Thank you, General, for coming. As usual, it's a pleasure to listen to you. I'll be sharing my time with my colleague.
General, I have two quick questions. When Mr. Manley came in front of the panel he stated that you had made a request for 1,000 additional troops. When the question was asked whether 1,000 troops were sufficient to meet the security requirements of the region, he said that was something you had recommended.
Perhaps you'd like to advise us as to whether this additional 1,000 would meet the total requirement. Why would you stick to just 1,000, and not more?
Regarding my second question, the day before yesterday, 17 workers who were building roads were killed by the Taliban, which clearly indicates the need for security. It's very important if development is going to take place. Without that security umbrella, the development aspect of it would become quite difficult, as this killing of 17 workers has indicated. That leads to the question of how quickly this security umbrella can be passed on to the Afghan army and the Afghan police themselves, with our forces taking an advisory role.
Perhaps you can give us a picture on those points.
Mr. Lebel, if you have a question, you can ask it now.