Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It's interesting, Mr. Van Praagh, that I'm sensing pessimism from the professor of the Royal Military College when I'm hearing so much optimism from the military officers who have graduated from RMC out in the field.
Just last night Colonel Strogan, who was quite involved in some of the earlier work in Afghanistan, and I were relating about the good efforts and positive results that have been done. On education there is a tenfold increase, from 700,000 to seven million some-odd. More important are the positive efforts of the military using the political knowledge they've gained, I suppose from RMC, to work with the tribal communities, the local areas, and how effective that is and how well they are interrelating with those local tribal areas, communities, and their form of governance. It seems to be working very effectively. More so, to underscore what you said earlier, the Canadian soldiers are being well accepted and being respected for it. The message they're delivering and the work they're doing is being very well received.
This colonel related to me last night that there's a possibility that Afghanistan could be our Holland of this era, in other words, a country that has been liberated from a long history by the good efforts of what our Canadian soldiers, Canadian presence, and Canadian aid is doing. The long-term future for Afghanistan could be very bright.