I agree. I've said elsewhere that there is no military solution to Afghanistan. The military is merely there to provide as much security as they can so that the country itself can grow and prosper, and people can live some kind of a normal life.
So yes, we and our predecessors are going to carry on and try to emphasize more development effort and more assistance of governments, etc., but we have to conduct security operations so that the Taliban, the drug lords, and the criminal gangs don't take over the country. Right now the country, certainly in the Kandahar province, is in a delicate situation. I would think that we in the south, in the sector we're in, in both Helman and Kandahar provinces, have some of the most difficult challenges to provide security because the Taliban started in the city of Kandahar, where we're located. Their breeding ground came out of the city of Kandahar, so they're particularly strong there. That's why, as I say, we appreciate the arrival of the British and the Dutch, because together we represent a substantial force that can keep the Taliban suppressed.
Lately the Taliban in our area have been coming out in larger numbers to try to...well, recently they tried to attack the city of Kandahar. I assume they watch TV. I don't mind those tactics, because what they're doing is playing into our hands. If they concentrate against our military, then we can defeat them, and lately they've been concentrating against our military in our area. They've been taking very large casualties, and I don't know how long they can keep up the intensity of what they've been trying to do in the last two months.
We have to do this so that cities like Kandahar can grow, and so that people can have their farms, go to school, and so on.