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Protecting Afghan civilians is the cornerstone of our mission. -- John R. Allen
If we can't understand the Afghan family, we can't understand Afghanistan. -- Asne Seierstad
The voice, Afghan matchmakers say, is more than half of love. -- Gregory David Roberts
Foreign aid projects have pumped billions of dollars into the Afghan economy. -- Richard Engel
The Afghan government is as corrupt as a prostitute with a law degree. -- Craig Ferguson
The majority of the Afghan people support a strategic partnership with the United States. -- Hamid Karzai
It's the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the work there. -- George W. Bush
To understand Afghanistan, you have to face the stress the average Afghan deals with. -- Hyder Akbar
We've got to see a state where the Afghan government can handle its own day-to-day security. -- Stephen Harper
While the Taliban connives with foreign terrorists, the Afghan people suffer from poverty, drought and hunger -- Jack Straw
The Taliban mostly attacks international and Afghan security forces. They rarely carry out attacks in markets. -- Richard Engel
Without women taking an active role in Afghan society, rebuilding Afghanistan is going to be very difficult. -- Khaled Hosseini
Carolyn Maloney has been a consistent fighter for Afghan women but also for International Family Planning Bills. -- Eleanor Smeal
It's fair to say average Americans think that the average Afghan doesn't want American troops in their country. -- Ashraf Ghani
The most significant thing is public participation. That assures the Afghan public that our promises are not empty. -- Ashraf Ghani
As the country now turns a new leaf, our ambition is to give hope to each and every Afghan. -- Hamid Karzai
If it is terrorism, if it is war on terror, then the Afghan people will join you on terror. -- Hamid Karzai
The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens. -- David Petraeus
WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Logs and U.S. diplomatic cables stolen from a classified network by an Army private. -- Rebecca MacKinnon
Watching young Afghan skaters in the film 'Skateistan' made me realize why I've spent my entire life as a skateboarder. -- Stacy Peralta
I wanted to write about Afghanistan before the Soviet war because that is largely a forgotten period in modern Afghan history. -- Khaled Hosseini
The Afghan security forces will always have the help of the U.S. American military to ensure that Afghanistan never fails. -- Lindsey Graham
In Afghan culture, you don't date - you marry. Even talking to boys before marriage brings great shame to your family. -- Azita Ghanizada
Afghan women, as a group, I think their suffering has been equaled by very few other groups in recent world history. -- Khaled Hosseini
We think it is in our nation's interest that Afghan women - or any women around the world - not suffer. -- George W. Bush
If any overarching conclusion emerges from the Afghan and Iraq Wars (and from their Israeli equivalents), it's this: victory is a chimera. -- Andrew Bacevich
The Pashtuns in particular are kind of trapped. They've never accepted the Durand Line nor has any Afghan government historically accepted it. -- Noam Chomsky
Because Iran understands Afghanistan far better than Americans do, making Iran a partner in a long-term effort to transform Afghan agriculture makes sense. -- Stephen Kinzer
We as the Afghan people and government are willing to help Pakistan work for peace in Afghanistan and work for peace in Pakistan, together. -- Hamid Karzai
The family is the single most important institution in Afghan culture. It is described in the country's constitution as the 'fundamental pillar of society'. -- Asne Seierstad
I didn't want kabobs, Afghan music, and rules that required girls to be carefully monitored. I wanted mac and cheese, country music, and independence. -- Azita Ghanizada
The family is the single most important institution in Afghan culture. It is described in the countrys constitution as the fundamental pillar of society. -- Asne Seierstad
They [U.S. soldiers] are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan. -- Sarah Palin
Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity. -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Hospitality is one of the things the Afghan population is famous for, but nobody says that anymore. Now they're terrorists - and they're not. They're people. -- Lisa Ling
It is painful to talk about it, but even with its 110,000 elite soldiers, the Soviet Union never managed to gain control over the entire Afghan territory. -- Sergei Ivanov
Why don't we focus on what Afghan women can do? They can cook, bear children and pray. As I recall, that was fine for our grandmothers. -- Al Franken
We will also be funding projects that empower women and children in Afghanistan and now and then give scholarships to Afghan students here in the Bay Area. -- Khaled Hosseini
We provide transit facilities, we cooperate in equipping the Afghan army and security forces with arms and helicopters, we cooperate in training officers for law enforcement agencies. -- Sergei Lavrov
The reasoning for our civil-military plan is that lasting success will be when the Afghan government, security forces and people can resist the insurgents and terrorists themselves. -- Bob Ainsworth
Since 1996, the Feminist Majority Foundation has been immersed in a campaign to support Afghan women and girls in their fight against the brutal oppression of the Taliban. -- Eleanor Smeal
The yearning to be Afghan, to be part of the country, part of the land helped me separate myself from the casual traveler and claim my Afghan identity. -- Hyder Akbar
We could form a government of national unity fighting corruption. The ordinary Afghan is sick and tired of it, because it's she or he that pays the price. -- Ashraf Ghani
When Bush had an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden, he took his focus off of him, outsourced the job to Afghan warlords and bin Laden escaped -- Senator John Kerry
I myself had to grow a longer beard and Afghan clothes. I was in danger of being kidnapped by smugglers, though I didn't know it at the time. -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Afghanistan has moved forward and Afghanistan will defend itself. And the progress that we have achieved, the Afghan people will not allow it to be put back or reversed. -- Hamid Karzai
We are not in Afghanistan because girls were not allowed to go to school, but helping them do so will give the Afghan people hope for a better future. -- Bob Ainsworth
Now, al Qaeda's on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base of operations. The Afghan government is a friendly government that is trying to bring democracy to its people. -- Condoleezza Rice
The Afghan War has clearly reached a stage similar to that moment at your child's party where you realise you've forgotten to give the other parents a pick up time. -- Jeremy Hardy
I mean, how many men would have gone on to the floor of the House as Carolyn Maloney did and wear a burkha to show the fight of Afghan women. -- Eleanor Smeal
Do not ever threaten an Afghan with violence. We will rise as one and we will face every threat the way we have taken on thousands of previous armies and conquerors. -- Ashraf Ghani
Well, the reports are correct that we're conducting very robust military operations on the Afghan side of the border in areas where we think al-Qaida is operating and Taliban remnants are. -- John Abizaid
I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on. -- Khaled Hosseini
Many Afghan intellectuals in the United States believe that their country is best kept together. They are encouraged by the fact that no leading tribal or political figure there has called for secession. -- Stephen Kinzer
I have been involved with the UN refugee agency for a few years now, and we have done events to speak about refugees, focusing more and more on the situation with Afghan refugees. -- Khaled Hosseini
In all the debate about Afghanistan, we don't hear much about our obligation to the wretched lives of Afghan women. They are being treated as collateral damage as the big boys discuss geopolitical goals. -- Tina Brown
They will kill me but they will not kill my voice, because it will be the voice of all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the coming of spring. -- Malalai Joya
Many of us didn't believe in the image of bin Laden as a wandering Old Man of the Mountains, living on plants and insects in an inhospitable cave somewhere on the porous Pakistan-Afghan border. -- Salman Rushdie
We have a variety of intelligence and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar this year. We've learned lessons from Iraq and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people -- Bryan Hilferty
In 1979, when I was toddler, the Russians invaded Afghanistan, and my whole family fled to Vienna, Virginia. Far from home, my parents were determined to raise my two sisters and me according to Afghan traditions. -- Azita Ghanizada
I'm reading a bunch of fiction by Afghan and Iraq War veterans for a New Yorker piece. There hasn't been that much, but it's starting to come out, and some of the fiction is really good. -- George Packer
Definitely in the West, we're all cast as the same now. Whether you're Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Iranian, Afghan or whatever, you just get thrown into this category. And nine times out of 10, you're depicted as bad. -- Maz Jobrani
If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years. -- John Major
We obviously don't want to cause problems for the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people. In fact, we want them to support our efforts on their behalf and not see us as unwelcome occupiers. -- David Petraeus
You must keep in mind that Pakistan has suffered the aftermaths of the Cold War, and that Cold War had left deep imprints on our society. We were the worst sufferers from the ills of the Afghan war. -- Asif Ali Zardari
There are tens of thousands of interactions every single day across Afghanistan between the Afghan troops and International Security Assistance Force. On most of those, every single day we continue to deepen and broaden the relationship we seek. -- John R. Allen
There is a story which is not being told strongly enough of the Afghan employees of the UN inside the country who are saving hundreds of thousands of lives everyday by their bravery and nobody talks of them. -- Lakhdar Brahimi
Once the Afghan people vote and they choose their President with direct, secret ballot from all over the country, there will be a lot of difference in this country and a lot of legitimate power to flow with implementation. -- Hamid Karzai
I laughed. Partly at the joke, partly at how Afghan humor never changed. Wars were waged, the Internet was invented, and a robot had rolled on the surface of Mars, and in Afghanistan we were still telling Mullah Nasruddin jokes. -- Khaled Hosseini
If American forces leave Afghanistan, the Taliban is going to do what to America? Don't say you're worried about what they will do to the Afghan people. If that was America's concern, America's operational presence there would be much different. -- Henry Rollins
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
Over the past 30 years, hand grenades, tanks, fighter jets, missiles, helicopters and assault rifles have replaced traditional floral patterns in rug making and other textiles. Depicting these realities of war has helped the Afghan people to survive during times of conflict. -- Henri Cole
For a novelist, it's kind of an onerous burden to represent an entire culture. That said, I'm in a unique position to speak on behalf of Afghanistan on certain issues that I feel are important, particularly the issue of Afghan refugees. -- Khaled Hosseini
I was traumatised in the medieval Afghan society at Sarana village by the local boys of Omar's Taliban who forced my in-laws to subjugate me for trying to be different. There can be Omars in other religions, too, who oppress women. -- Sushmita Banerjee
It's being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas, we are being asked to believe that the U.S. marines are actually on a feminist mission. -- Arundhati Roy
A problem was the lack of cooperation of the Afghan community itself. The women, though living in Iran, were under cover and not willing to participate in the film, and none of the ethnic groups were willing to work together or be together. -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Seeing the Afghan women in their burqas, it's easy to say, "Well, they're not as fully aware as I am, so why do I have to worry so much about their plight?" But that's a misunderstanding. They are brutally aware of their station. -- Eliza Griswold
As I have said for two years now, when Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, it was wrong to outsource the job of capturing them to Afghan warlords who a week earlier were fighting against us. -- John F. Kerry
As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, I understand both the gravity of giving the order, and the challenge of carrying it out. -- Allen West
The dangers of an Afghan collapse are many: Afghan deaths, a loss of American prestige, a loss of NATO prestige, a moral blow to U.S. troops and veterans, a Taliban resurgence, huge setbacks for women, and greater power for Pakistan and Pakistani extremists. -- Richard Engel
And across Afghanistan, every single day, Afghan soldiers, Afghan police and ISAF troops are serving shoulder-to-shoulder in some very difficult situations. And our engagement with them, our shoulder-to-shoulder relationship with them, our conduct of operations with them every single day defines the real relationship. -- John R. Allen
We're probably going to see some post-2014 military presence - some U.S. presence and a NATO presence - and while we've got much work to do in the next 29 months, we'll have additional time later for the continued professionalization of the Afghan security forces. -- John R. Allen
It's going to be really interesting to see what the heroin market does in the next two years or so. One thing you can be pretty sure of. The Afghan peasants who grow poppies won't get rich. The money will end up in places like Dubai. -- Bruce Sterling
I was against the Iraq war I was against the Afghan war I was against bombing Libya and Syria but to be quite honest and with a heavy heart because more innocent people are gonna be killed.We have to step in and help wipeout ISIS! -- Cal Sarwar
Today the Iraqi and Afghan people are on the path to democracy and freedom. The governments that are rising will pose no threat to others. Instead of harboring terrorists, they're fighting terrorist groups. And this progress is good for the long-term security of all of us. -- George W. Bush
If the story had been about anyone else, it would been dismissed as laaf, that Afghan tendency to exaggerate ---sadly, almost a national affliction; if someone bragged that his son was a doctor, chances were the kid had once passed a biology test in high school. -- Khaled Hosseini
The United States supports the reintegration of people who have fought with the Taliban into Afghan society provided they: one, renounce al Qaeda, two, lay down their arms and renounce violence, and three, participate in the public political life of the country in accordance with the constitution. -- Richard Holbrooke
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
In Afghan society, parents play a central role in the lives of their children; the parent-child relationship is fundamental to who you are and what you become and how you perceive yourself, and it is laden with contradictions, with tension, with anger, with love, with loathing, with angst. -- Khaled Hosseini
My go-to gifts are scarves from my friend Matin Maulawizada's nonprofit organization, Afghan Hands, which supports disenfranchised women in Afghanistan. In exchange for their beautiful embroidery, the women are given financial aid and classes in math and literacy. The scarves are all stunning and one of a kind. -- Claire Danes
The Taliban's acts of cultural vandalism - the most infamous being the destruction of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas - had a devastating effect on Afghan culture and the artistic scene. The Taliban burned countless films, VCRs, music tapes, books, and paintings. They jailed filmmakers, musicians, painters, and sculptors. -- Khaled Hosseini
The reality is that [Barack] Obama has some 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together close to 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, some 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror. -- Donald Rumsfeld
Carolyn Maloney led the fight to make sure that DNA evidence kits are processed and passed the Debbie Smith Bill. She, when no one almost would listen to us on the whole issue of the Taliban and its treatment of women, she helped pass the Afghan Women's Empowerment Act. -- Eleanor Smeal
I mean, honestly, we have to be clear that the life for many Afghan women is not that much different than it was a hundred years ago, 200 years ago. The country has lived with so much violence and conflict that many people, men and women, just want it to be over. -- Hillary Clinton
I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now, when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change. -- Patti Smith
But the war on terror as I have repeatedly said in the past, and the Afghan people believe in it, in truth, is that the war on terror is not in the Afghan villages or homes. Its in the sanctuaries, it is in the training grounds, its in the motivation factors and the money that comes to it. -- Hamid Karzai
Come on," I said, taking his hand. Clutching the afghan with the other hand, he trailed down the hall after me, a snow white giant in tiny red underwear. -- Charlaine Harris

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