#Afghanistan Quotes

“I'm not sure we have the right strategy in Afghanistan. Let me think this over for a few months.”

“I'll tell you what they're all going to face, whichever one of them becomes president on January 21st of 2009. They will face a military force - a United States military force that cannot sustain - continually sustain 140,000 people deployed in Iraq and the 20-odd or 25,000 people we have deployed in Afghanistan and our other deployments.”

“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.”

“We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy.”

“We've been able to build up the Afghan security forces and stabilize it.”

“It still puts burden on some troops of ours who are there [in Afghanistan and Iraq] as advisors and facilitators.”

“We don't have this huge footprint, we are less likely to be targeted as, you know, occupiers [in Afghanistan and Iraq].”

“And there’s been drift in Afghanistan over the last couple of years. That’s something that we intend to fix this.”

“There's no reason why Americans should die when Afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country.”

“[Our troops in Iraq and Afganistan] does give us the ability to make sure that we are strengthening those folk who are interested in building up their countries rather than destroying them, and doing so in a way that is sustainable and doesn't put a constant burden on the amazing men and women that we've got in uniform.”

“After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.”