Peter Bergen Quotes

We told the Taliban in no uncertain terms that if this happened, it’s their ass. No difference between the Taliban and al Qaeda now. They both go down.

A Taliban collapse could be rapid, with the enemy shrinking to a small number of hard-core Mullah Omar supporters in the early days or weeks of a military campaign.

I've dealt with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

The Taliban, broadly speaking, are Afghans - farmers, subsistence farmers. As I say, most of those people can't find the United States on the map. Al Qaeda, traditionally, are much more educated, middle-class people, often from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia, North Africa.

There's no question that the main location of Al Qaida is in tribal areas of Pakistan.

We don't want the Taliban to put down roots, or the al Qaeda to put down roots in Afghanistan that can facilitate Afghanistan becoming - once again - a launching pad for international terrorism.

Al Qaeda's vision of global jihad doesn't resonate in the rugged highlands and windswept deserts of southern Afghanistan. Instead, the major concern throughout much of the country is intensely local: personal safety.

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.

Head for jihad and have your guns ready.

The Taliban is resilient.

And the fact of the matter is there were thousands of people that went through those training camps in Afghanistan. We know they are seeking deadlier weapons - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons if they can get it.

There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda going back more or less a decade.

In any insurgency there will be people who are irreconcilable and who pose a clear and present threat to the U.S. and our allies.

There is a direct line relationship between what happened in Afghanistan in the work up to 11 September 2001 and what we're doing in Afghanistan today.

I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or surrender power. It's your choice.

Never short of guns and guerrillas, Afghanistan has proven fertile ground for a host of insurgent groups in addition to the Taliban.

We need to ask who is the enemy, and the enemies are terrorists.

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

Al Qaeda is alive and well in Libya, Iraq, Syria and the wars are not receding.

I never call it an insurgency. I call it terrorism.

We can't afford to see Afghanistan roll backwards into a failed state that could become a base from which terrorist campaigns can be launched anywhere in the world.

The campaign against terrorism is going to be global and it's going to be long and there's reason to expect there will be difficulties along the way.

Al Qaeda is on the run, partly because the United States is in Afghanistan, pushing on al Qaeda, and working internationally to cut off the flow of funds to al Qaeda. They are having a difficult time. They failed in this endeavor.

I think it is absolutely correct to solve the problem of terrorism in Iraq and Syria and Libya.