#afghan

The president is being denounced for not taking the kind of pre-emptive action in Afghanistan that he has been so passionately denounced for taking in Iraq. Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. ↗

— Ferdinand Mount

#afghanistan #been #being #damned #denounced

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

#advanced #afghanistan #aspirations #capacity #countries

The art of coalition command - whether it is here in Afghanistan, whether it was in Iraq or in Bosnia or in Haiti - is to take the resources you are provided with, understand what the strengths and weaknesses are and to employ them to the best overall effect. ↗

— David Petraeus

#art #best #bosnia #coalition #command

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

#again #al-qaeda #area #attackers #attacks

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out. ↗

— Colin Powell

#afghan #al-qaeda #back #come #control

I feel most empires fell when they started to act human, but then look at Russia. They kept a pretty strong hand, and they fell from Afghanistan alone because Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. I guess you just can't sustain it. ↗

— Colin Quinn

#afghanistan #alone #because #empires #feel

We're in danger of breaking our army and preventing our national leaders from having the flexibility to confront not just Iraq and Afghanistan, but crises around the globe. ↗

— Jack Reed

#army #around #breaking #confront #crises

If you're an Afghan village leader in a small town down around Kandahar somewhere, and you know that the footprint is getting smaller for your security, and the Taliban saying don't forget, I'm going to be back real soon, who is your loyalty going to go through? ↗

— Mike Rogers

#around #back #down #footprint #forget

We can't stay in Afghanistan forever. ↗

— James F. Amos

#forever #stay

I suggested that we had experience in helping other countries build their military forces, and we would be willing and happy to do the same for Afghanistan, together with the United States. ↗

— Bulent Ecevit

#build #countries #experience #forces #had