Thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge with us, sir.
With regard to Afghanistan, I'll just ask a couple of questions. In your opinion, what can we learn from our mission there? You've touched upon this already. You mentioned it was in our national interest to pacify Afghanistan. Is that, in your opinion, synonymous with a military victory? If not, then how do we do that?
With regard to NATO being a subcontractor of sorts for the UN, this is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Now it's in Afghanistan, and theoretically it could be in other parts of the world. Do you see that as a role for an organization that was developed to counter the Soviet threat?
In regard to NATO's participation in Afghanistan, one of my criticisms has always been that it's not fair to have a number of countries and only a handful of them doing the brunt of the work and suffering heavy casualties, while the others have other missions. I am wondering what your thoughts are on that. Once we belong to an alliance, should we not all take part and share in all of the work that has to be done?