According to a CNN.com article on August 31, 2010: “At 5 p.m. ET [on August 31, 2010]–at a cost of more than 4,400 U.S. military personnel killed and 30,000 wounded–America’s combat mission in Iraq officially drew to a close.” – Alan Silverleib, “U.S. Combat Mission in Iraq Ends,” CNN, Sep. 1, 2010 […]
Category: quotes
8/31/2010
As American troops planned to pull out of Iraq on August 31, 2010, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki “marked the occasion…with a national address proclaiming his country ‘sovereign and independent.’ …’If these security achievements were not real, we would not have been able to move to executing the bigger and more important step, which is […]
8/27/2010
“Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, has criticised the US military’s plans to begin withdrawing troops from the country in July 2011. Mr Karzai said that announcing a date for the withdrawal had given the Taliban insurgency ‘a morale boost.’ He also said the war could not be won as long as the Taliban were able to […]
8/27/2010
“In an interview with the BBC, [Afghan President] Mr [Hamid] Karzai’s national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, said fighting the war on Afghan soil was not enough. ‘Even if we defeat the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups within Afghanistan, [if] we don’t destroy the recruitment centre and we don’t destroy the causes, it is […]
8/19/2010
On August 19, 2010, after embedding with troops in Afghanistan, journalist Bing West wrote a list of observations in a memo to General James Mattis, the head of Central Command. One note read: ” ‘Defeating an insurgency requires three tasks: 1) destroy the insurgent forces; 2) win over the people to the side of a […]
8/15/2010
“[A]s long ago as last August [2010], President Obama was told in an intelligence briefing that there was a possible lead that Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad [Pakistan]. It took eight months for U.S. and Pakistani agents to confirm for certain that the information was accurate.” [The 15th of the month […]
8/15/2010
Following Osama bin Laden’s assassination on May 2, 2011, “President Obama said he was first briefed that bin Laden had been traced last August [2010]. The crucial information was gleaned from a detainee who had been tortured at Guantanamo Bay.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – “Incredible Pictures Show […]
8/15/2010
“In August 2010, the courier [for bin Laden] unknowingly led authorities to a compound in the northeast Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where [senior al Qaeda member Abu Faraj] al-Libi had once lived. The walls surrounding the property were as high as 18 feet and topped with barbed wire. Intelligence officials had known about the house […]
7/27/2010
“A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation. The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of […]
7/25/2010
Following WikiLeaks’ publication of 77,000 classified military documents on the war in Afghanistan, National Security Advisor General James Jones made a statement from the White House on July 25, 2010. ” ‘The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners […]