Thank you, Chair.
Thanks so much to our witnesses.
I'm very glad that Mr. McKay mentioned the honour that you'll be receiving later this year, General. It's very well deserved, but we also want to make sure that the committee understands the extent of NATO's success—now very much led by the U.S.—in mounting a counter-insurgency operation inside Afghanistan, where it has been successful. In that country, much of our success owes to your work in leading our task force twice, and in bringing together in a combined or joint way original thinking, strategic thinking, and a variety of resources. I don't think that is fully recognized yet, either here in this narrower circle or across the country. You have our continuing admiration for having shown that leadership there and for having carried it forward in all the directions you've been describing this morning. Thank you for being with us.
I wanted to ask you a couple of questions to build on some of your answers so far, and the first one is the simplest one. From your perspective in strategic joint staff looking at readiness, looking at this schema of what it takes to achieve readiness—which can obviously be measured in all kinds of different ways—where do we stand today compared with a decade ago in the Canadian Forces? How ready are we?
I know there is not a hard and fast indicator, a website to measure these things where you can go, but what is your professional judgment on that score?