The mandate you go with is intimidating and also is a source of respect that you gain, because you have come with this mandate from the United Nations.
There is an expression now that is commonly used about these so-called internal conflicts which are not really internal, because they have connections to the outside world.
Afghanistan is a land-locked country.
To leave Afghanistan as a playground for terrorists and adventurers was simply not possible anymore.
So, the international community are all the countries that are important: the United States definitely everywhere; the European Union because it is very important, and also, they do show a great deal of international responsibility; and then the local players.
There is an element of luck, there is an element of trial and error, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed. It's not as beautifully simple as it may seem when we are talking about it.
When you go from one place to another, you go with experience, you don't go with prescriptions.
Iraq is a country that has been invaded. It's not a failing state that you want to help. It's a country that was functioning good or bad, with a horrible dictator, but you have invaded.
But you are absolutely right that when the international community decides to help in a meaningful manner a country like Afghanistan, then coordination between the various actors that are involved in these processes is very, very difficult indeed.
Somebody was asking me the other day - President Bush is now talking about freedom for the Arab world. I say, well, that's great. I was talking about that fifty years ago.
At times one feels that what is being said in the West is that the fact that you are a Muslim predisposes you to this blind, stupid terrorism.
If you are talking about terrorism, you need to sit down and understand what is making these people put dynamite around their waists and blow themselves up.
But you've got to understand what the other guy is about, even if at the end of the process you decide that there is no ground with this man or woman except to fight them.
