In testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 8, 2004, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said, regarding the Bush Administration’s approach to combating terrorism: ” ‘The problem was you didn’t have an approach against Al Qaeda because you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan, and you didn’t have an approach against Afghanistan because you didn’t have an approach against Pakistan… And until we could get that right, we didn’t have a policy.’ ”
– Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Page 143