Cochlea to structures in the brainstem for further processing. The "stapes" (stirrup) ossicle bone of the middle ear transmits vibrations to the "fenestra ovalis" (oval window) on the outside of the cochlea, which vibrates the perilymph in the "vestibular duct" (upper chamber of the cochlea). The ossicles are essential for efficient coupling of sound waves into the cochlea, since the cochlea environment is a fluid–membrane system, and it takes more pressure to move sound through fluid–membrane waves than it does through air; a pressure increase is achieved by the area ratio of the tympanic membrane to the oval window, resulting in
Jock Stirrup resources that Iraq had posed until 2008, Stirrup believed that by 2009 NATO forces were successfully taking the fight to the insurgents, driving them out of towns and villages and thereby allowing governance to improve which would lead to the defeat of the insurgency. Speaking generally on operations in Afghanistan, Stirrup has noted that whilst "the military is a key, an essential element in dealing with those problems, but by and large these problems can only be resolved politically" and that he favoured a pragmatic approach to dealing with former members of the Taliban. By December 2009, Stirrup was expressing