On General Richards, I can say that I discussed his comment with him in his office two weeks ago, and his perspective was not that this is going to fail in the next six months. His perspective was that we need to show signs of progress, and it gets back to the issue of winning the confidence of the people. He has been saying for some time there's this 70% to 80% segment that could go one way or the other way.
I take issue with six months. I don't agree with the six-month perspective. Why six months rather than twelve months? The fact is, from our perspective--I will tell you my personal assessment--it will be difficult for the next twelve months. We need to be prepared for that. It will be difficult beyond the twelve months, but from a security perspective, it will continue to be difficult for the next six months.
Stepping back from that, if you look at where Afghanistan was in 2001 and compare where it is today, I don't see how you can be negative. I personally am positive about the incredible progress that's been made.
The other aspect is that our focus now is in the toughest place in all of Afghanistan, so that's the frame of reference we have now, whereas there's been lots of progress elsewhere in Afghanistan, especially in the north and the west. But to get back to my perspective, we are making progress. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Certainly we would not have said at the beginning of this that it was going to be easy.