Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, gentlemen, for coming.
Having been to Afghanistan, I can say there's no question that our troops are doing a phenomenal job. I wanted to make an observation and ask you to comment on it, given what you've said.
The Manley report, on page 28, recognizes that “no insurgency—and certainly not the Afghan insurgency—can be defeated by military force alone”. They certainly look at the issue of an immediate impact, reconstruction, better coordination, etc. They conclude on page 35, that “a successful counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan requires more ISAF forces”.
A Department of National Defence October 2007 report entitled 3-D Soviet Style: A Presentation on Lessons Learned from the Soviet Experience in Afghanistan makes two interesting observations at the end. Under the military, it says that the “Red Army's technical superiority and battlefield victories could not be translated into strategic success”. The other was that “the policy of 'National Reconciliation”—which speaks to the last speaker--is “more successful than military operations”.
I'll put that on the table.
My colleagues have a couple of quick ones.