National Defence committee  That's a very good question. You're right, there are many things that are improving. We see an increase in the GDP, for example, and all the things I mentioned at the outset--an elected parliament, for example, with a third or a quarter of that parliament being female, and so on.

National Defence committee  That is a very important element, which I'm certainly prepared to talk to you about a little bit. That is in the context of the command and control of that organization. The Afghan army is patterning its command-and-control capability very much on western army structures, if you

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question, because that falls very clearly into what NATO's very sincere objectives are in terms of transformation, and that is adapting all the forces of NATO, and its partners, for that matter, to the current and evolving challenges of this security situation.

National Defence committee  Well, thank you. What I would say, looking at Afghanistan over the last several months now, especially since the fall of last year, when we expanded operations into the southern part of Afghanistan, and then into the east, is that the security situation in the south and east is

National Defence committee  Mr. Bouchard, do you want to know how motivated the Afghan forces are?

National Defence committee  I met with people in the Afghan forces at all levels, and they have an increased interest in establishing their operational capability. I interacted with the chief of defence on several occasions and with the Minister of Defence in Afghanistan. In all cases, they are absolutely a

National Defence committee  If negotiations are to take place, they should be carried out by the Government of Afghanistan and not the international community. We, at NATO, have no intention of negotiating with terrorists, because that is not part of our mandate. We'll have to wait and see to what extent th

National Defence committee  I find it hard to find a direct connection between caveats and loss of life with IEDs. What the caveats restrict is the movement of troops—in many cases, to support other troops or hold ground after those troops have taken a particular location.

National Defence committee  Yes. My view is that what had always been termed the spring offensive didn't materialize, on the part of the opposing militant forces. Indeed, what happened was that because of very good decision-making in theatre, and very good establishment of capability and disposition of tr

National Defence committee  A tremendous amount of intelligence activity goes on, because this is very much intelligence-driven. What primarily is being done to curb that cross-border activity is the Tripartite Commission, which I referred to at the very outset of my presentation. The commission is chaired

National Defence committee  Thank you for that. Let me note one thing: I certainly acknowledge the work this committee does. I know how important your work as a committee or your predecessors' and obviously those in the future have been to the Canadian Forces in that context. Especially I remember back to

National Defence committee  Yes, we are looking at how we can do the burden-sharing in the—

National Defence committee  We're planning for a transition in Afghanistan, where there are many nations that are going to adjust—

National Defence committee  We are looking ahead to see who might take on that mantle if Canadians do withdraw. That's part of our planning process. We are looking at a number of issues--

National Defence committee  I always encourage, and so does the Secretary General, that nations lift as many caveats as possible.