  From the Government of Canada's perspective, there is support for the counter-narcotics strategy, the Afghan strategy. As citizens of the international community, we're working collectively with partners.

National Defence committee  The narcotics challenge?

National Defence committee  There certainly will be.

National Defence committee  You certainly will, if I have anything to say about it.

National Defence committee  I am making the same point. That is exactly right.

National Defence committee  On General Richards, I can say that I discussed his comment with him in his office two weeks ago, and his perspective was not that this is going to fail in the next six months. His perspective was that we need to show signs of progress, and it gets back to the issue of winning the confidence of the people.

National Defence committee  I'm not directly involved. I have heard what the CDS has had to say publicly and privately about this, and I have every confidence that we will look after our soldiers. We will.

National Defence committee  I don't have those specific numbers in front of me.

National Defence committee  We can certainly.... In fact, I may have that somewhere here, if you'll permit me to refer to my papers. There is a danger in taking the battle group as the teeth part. This is what I tried to make clear in my comments. The new commander, General Grant, has three big pieces. They are different sizes, but in terms of effects, he has the reconstruction piece—the PRT, which, from my perspective, is the most important in the longer term—he has the battle group, and he has the “omelette”, which is the capacity building piece of this.

National Defence committee  I don't know that the specific numbers are that relevant. The reality is that to have an effective battle group consumes a large number of people, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing we're doing there. Absolutely.

National Defence committee  They're not only the kinds of signs of progress we should be paying attention to, they're the kinds of progress we need to be able to communicate to Canadians, and we've not done that as well as we need to.

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  I don't think you can link all of those. I don't agree with the linkage you're making between each of those groups. Each is quite different, and the foundation upon which their observations and analysis is based is also quite different, written from a different perspective. I can't comment on Senlis.

National Defence committee  I must have heard the bell was about to ring.

National Defence committee  I think it is. Do I have a few minutes here, Mr. Chair, to give a longer answer?