Afghanistan Quotes - Page 11

Safety and security are the most basic job of government. I understand that - both as a mayor who works every day to secure public safety and reduce crime, and also as someone who deployed in uniform to Afghanistan because I believed joining the military was part of my duty to help keep my country safe.
Pete Buttigieg /
Government
Afghanistan
Country
Crime
Duty
Joining
Military
Public Safety
Safe
Secure
Job
Understand
Also
Basic
Believed
Both
Works
Part
Public
Day
Deployed
Every Day
Help
Mayor
Reduce
Uniform
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Obama is making a choice now that will lead to the deaths of many thousands of civilians in Afghanistan by American hands. By ordinary standards of presidents, he is a decent man. But those standards aren't good enough. He's in a position either to kill or not to kill, and he's made the decision to kill.
Daniel Ellsberg /
Men
Afghanistan
Choices
Civilians
Decent
Decent Man
Hands
Ordinary
Standards
Obama
Good Man Enough
Deaths
Presidents
Thousands
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When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.
Colin Powell / Former United States Secretary Of State
Afghanistan
Be Prepared
Country
Military
Prepared
Responsibility
Syria
Government Responsibility Country
Anyone Else
Military Operation
Operation
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When news of the first plane's hitting the World Trade Center reached them, bin Laden's followers exploded with joy. But shrewder members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan realized that the attacks might not be the stunning victory that bin Laden, and many in the West, took them to be.
Peter Bergen / Broadcaster
Leadership
Afghanistan
Al Qaeda
Followers
Hitting
Joy
Members
News
Stunning
Taliban
World Trade
World Trade Center
Attacks
Bin
Center
Exploded
Plane
Reached
Realized
Took
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I am always revolted when Islamic leaders, from Afghanistan or elsewhere, deny the very existence of female oppression, avoid the issue by pointing to examples of what they view as Western mistreatment of women, or even worse, justify the oppression of women on the basis of notions derived from Sharia law.
Khaled Hosseini / Novelist
Afghanistan
Deny
Elsewhere
Existence
Female
Islamic
Justify
Oppression
Pointing
Western
Women Always I Am
Avoid
Basis
Derived
Even Worse
Examples
Notions
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During the 19th century, Britain fought two wars in unsuccessful attempts to subjugate the Afghans. When Britain finally drew a border between India and Afghanistan in 1893, Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan were cut off from related tribes across the border in what was then India and is now Pakistan.
Stephen Kinzer / Author
Afghanistan
Britain
Pakistan
Related
Southern
Tribes
Unsuccessful
Attempts
Border
Wars
Drew
Fought
Subjugate
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President Obama had voiced strong support for the effort in Afghanistan during his campaign, pledging to add two brigades, which he did. But since the inauguration... the administration had signaled that the U.S. commitment needed careful assessment, and we needed to recalibrate the strategy and objectives.
Stanley A. Mcchrystal / Armed Force Officer
Add
Administration
Afghanistan
Assessment
Careful
Inauguration
Objectives
President Obama
Strategy
Brigade
Campaign
Strong Support
Voiced
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Pakistan is alarmed by the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, and fears that an Afghanistan cleansed of the Taliban would be an Indian client state, thus sandwiching Pakistan between two hostile countries. The paranoia of Pakistan about India's supposed dark machinations should never be underestimated.
Salman Rushdie / Novelist
Afghanistan
Country
Dark
Hostile
India
Indian
Influence
Pakistan
Paranoia
Rising
Taliban
Two
Underestimated
Cleansed
Client
Countries
Fears
Supposed
Thus
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The Huffingtonpost.com does not pay its writers. Tina Brown's thedailybeast.com does pay its writers. You have to be paid because this is not a hobby. You have to keep that standard. You can't ask grandpa to loan you money because you have to go to Afghanistan. I walked the picket line for that to continue.
Pete Hamill / Journalist
Afghanistan
Grandpa
Loan
Standard
Picket
Tina
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I went to Afghanistan in '96 to write about terrorist training camps south of Jalalabad and Tora Bora, in the mountains. I was there right before the Taliban took over, literally a few weeks before they took Kabul. The frontline wasn't terribly active, but it was definitely there. And they swept into power.
Sebastian Junger / Author
Active
Afghanistan
Camps
Mountain
Taliban
Training
Writing
Terribly
Literally
Swept
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Andrew Warren was a rarity in the CIA's Clandestine Service - African-American, fluent in Arabic, and relatively young for an agent who'd already spent nearly a decade chasing terrorists in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Algeria, so deep undercover that few of his friends or family knew the nature of his work.
Michael Hastings / Journalist
Afghanistan
African American
Algeria
Andrew
Chasing
Cia
Egypt
Fluent
Rarity
Undercover
Agent
Arabic
Nearly
Decade
Terrorists
Warren
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We've been in the nation-building business since World War I, and especially since WWII. The goal is not a Jeffersonian Democracy in Afghanistan, but a representative government that respects human rights, protects its own people, and is a friend of the West. These are very realistic - and necessary - goals.
Oliver North / Host
Afghanistan
Democracy
Human Rights
Nation Building
Realistic
Rights
West
World War I
Friend
Protects
Representative
Respects
World War
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In many respects, Afghanistan represents a more difficult problem set. It does not have a number of the blessings that Iraq has in terms of the oil, gas, land of two rivers, the human capital that Iraq built up over the years, the muscle memory of a strong government - albeit one that was corrupted over time.
David Petraeus / Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Afghanistan
Gas
Rivers
Muscle
Albeit
Blessings
Capital
Corrupted
Many Respects
Respects
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Carter's hopes died when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and he ended up having to reverse policy and launch the military buildup that Reagan continued. Mr. Obama would be forced back into a war on terror if terrorist groups pull off enough damaging or frightening attacks to force this issue to the fore.
Walter Russell Mead / Academic
War
Afghanistan
Carter
Died
Force
Frightening
Groups
Issues
Military
Policy
Soviet
Soviet Union
Terror
Obama
Attacks
Mr
Damaging
Ended
Hopes
Invaded
Issue
Launch
Union
Pull
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President Obama has said that our aspirations should be realistic. We are not going to turn one of the poorest countries in the world, that was plunged into 30 years of war, into an advanced, industrialized, Western-style democracy. What we want to achieve is Afghanistan's capacity to secure and govern itself.
David Petraeus / Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
War
Achieve
Afghanistan
Capacity
Country
Democracy
Poorest
President Obama
Realistic
Secure
Years
Obama
Advanced
Aspirations
Countries
Govern
Industrialized
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We're pursuing a strategic partnership with Afghanistan on the case of the United States and Afghanistan where we're going to push toward a future. It is the future that the Afghans desire with the United States. It is a future that the Afghans desire with the international community and we desire that as well.
John R. Allen /
Afghanistan
International
International Community
Partnership
Strategic
Pursuing
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The biggest mistake Barack Obama could have made is to change quite a few things in his Afghanistan policy. He increased the number of troops and at the same time set the US withdrawal date to 2014. Now the United States has to ensure that Afghanistan does not immediately collapse after being left to itself in 2014.
Ahmed Rashid / Journalist
Afghanistan
Mistake
Policy
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I've been in a position before where a president has turned to me in the Oval Office in a difficult moment, without any pleasantries, and said, 'I'm asking you as your president and Commander in Chief to take command of the international security force in Afghanistan.' The only response can be, 'Yes, Mr. President.'
David Petraeus / Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Afghanistan
Oval
Response
Mr
Chief
Commander
Difficult Moment
Oval Office
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Hurtling the Pentagon into an unprecedented budgetary meltdown is horrifically irresponsible. Obama doesn't care. This is war - not against the Taliban, but war against the GOP. He has Republicans on the ropes, and that's a victory he savors and desires - unlike Afghanistan, where he seems only to want to turn tail.
John Podhoretz / Writer
War
Afghanistan
Desire
Gop
Irresponsible
Pentagon
Victory
Budgetary
Desires
Republicans
Unlike
Meltdown
Ropes
Tail
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'Duty' is a refreshingly honest memoir and a moving one. Mr. Gates scrupulously identifies his flaws and mistakes: He waited too long, for example, for the military bureaucracy to fix critical supply issues like the drones needed in Iraq and took three years to replace a dysfunctional command structure in Afghanistan.
Jack Keane /
Afghanistan
Bureaucracy
Command
Critical
Drones
Example
Gates
Honest
Iraq
Issues
Memoir
Military
Moving
Needed
Structure
Mistakes
Fix
Dysfunctional
For Example
Replace
Supply
Waited
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President-elect Donald Trump has a host of national security challenges to deal with as he assumes office, from the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan to the grinding Syrian civil war to the flexing of Russian muscles under President Vladimir Putin to how to deal with ISIS as the terrorist army retreats in Iraq.
Peter Bergen / Broadcaster
Afghanistan
Army
Civil War
Host
Muscles
National Security
Putin
Resurgence
Terrorist
Assumes
Donald
Donald Trump
Grinding
Retreats
Syrian
Vladimir Putin
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We're here so that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was when al-Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in the Kandahar area, conducted the initial training for the attackers in training camps in Afghanistan before they moved on to Germany and then to U.S. flight schools.
David Petraeus / Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Afghanistan
Al Qaeda
Camps
Flight
Germany
Moved
Sanctuary
Attacks
Extremists
Initial
Planned
Schools
Transnational
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It is a fact that the Left routinely resists, then as now: Americans fought and died in Vietnam for freedom, just as they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Whatever mistakes generals and policymakers have made along the way cannot detract from that essential truth - which should be a part of any reliable history.
Arthur L. Herman / Historian
Afghanistan
Died
Essentials
Iraq
Mistake
Vietnam
Essential
Fought
Generals
Policymakers
Reliable
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In the 360-degree battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, women have served honorably and fought valiantly. Yet there is a key difference between being in harm's way and reacting to enemy contact, and being in a direct combat operations role day in and day out. They are different scenarios that require different standards.
Pete Hegseth / Veteran
Afghanistan
Combat
Contact
Direct
Enemy
Harm
Operations
Reacting
Scenarios
Standards
Fought
Honorably
Require
Served
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American media has just become talk radio, incredibly partisan name-calling and op-eds. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan proved it has completely failed to act as an effective fourth estate. And young people didn't sleep through that, as is widely believed; they learned instead not to trust what they were being told.
Shane Smith / Journalist
Afghanistan
Fourth
Talk Radio
Wars
Effective
Failed
Estate
Partisan
Proved
Widely
Young People
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In June 2010, after more than 38 years in uniform, in the midst of commanding a 46-nation coalition in a complex war in Afghanistan, my world changed suddenly - and profoundly. An article in 'Rolling Stone' magazine depicting me, and people I admired, in a manner that felt as unfamiliar as it was unfair, ignited a firestorm.
Stanley A. Mcchrystal / Armed Force Officer
Afghanistan
Changed
June
Midst
Rolling
Unfair
War World Me
Admired
Article
Coalition
Commanding
Complex
Depicting
Magazine
Manner
Profoundly
Rolling Stone
Stone
Suddenly
Uniform
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I have two sons. Both served. One as a marine officer in Iraq, one as an army officer in Afghanistan. I do not see - want to see one parent or loved one worrying about getting a call in the middle of the night. I would not place one American life at risk unless it was absolutely necessary. But to destroy ISIS, it is necessary.
George Pataki / Former Governor Of New York
Afghanistan
American Life
Army
Marine
Parent
Risk
Destroy
Loved One
Officer
Served
Sons
Worrying
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What's always got me is the fact that when people talked on the telly about Iraq, before Afghanistan kicked off, you'd get only these public-school-type army officers talking about what was going on out there. I kept thinking, 'Why don't we get the true voice of the squaddie? Why don't we hear from the lads on the battlefield?'
Ross Kemp / Actor
Afghanistan
Army
Iraq
Officers
School
Thinking
Thinking Always Me
Battlefield
Lads
Talked
Telly
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We have to have a conversation about whether Obama's plan to increase spending to occupy Afghanistan helps make America a safer country, or not. I think at some point, we may decide that we don't have to have that size military and cost footprint in the country. You look at what you want to accomplish, how many soldiers you need.
Grover Norquist /
Accomplish
Afghanistan
Conversation
Cost
Footprint
Size
Spending
Look Country America
Occupy
Safer
Soldiers
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When the United States first went into Afghanistan in 2001, it devastated the Taliban and Al Qaeda in a matter of weeks using only a few hundred C.I.A. and Special Operations personnel, backed by American air power. Later, when the United States transitioned to conventional Pentagon stability operations, this success was reversed.
Erik Prince /
Afghanistan
Air
Conventional
Devastated
Hundred
Matter
Operations
Pentagon
Personnel
Special
Stability
States
Taliban
United States
Backed
Weeks
Few
Later
Qaeda
Reversed
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I think - I think the real nightmare place now is less Afghanistan than it is Pakistan. I mean, again, Pakistan is this gigantic country, deeply troubled, kind of almost ungovernable, sitting on top of probably 50 or 60 nuclear warheads. Nobody really knows where the warheads are; the Americans certainly don't know where they are.
Dexter Filkins / Journalist
Afghanistan
Nightmare
Nuclear
Pakistan
Gigantic
Nuclear Warheads
Troubled
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Americans worry that Afghanistan has become a petri dish in which the germs of Islamic fanaticism are replicating - soon Afghans will be hijacking American planes and bombing embassies everywhere. And their fears are not necessarily unfounded. The Taliban are unemployed war veterans, ready and even eager to return to the battlefield.
William T. Vollmann / Novelist
Afghanistan
Bombing
Fanaticism
Hijacking
Islamic
Planes
Return
Taliban
Unemployed
Battlefield
Dish
Eager
Fears
Veterans
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It seems not to matter that we are at the brink of a war that may spread beyond Afghanistan and Iraq to Iran and Georgia and then where? To Syria? To North Korea? To China? That we in America are in economic doldrums and are seeing small businesses fold and houses reclaimed by banks and a smouldering panic that is palpable everywhere.
Richard Schiff / Actor
War
Afghanistan
America
Georgia
Iran
North Korea
Spread
Syria
Banks
Brink
Businesses
Fold
Houses
North
Palpable
Small Businesses
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If we finally chose as a country to take responsibility for the wars that we believe we must engage in, and rather than borrow money to exercise that authority to go to war, we actually pay for these wars, that would save us over a trillion dollars, because that's what we have spent in Iraq and Afghanistan - all through borrowed money.
Xavier Becerra / United States Representative
Afghanistan
Authority
Dollars
Borrow
Chose
Wars
Trillion
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Of all the places I've been while talking to audiences about the U.S. Army's 5th Special Forces Group and their story in Afghanistan, one of the most rewarding was an appearance before the 5th Group soldiers themselves at Ft. Campbell, their home, and the place from which they had launched their historic mission in Afghanistan in 2001.
Doug Stanton / Author
Afghanistan
Appearance
Army
Historic
Special
Special Forces
Audiences
Campbell
Forces
Group
Mission
Places
Rewarding
Soldiers
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What makes you a SEAL, what makes you a SEAL is being a good tactician on the battle field, understanding how to shoot, move, and communicate, knowing small unit maneuver warfare. That's what makes a good SEAL, and so that is the course of instruction that I taught, was getting SEAL platoons ready for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jocko Willink /
Afghanistan
Battle
Communicate
Deployment
Instruction
Iraq
Ready
Taught
Understanding
Warfare
Field
Shoot
Maneuver
Move
Seal
Unit
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There is no battle space the U.S. Military cannot access. They said we couldn't do Afghanistan. We did it with ease. They said we couldn't do Iraq. We did it with 150 combat casualties in six weeks. We did it so fast we weren't prepared for their collapse. There is nobody we can't take down. The question is, what do you do with the power?
Thomas P.m. Barnett /
Access
Afghanistan
Battle
Casualties
Collapse
Combat
Ease
Prepared
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Look, I went to war, and we knew by survey that when I went to war that we had a certain percentage in that carrier battle group, and when I was on the ground briefly in Afghanistan, that were gay. And now we come back to America and say they don't have equal rights. I've never understood it. This is something where we have to correct this.
Joe Sestak /
Afghanistan
Carrier
Equal Rights
Correct
Percentage
Survey
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In mid-November 2001, as they moved toward the city of Kandahar, the Taliban's de facto capital in southern Afghanistan, Amerine's team called in airstrikes against advancing Taliban units and more or less obliterated a Taliban column of a thousand men that had been dispatched from Kandahar. It was the Taliban's final play to remain in power.
Peter Bergen / Broadcaster
Advancing
Afghanistan
Taliban
Thousand
Units
Capital
Column
Facto
More Or Less
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Britain, along with the U.S.A., is war weary, and after the travesty of Iraq and Afghanistan, has grave misgivings in any future involvement in the Middle East. The ghost of Tony Blair and his single-minded determination to attack Iraq, at any cost, has cast a long shadow over British politics. The British public have a long collective memory.
Paul Conroy /
Afghanistan
Blair
Britain
Cost
Determination
East
Ghost
Involvement
Middle
Middle East
Shadow
Weary
Attack
Cast
Collective
Grave
Memory
Single-Minded
Tony
Tony Blair
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It should tell you something that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency invented the Taliban in the early 1990s only because Hekmatyar, its primary U.S.-bankrolled proxy in the war for control of Afghanistan, had proved too bloodthirsty after the Soviets withdrew, even by the low standards of the ISI's ghastly generals in Rawalpindi.
Terry Glavin /
Afghanistan
Agency
Ghastly
Pakistan
Standards
Taliban
Early
Generals
Invented
Low
Primary
Proved
Soviets
Withdrew
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It might help to know that in Afghanistan citizenship papers and birth certificates and the official registration of births and deaths are the exotica of faraway places. One is born 'in the time of the pomegranate harvest' or some such thing or one's birthdate is recorded as the first day of the year if you are even aware of the year you were born.
Terry Glavin /
Afghanistan
Birth
Citizenship
Harvest
Papers
Registration
Deaths
Faraway
Official
Recorded
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Now, here we are, and we have Obama in office, and he has drawn down forces in Iraq - which is a plan that was on Bush's desk the day that he left office. The forces in Afghanistan, he's going to draw down, too. But at the same time, Obama has also expanded a lot of the more unsavory, covert aspects of the wars, with the drone strikes and some of the night-raid missions.
Jeremy Scahill / Editor
War
Afghanistan
Office
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