Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, General Atkinson, for your briefing. I want to first of all concur with your comments with regard to the work that our forces are doing there. Having been there, although so briefly in April 2006, with the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, I can certainly appreciate the work that's being done.
The issue I talked to our forces there about, which continued when I was at Foreign Affairs, was the issue of the Afghan National Police. My understanding has been that the army is much further ahead than the police. You talk about how critical or crucial they are to security and that at the moment they can provide at least basic security needs, but we really need to enhance that role.
I'd like to know a little more about that eight-week additional program you were talking about. How will that be assessed in terms of its effectiveness? What kind of rollout do they anticipate afterwards, given the fact that, in order to have the kind of development projects that we would like to see there--obviously through the Afghan government--we can secure it?