It is true that in any military intervention, there is the development aspect, the population assistance aspects, that are all part of everyday reporting. Very often you don't see this: why is that? That's because what you and I retain is what is going wrong. If a soldier gets killed, that will be in the news. But the fact that we just built the 168th school in the district of Kandahar will not be in the news.
It's very difficult to attract the attention of the public. Take yourself for example. When you read about medicine, road construction, all of those events that take place in today's society, do you want to know about the good news, for example, the fact that the trains are arriving on time at the Ottawa station? No. You wouldn't want to know why the trains are on time, you would rather want to know why they're late. Reporting work, public relations work, often raises problems in operations.
That being said, I still think that the role of politicians is extremely important. They play a leadership role. That's why politicians must be at the vanguard: always ready to explain to the public what is going on on a daily basis, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, with the right words, even if those words hurt. I know that it's difficult to do this because public opinion is a fickle thing: just look at polls, by-election results, etc.
I think that you have to be very honest in those situations, because after all, human lives are at stake.