Madam Chair, I want to follow up on my colleague's comments. I too have visited our troops in Afghanistan.
I will not comment on the future needs in Kandahar. Perhaps there were items that we did not know we would need. That is why we are purchasing them. I will not specifically comment on that.
However, I did ask our troops at the time I visited. The reason I went was to make sure they were well equipped and were being well treated. Indeed everyone I talked with was very happy with the equipment they had. They could not identify any other equipment that they needed. They were very well cared for as far as the operation goes. In fact, there were members of armed forces from other countries in our camp at the time I was there. They were there because our camp was so well run and the provisions were so good.
I just wanted to relate the particular experience I had. The troops I talked with were very happy. They felt they were well equipped. They did not express any needs at the time and they were very well provisioned.