“According to a threat assessment map provided by the Afghan National Security Forces to the United Nations in April 2009, 40 percent of Afghanistan was now either under direct Taliban control or a high-risk area for insurgent attacks. These high-risk and Taliban-controlled areas were located primarily in the troubled south and east of the country, along the fifteen-hundred-mile border with Pakistan. As a former senior Afghan cabinet member explained, ‘If international forces leave, the Taliban will take over in one hour.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 310