Sorry about that mis-post above; I hit the send button instead of the blue clicky button.

Let's take this again from the top.

Ahem.

The Canadian combat mission in Kandahar Province was part of something considerably bigger, the international "whole-of-government" thing that included -- as well as soldiers -- cops and diplomats, development workers and bureaucrats, prison guards and construction engineers from literally dozens of countries. The international agreement governing the whole thing was called the Afghanistan Compact, signed on 1 February 2006 and valid for five years.

The Afghanistan Compact makes interesting reading; I suggest you-all take a close look at it.

In point of fact, our primary activity in Kandahar Province was building capacity in the Afghan national security forces -- the Afghan National Army and, to a lesser extent, the Afghan National Police. At the same time, the people of Kandahar City and the province's rural districts still needed security and there was a stunning lack of the infrastructure that civilization depends on -- everything from schools and hospitals to wells and roads and irrigation canals.

Five and a half years down the road, the Afghan brigade partnered with the Canadian-led ISAF task force has developed from a rabble in arms to a light-infantry brigade competent enough to plan and execute its own operations. Panjwai District, notorious as the heartland of the insurgency, has a new all-season road that will carry crops from the countryside to market in Kandahar City and cops, bureaucrats and development workers from the city and the district centres out to the country villages.

Oh, yeah -- and the army is tired, the gear is wearing out, and who knows where the defence budget is going.

Not that the training mission up north is exactly danger-free -- the insurgents like infiltrating suicide bombers into recruit platoons and army trade schools. It's not a small mission, either; the establishment figure is 950, which is a hell of a lot of experienced soldiers with training skills for our very small, very professional army to be expected to part with for prolonged periods.

So, as my boss likes to say, let's watch and shoot.