1/19/2002

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued an unclassified memo on his views of the war on terror to the senior Department of Defense staff on January 19, 2002. “…Rumsfeld’s memo barely mentioned Afghanistan. He simply pointed out that ‘because Afghanistan is *anti-foreigner,* the U.S. emphasized the truth, that the U.S. is not there to stay; rather, we are there to help fight terrorism, liberate the Afghan people from al-Qaeda and the Taliban, assure that it does not harbor terrorists in the future and assist with humanitarian assistance.’ “

 – Dov S. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, Page 128