You've made a very good point there, Ms. Gallant, about the number of sorties that we have undertaken and the amount of cooperation that we have given to our allies.
I did touch upon the successes that are being made on the ground in terms of the containment of ISIL. They have in many instances gone underground. They have retreated in some areas. Stabilizing what has taken place on the ground and supporting Iraqi forces is an essential part of what has to happen. This war has to be won on the ground, and Iraqi forces need the support that they require in terms of the sorties you mentioned. This is extremely important for them for success on the ground.
You have a map before you that you can see. If you compare that to where we were four or five months ago, you'll see that considerable progress has been made. I can tell you that I've been quite optimistic about this.
I was at a meeting in London last week with a number of our coalition partners. We had the opportunity to have the Prime Minister of Iraq join with us. The feeling I came away with was very good in terms of us being on the right track. We're doing the right thing and we can be very proud of the men and women who are serving us as part of our armed forces.
At the same time, I also came away with a good feeling that the progress is being made on the ground because it has to be made on the ground. When you have a look at the maps, when you see how rampant ISIS was—we were just talking about that—just a number of months ago, the containment of it and the withdrawal of ISIL in that part of the world, I think, gives us all a confident feeling and reinforces that gratefulness we have for the outstanding job that is done by our armed forces and our allies.