Yes.
Thank you for the question, and also congratulations on serving for your country in Afghanistan.
There are a lot of practical lessons learned. For example, Norwegian soldiers who been in Afghanistan are better soldiers when they come back to Norway. That is building deterrence also in Norway.
The one and most important lesson learned from Afghanistan is a political issue. When you are sending young people to war, you must, as a politician, if you are sitting in Parliament or government, tell your people very clearly why you are doing this. I think in the first days it was quite clear in Norway, but it was watered down after some years. We tried to find all kinds of reasons for being there.
Why did Norway go to Afghanistan? It was close to an article 5 operation. It was the attack on the United States. The United States, one of our very close allies, asked for help to fight terrorism in Afghanistan. That's the reason. September 11, 2001—that's the reason we are in Afghanistan. We want to fight terror in all parts of the world, including in Afghanistan.
The problem is that politicians, the media, and people started to talk of other reasons for being in Afghanistan. It's a poor country—that's a good reason. It's a regional problem—that's also a good reason. It's ethnic conflict—another reason. There is just one main reason—article 5, supporting a nation that is attacked—and the world united together to try to do something in Afghanistan. That's the most important lesson learned, and that's the reason we communicated heavily before we started the Libya operation. We didn't want to do the same kind of failure again.