“Everyone in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a potential target. My heart goes out to the UN family in Afghanistan: in spite of everything, they are showing fortitude. But they will need the support of the whole world at this difficult time.” WorldNeedsHeartWholeDifficultSupportMy HeartWhole WorldSpiteTargetAfghanistanPakistanFortitudeDifficult Times Author:Chris Alexander
“Karzai is Afghanistan's first democratically elected president. He brought the international community into partnership on an unprecedented level, and he championed a new constitution that is liberal, democratic and still very Afghan. All of that does reflect a vision. But he's presided over a country that is still in conflict, and he hasn't taken some of the difficult decisions his own government wanted him to take. On corruption, he hasn't been as decisive as he should've been. There are legitimate questions about him.” ShouldFirstsDoeStillsCountryGovernmentWantedDifficultPresidentCommunityDecisionLevelsVisionTakenConflictConstitutionDemocraticInternationalCorruptionAfghanistanPartnershipUnprecedentedInternational CommunityAfghanDifficult Decisions Author:Chris Alexander
“The story of Taliban recovery and resurgence begins in the places where they took refuge after 2001. And as long as those leadership structures and training structures operate outside of Afghanistan with relative impunity, the conflict will continue.” LongStoriesConflictTrainingStructureRecoveryAfghanistanRelativeRefugeTalibanImpunityResurgence Author:Chris Alexander
“If the Taliban comes back to power, the impact would be devastating. A country that has made great strides, in terms of development indicators, would take a huge step backwards. Afghanistan's national economy would be devastated.” IfsMadeCountryWould BeTermStepsEconomyHugeDevelopmentImpactAfghanistanBackwardsTalibanStrideDevastatedIndicatorsNational Economy Author:Chris Alexander
“The reality of Canadian history is that we've been willing to do the important things the world demanded of us: fighting in World War II, in Korea, in the Balkans, where we were involved in offensive military operations, and in Afghanistan, where we have made disproportionate contributions.” WorldMadeImportantWarRealityFightingMilitaryWillingInvolvedImportant ThingsOperationsWar Of The WorldsContributionAfghanistanWorld War IiWorld War IOffensiveKoreaBalkansMilitary OperationsCanadian History Author:Chris Alexander
“Despite 18 years as a non-partisan public servant, my deeper "tribal" affinity has always been Tory. The Afghanistan file has given me an additional reason to cleave to that side of the spectrum. Canadian Conservatives have generally been more comfortable and confident with hard security issues.” YearsHardReasonGivenSidesIssuesSecurityComfortableDeeperDespiteServantAfghanistanFilesSpectrumPartisansAffinityPublic Servants Author:Chris Alexander
“Most people are not affected by [the death penalty]. It's like how many people are actually sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Such a small percentage.” PeopleIraqAffectedAfghanistanPenaltiesPercentagesDeath Penalty Author:Susan Sarandon
“The war in Afghanistan was fought for feminist reasons, and the Marines were really on this feminist mission. But today, all the women in all these countries have been driven back into medieval situations. Women who were liberated, women who were doctors and lawyers and poets and writers and - you know, pushed back into this Shia set against Sunnis. The U.S. is supporting al-Qaeda militias all over this region and pretending that it's fighting Islam. So we are in a situation that is psychopathic.” KnowsHas BeensWarCountryReasonTodayFightingSituationPoetDoctorsIslamFeministMissionsDrivenLawyerRegionsAlsPretendingAfghanistanMarineMedievalLiberatedAl QaedaMilitiaShiaPsychopathicLiberated Woman Author:Arundhati Roy
“When was the last time the United States won a war? You know, it lost in Vietnam. It's lost in Afghanistan. It's lost in Iraq. And it will not be able to contain the situation. It is hemorrhaging. It is now - you know, of course you can continue with drone attacks, and you can continue these targeted killings, but on the ground, a situation is being created which no army - not America, not anybody - can control. And it's just, you know, a combination of such foolishness, such a lack of understanding of culture in the world.” KnowsWorldWarStatesAbleLastsAmericaCultureCoursesLostUnderstandingUnitedSituationUnited StatesArmyKillingIraqCombinationAfghanistanVietnamLast TimeFoolishnessDronesLack Of Understanding Author:Arundhati Roy
“People may be vaguely aware that there's suffering in Iraq and Afghanistan, but simply because the media are filled with American-centric versions, we still see the experiences through the American perspective. We are just completely ignorant of what might be happening to other people.” PeopleMayStillsMightSufferingMediaPerspectiveHappeningsFilledIraqIgnorantVersionsAfghanistan Author:Nguyen Viet Thang
“There was a time when the women of Afghanistan - at least in Kabul - were out there. They were allowed to study, they were doctors and surgeons, walking free, wearing what they wanted. That was when it was under Soviet occupation. Then the United States starts funding the mujahideen. Reagan called them Afghanistan's "founding fathers." It reincarnates the idea of "jehad," virtually creates the Taliban.” IdeasStatesWantedFatherUnitedUnited StatesStudyWalkingDoctorsOccupationAfghanistanSovietFoundingFundingSurgeonsTalibanKabulMujahideen Author:Arundhati Roy
“In Iraq, until before the war, the women were scientists, museum directors, doctors. I'm not valourising Saddam Hussein or the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which was brutal and killed hundreds of thousands of people - it was the Soviet Union's Vietnam. I'm just saying that now, in these new wars, whole countries have slipped into mayhem - the women have just been pushed back into their burqas - and not by choice.” PeopleWarCountryWholeChoicesDirectorsDoctorsScientistUnionsIraqOccupationMuseumsAfghanistanVietnamSovietBrutalSoviet UnionSaddamHusseinJust SayingMayhemBurqa Author:Arundhati Roy
“In 2001, we were told that the war in Afghanistan was a feminist mission. The marines were liberating Afghan women from the Taliban. Can you really bomb feminism into a country? And now, after 25 years of brutal war - 10 years against the Soviet occupation, 15 years of US occupation - the Taliban is riding back to Kabul and will soon be back to doing business with the United States.” YearsWarCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesFeminismFeministMissionsBombsOccupationAfghanistanSovietRidingBrutalMarineLiberatingTalibanAfghanKabul Author:Arundhati Roy
“Our tragedy today is not just that millions of people who called themselves communist or socialist were physically liquidated in Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, not just that China and Russia, after all that revolution, have become capitalist economies, not just that the working class has been ruined in the United States and its unions dismantled, not just that Greece has been brought to its knees, or that Cuba will soon be assimilated into the free market - it is also that the language of the Left, the discourse of the Left, has been marginalised and is sought to be eradicated.” PeopleHas BeensStatesTodayLeftLanguageUnitedClassMillionsUnited StatesEconomyRevolutionTragedyUnionsIraqChinaRussiaKneesIranCommunistAfghanistanVietnamCapitalistSocialistWorking ClassDiscourseRuinedFree MarketGreeceIndonesiaCubaCapitalist Economy Author:Arundhati Roy
“We ought to say, "Occupy Wall Street, not Iraq," "Occupy Wall Street, not Afghanistan," "Occupy Wall Street, not Palestine." The two need to be put together. Otherwise people might not read the signs.” PeopleNeedsTwoMightTogetherStreetsWallOughtIraqAfghanistanPalestineWise PeopleOccupy Wall Street Author:Arundhati Roy
“Continuous wars - which we have now had since 2001 - starting with Afghanistan, continuing on to Iraq. And even since Iraq, it's been more or less continuous. The appalling war in Libya, which has wrecked that country and wrecked that part of the world, and which isn't over by any means. The indirect Western intervention in Syria, which has created new monsters. These are policies, which if carried out by any individual government, would be considered extremist. Now, they're being carried out collectively by the United States, backed by some of the countries of the European Union.” IfsWorldMeanWarCountryStatesGovernmentWould BeIndividualUnitedUnited StatesPolicyUnionsWesternStartingIraqMonstersAfghanistanContinuingSyriaInterventionExtremistEuropean UnionLibyaIndirectContinuing On Author:Tariq Ali
“The Islamic world is not only suffering from the American occupation of Palestine and Iraq, it's also suffering from the unbelievable corruption in Afghanistan by Afghans themselves and also in Iraq - I'm just giving these 2 examples of countries which are under direct occupation; I do not mean at all to negate the terrible events that led to this or what's going on with the foreign occupation there.” WorldGivingMeanCountrySufferingEventsExampleTerribleDirectIraqCorruptionIslamicOccupationAfghanistanUnbelievablePalestineTerrible Events Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“In Afghanistan, there have been a lot of teachers assassinated, schools are being blown up, girls are harassed and in some cases, attacked on their way to school. Even if the girls are able to get an education, they can dream big, they can think about how they want to become a member of parliament because they are now women members of parliament in Afghanistan, nobody is really sure how long everything is going to last.” IfsThinkingWayWantLongHas BeensDreamBigsAbleSchoolLastsGirlCasesTeacherMembersAfghanistanParliamentMembers Of Parliament Author:Deborah Ellis
“When girls in Canada dream about becoming members of parliament, they have a pretty good expectation that parliament is going to be around for them when they graduate. There is no such expectation in Afghanistan. It's all still hope and wanting it but not really sure if it's going to be around.” IfsStillsDreamGirlBecomingMembersExpectationsCanadaAfghanistanGraduatesParliamentMembers Of Parliament Author:Deborah Ellis
“Toughest decision was early in my presidency when I ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. As somebody who had run to end a large troop presence overseas.” EndsRunningDecisionAfghanistanTroopsPresidency Author:Barack Obama
“I had said from the start that I thought Iraq was a mistake, that we should have stayed focused on Afghanistan. I think it was the right decision because the Taliban at that point had gotten a lot of momentum before I'd gotten into office, partly because we hadn't been paying attention as much as we needed to to Afghanistan.” ThinkingShouldSaidDecisionAttentionMistakeNeededOfficeShould HaveIraqFocusedPay AttentionAfghanistanMomentumTalibanRight Decision Author:Barack Obama
“[When I ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan] that was the first time in which I looked out at a crowd of West Point graduates and knew that some of those might not come back because of that decision.” FirstsMightDecisionFirst TimeWestCrowdsAfghanistanGraduatesTroopsWest Point Author:Barack Obama
“What we have done, I think, is build a model from a lot of hard lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq but in other places around the world, where we are working with them in an advisory capacity.” ThinkingWorldHardDoneLessonsModelsCapacityIraqAround The WorldAfghanistanHard LessonsAdvisory Author:Barack Obama
“[Afghanistan and Iraq] are still countries that are fragile enough that we're gonna have to partner with them in some way.” WayStillsCountryEnoughIraqPartnersAfghanistanFragile Author:Barack Obama
“It still puts burden on some troops of ours who are there [in Afghanistan and Iraq] as advisors and facilitators.” StillsIraqBurdenAfghanistanTroopsAdvisors Author:Barack Obama
“We don't have this huge footprint, we are less likely to be targeted as, you know, occupiers [in Afghanistan and Iraq].” KnowsHugeIraqAfghanistanFootprint Author:Barack Obama
“If the United States had not intervened in Afghanistan, then obviously, we would have then allowed the attacks of 9/11 to go unanswered. I don't think most of Americans wanted that to happen.” IfsThinkingStatesHappensWantedUnitedUnited StatesAfghanistanUnanswered Author:John McCain
“If it is bin Laden, he's a very intelligent guy. He's been planning his war for a long time. I remember the last time I met him in 1997 in Afghanistan. And bin Laden said to me "From this mountain, Mr. Robert, upon which you are sitting, we beat the Russian army and helped break the Soviet Union. And I pray to God that he allows us to turn America into a shadow of itself." When I saw the pictures of New York without the World Trade Center, New York looked like a shadow of itself.” WorldLongWarRememberGuyBreakPrayingMountainShadowArmyIntelligentTradePlanningAfghanistanSovietLast TimeSoviet UnionI PrayBin LadenPraying To GodWorld Trade Center Author:Robert Fisk
“Osama Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do in response to this attack 9/11. I'm sure he wanted America to attack Afghanistan. Once you do what your enemy wants, you are walking into a trap, whether you think it's the right thing to do or not.” ThinkingEnemyWalkingResponseRight ThingAfghanistanSophisticatedBin LadenOsama Bin Laden Author:Robert Fisk
“When George W.Bush attacked Afghanistan, it was widely hailed, and the failure of our war there wasn't understood. Within a few months of attacking Afghanistan, Bush clearly moved on to get ready for Iraq, long before Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda were dispensed with. There was never any serious debate in the press about whether even the notion that every Taliban was our enemy was valid. A lot of assumptions about that war were never challenged.” LongWarEnemySeriousMovedDebateAssumptionAfghanistanBin LadenAl QaedaTalibanOsama Bin Laden Author:Seymour Hersh
“If you polled the military in Afghanistan as to how many think we should be there or not, the numbers would probably be similar to what the U.S. population believes. That's not because they're watching the news. But, hey, they are out there risking their lives. No one likes to be criticized and it really sucks to be criticized when you're risking your life.” ThinkingBelieveMilitaryAfghanistan Author:Michael Hastings
“I've always said that if you want to find out what's going on in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya, I'll give you a choice. You can either read The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, or you can go to the NATO, ISAF, multi-national force websites where they have their own news releases. Who will give you a more accurate picture? I'll take the mainstream media.” GivingChoicesWallAfghanistanWebsiteNatoRolling StonesWall Street Journal Author:Michael Hastings
“I did an embed in Afghanistan on the Pakistan border in 2008. One of the things you realize when you're talking to low-ranking enlisted men is that no one listens to them. So when I showed up they loved having someone to talk to. That's a real privilege for me. The guys on the ground are the guys I care about. I've had the most satisfaction telling their stories. There is trust and there is stuff that you learn to hold back, especially when you're dealing with younger guys or lower ranking officers. That's different from the top brass who are basically just politicians anyway.” MenDifferentRealCareGuyRealizingPoliticianAfghanistanI Care Author:Michael Hastings
“One of their major initiatives was getting all officers on Facebook. So the question is, why are these people who are there to train the Afghans being pressured to be on Facebook? Again, it sounds benign until you realize that the military's concern isn't the Afghans, it's convincing the American people that we should be in Afghanistan.Soldiers can put up pictures and say "See how happy the Afghans are because of our presence here." It's a way to directly influence the American people using propaganda.” PeopleRealizingInfluenceConcernTrainSoldierPropagandaAfghanistanInitiativeConvincing Author:Michael Hastings
“Afghanistan would have been difficult enough without Iraq. Iraq made it impossible. The argument that had we just focused on Afghanistan we'd now be okay is persuasive, but it omits the fact that we weren't supposed to get involved in nation-building in Afghanistan.In my new book, I open with a quote from Donald Rumsfeld. In October 2001, he said of Afghanistan: "It's not a quagmire." Ten years later there are 150,000 Western troops there.” BookEnoughDifficultImpossibleArgumentOkayWesternFocusedAfghanistanGet InvolvedOctoberPersuasiveQuagmire Author:Michael Hastings
“Johnny Apple, a New York Times correspondent, wrote a front-page story saying Afghanistan could be a quagmire and he was mocked and derided. What is certainly true is that all sorts of resources that would have been used in Afghanistan were diverted to Iraq. Would those resources have helped? Almost undoubtedly. Whether or not Afghanistan would be a peaceful nation-state had we not gone into Iraq I doubt. Afghanistan is going to be Afghanistan, no matter how hard we try to make it something else.” TryingDoubtPeacefulAfghanistanQuagmire Author:Michael Hastings
“Inside the White House there were always extreme amounts of doubt about whether they should be escalating in Afghanistan. In fact, most of the president's advisers said, "This is probably not going to work." A lot of people in the military said, "This is probably not going to work." If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that George W.Bush lied about mass destruction weapons, the thumbnail version of Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn't want to fight.” PeopleWarFightingHouseDoubtMilitaryDestructionBarackAfghanistanGoing To WorkLiedIraq War Author:Michael Hastings
“The military sensed weakness, exploited it and played Barack Obama. Obama's foreign policy has been consistently hawkish despite this reluctant warrior schtick that he pulls. But at the end of the day a reluctant warrior is still a warrior. Look at the drone strikes, the tripling of the war in Afghanistan, and now Libya. I'm convinced that had Obama been in the Senate in 2003 he would have voted for the Iraq war. He's clearly easily convinced by his advisers and the Pentagon.” WarMilitaryPolicyWeaknessWarriorBarackAfghanistanForeign PolicyConsistentlyIraq War Author:Michael Hastings
“It was interesting watching the Afghanistan war review deliberations, this three-month process where Barack Obama did the most thorough foreign policy review ever by a modern American president. Compare that to Libya. For a month he said we weren't going to do anything, then suddenly changed his mind and did it on the fly. My view is that it's not how long or quick you take to make a decision, it's whether you make the right one.” MindLongWarPresidentDecisionInterestingModernPolicyChangedBarackCompareAfghanistanForeign PolicyThoroughAmerican President Author:Michael Hastings
“The humanitarian argument is so selective I find it difficult to swallow. It's not even so much about the choice as to where we should get involved and where we shouldn't. The minute you start arming people in these conflict zones, like Iraq and Afghanistan, things don't go as expected.” PeopleChoicesDifficultConflictArgumentHumanitarianZoneAfghanistanGet Involved Author:Michael Hastings
“When you start to really travel and you get to these abstract like places in the world, you would see certain people's names. It seemed like we could go anywhere. Like when we went to Afghanistan, you'd see in the dressing room Run DMC's name. Certain rappers are like journey men.” MenWorldRunningJourneyAbstractAfghanistanRapper Author:Ice T
“ISIS is going to devolve from physical political emirate, into what Al Qaeda was, which is a covert organization which will go completely underground. But to communicate and to keep propagating their propaganda, after everyone is dead, all their fanboys and whatever surviving leadership that has been operating outside the war or operates in Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan, they will form what we call a "ghost caliphate."” WarPoliticalCommunicateGhostPropagandaAfghanistanSurvivingAl Qaeda Author:Malcolm Wrightson Nance
“Soviet foreign ministers would come in to see the president all the time, routinely. Jimmy Carter stopped that after the invasion of Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan resumed it in 1984, I think. And so the fact of a meeting like that I think is not that big a deal.” ThinkingPresidentMeetingsAfghanistanSovietJimmy Author:Robert M. Gates
“President Barack Obama started by accepting the military's counterinsurgency, but came out of Afghanistan having decided that counterinsurgency actually doesn't work.” PresidentAcceptingBarackAfghanistanPresident Barack Obama Author:Vali Nasr
“The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border of Afghanistan, I wrote to President Jimmy Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.” GivingWarOpportunityPresidentAfghanistanVietnam WarJimmyUssr Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
“Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war in Afghanistan, unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.” WarConflictBreakupAfghanistanSoviet Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
“We got the Iran sanctions done. We got an agreement by Russia to allow us to use Afghanistan to transit supplies for our forces. We got a Security Council resolution on Libya. We got Russia into the WTO to bring in to it a rules-based trading system. All of those things were in our interest. The point is not whether we should work with Russia. The point is whether we should sacrifice other important interests to do so.” ImportantDoneInterestSacrificeSecurityResolutionAfghanistanTrading Author:Philip Gordon
“The whole world has become a crowded theater. You could say something here in New York and have it be heard in Afghanistan and potentially trigger riots and it may be something that to you was innocent or was in jest or was satirical and it's taken out of context. I mean, a joke, a tweet or a blog post can make it halfway around the world before the context gets its boots on.” WorldMeanTakenJokesInnocentAfghanistanHalfwayRiotTweetSatiricalOf Context Author:Suzanne Nossel
“In the midst of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Putin invaded the Republic of Georgia. Let's call it for what it is. Here is Vladimir Putin with a failing Soviet franchise. And when he can't win the hearts and minds of his neighboring nations, he uses energy extortion, masked gunmen and barbed wire.” MindHeartWarWinningEnergyFailingAfghanistanSovietHeart And MindWire Author:Kelly Ayotte
“Iraq is fragile and may fall back into a devastating setting. We're not making the kind of progress in Afghanistan that had been promised. And our esteem around the world has fallen. I can't think of a major country. It's hard to think of a single country that has greater respect and admiration for America today than it did five years ago when Barack Obama became President. And that's a very sad, unfortunate state of affairs.” ThinkingWorldKindCountryTodayFallPresidentProgressAffairEsteemBarackFallenAdmirationAfghanistanUnfortunateFall BackVery Sad Author:Mitt Romney