“Until April 2002, [President] Bush was firmly committed to ‘no nation building’ in Afghanistan. Then, on April 17 [2002], in a speech given at the Virginia Military Institute…Bush surprised everyone by calling for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Afghanistan, referring to the plan the United States provided Europe after World War II. Bush promised to rebuild the government and the army and provide health and education services. He called Marshall’s work ‘a beacon to light the path that we, too, must follow.’ ”
– Ahmed Rashid, Descent Into Chaos, Page 137