In an interview with author Stephen Hayes on August 15, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recalled Vice President Dick Cheney's views for responding to 9/11 at the war council meeting on September 15, 2001. " 'He was very firm that we had something to get done, which was Afghanistan,' recalls Rice, 'and that any move in any other direction was not–you know, we had to get the country ready for a potential of another attack and we had to win in Afghanistan and that was enough.' Cheney thought the United States' response had to be overwhelming, and that the targets must include the Taliban, the radical Islamic regime that had harbored Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for more than five years. Any realistic plan had to involve American boots on the ground in Afghanistan."
– Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, 352