Former Senator Hank “Brown [R-CO] was one of the very few elected politicians in Washington to pay attention to Afghanistan during this period [the rise of the Taliban]. ‘I just get a lump in my throat every time I think about it, but Afghanistan really is the straw that broke the camel’s back in the Cold War,’ he recalled [during a February 5, 2003, interview]. ‘If there ever was a people in this world that we’re indebted to, it would be the people of Afghanistan. And for us to turn our backs on them, it was just criminal. Who’s done more to help us? It really is a disgrace what we did.’ ”
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 627