Thank you.
The second area I want to talk about is the peace jirga. You mentioned it was held around the same time as our visit. There was also the establishment of the peace council over the summer by President Karzai. Of course, in the last number of weeks we've heard reports of discussions or the beginning of discussions and meetings with representatives or at least elements of the Taliban. I'd like you to comment on that.
Some of the recent reports talked about the removal of some preconditions, one of which was that they wouldn't talk about peace or reconciliation until the troops left. That seems to no longer be a precondition. I realize we're talking about a rather ephemeral process, but can you tell us anything from your point of view as ambassador about what's going on?