Thank you, Chair.
And thank you to the members for being here.
The irony is that my friend talks about the Afghani MPs not knowing what was going on. We've had 28 technical briefings in this place, which MPs are welcome to attend, and they can ask questions. Regarding some of the questions that are being asked here, I think the people watching at home should know that we do have the opportunity, as members of Parliament in this House, to get a great deal of that information.
When I looked at your sheet--and my colleague mentioned something about the information not being there--I thought Canadians don't necessarily know the good things that Canada is doing in Afghanistan. My initial thought was that this would make a great placemat in a lot of restaurants in Canada, because I think it does give us a great deal of information.
The other thing I think you can probably tell us a great deal about are issues of governance and so on in Pakistan. If you look at it, they started at zero in 2000 or 2001. For them to be where we are as a western democracy or where many other parts of the world are is a big move from where they've been. What can we do in those areas to help them and help Canadians understand where the Afghanis need to come up to a higher level than they are at? They are probably years away from being a western-style democracy, if they ever get to be one, but I think it's only fair to give credit to the Afghanis, as they've come a long way.
What can we do to assist them?