Joseph R. Biden Jr. Quotes

The Pakistani Government at the time and for most of the history of that nation did not have much control over the military, and regardless of what agreements the civilian government might have made, the military did not wanted to curry favor with as many Islamic radical terrorist groups as possible even though they even killed Muslims of Pakistan. They would not send the military into Northern Pakistan (Waziristan) to eliminate the Taliban sanctuaries or offend their tribal "hosts" as they were so paranoid about India that they wanted the terrorists as allies.

The military attack on the Taliban was a great success and the regime was ousted very rapidly. Once the regime was displaced, however, the military was faced with an extremely decentralized country with sporadic resistance from Taliban sympathizers and with the tough task of rebuilding the dilapidated country.

What was remarkable was that all the Defense Department and military witnesses agreed with Lynch on this point.

The government of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was totally corrupt and preyed on the Afghan people. See {629318}. The United States had committed to the turnover at the end of 2013 the responsibility for maintaining the security of Afghanistan to the Afghan military and police forces who were being trained by the Americans.

The President, on the Memorial Day weekend, made a secret, surprise visit to the war zone in Afghanistan. This quotation got the largest round of cheers and applause of his entire speech.

The Pakistani Intelligence Service and the Pakistan Army were never under the control of the civilian government which wanted an alliance with the United States in the War on Terror. However, the Pakistani military and especially their intelligence service (ISI) wanted the support of Al Qaeda and the Muslim religious extremists in Pakistan in their endless crusade against India. The Afghanistan Taliban could not sustain their attacks if they were not given sanctuary, weapons, and supplies over the border in Pakistan, This was arranged and given the go ahead by the ISI. Holbrooke, with American responsibility for BOTH Afghanistan and Pakistan speculated that the war in Afghanistan would end if we attacked the Pakistani ISI and blocked their supply and sanctuary activities, hence the quotation. “The Wrong Enemy” was taken from this quote by Carlotta Gall in her book in the role of Pakistan in the Afghanistan War.

The Taliban terrorists would try and kill, kidnap and hold people for ransom following a Muslim tradition dating back to the Barbary Pirates. While there is always pressure to negotiate to alleviate the immediate situation, the negotiation is in and of itself, a reward for the terrorism. Hence the general’s rigid view.

He was referring to the United States fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan to keep Al Qaeda from attacking the United States easily.

The initial great military success in Afghanistan was in great part the result of the military focus of the mission. Later there were other objectives added as a part of nation building and these proved very difficult—especially the elimination of corruption.

In 9 days they had forged alliances with tribal leaders

He does not completely blame the United States or the West but places a large part of the blame on the corrupt Pakistani governemnt and military which would not curtail the growing Jhadi menace becasue they wanted to use them as a weapn against India, which gained independence at that same time but has been much more successful and democratic.