“The United States invaded in the weeks after 9/11, at the behest of George W. Bush, to dismantle and destroy the Al Qaeda terrorist group who’d attacked us. We sought something between justice and vengeance. Once Al Qaeda and its Taliban enablers had been defeated, the original mission accomplished, we stayed. Once Osama bin Laden […]
Category: quotes
9/11/2021
“The FBI on Saturday [9/11/2021] released the first document related to the 9/11 attacks since President Biden ordered the declassification of more records last week, unveiling a memo detailing ‘significant logistic support’ that two of the Saudi hijackers received in the U.S. The document, which is heavily redacted, comes from the secret FBI investigation into […]
9/7/2021
“As an act of terrorism, 9/11 was a resounding success. The U.S. responded by decimating al-Qaida, but the organization survived in a weakened form. The Syrian civil war and the weakness of the Iraqi state provided new opportunities. Three offshoots of al-Qaida — al-Qaida in Iraq, the Islamic State group (ISIS), and Jabhat al-Nusra — […]
9/7/2021
“The Bush administration’s decision to respond militarily to 9/11 and to destroy al-Qaida and its Taliban host was justified and successful. But the decision to stay in Afghanistan and to try to build a functioning local government was America’s first major mistake in formulating its post-9/11 policy. … The second and greater error was the […]
9/3/2021
“President Joe Biden on Friday [9/3/2021] directed the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a supportive gesture to victims’ families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government. The order, coming little more than a week before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is […]
9/2/2021
“A British national admitted Thursday evening [9/2/2021] in a federal courtroom near the nation’s capital that he played a leadership role in an Islamic State scheme to torture, hold for ransom and eventually behead American hostages. Alexanda Anon Kotey, 37, pleaded guilty to all eight counts against him at a plea hearing in U.S. District […]
8/31/2021
“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I’m the fourth President who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for President, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. And today, I’ve honored that commitment. It was […]
8/31/2021
“We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war. This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan. We face threats from al-Shabaab in Somalia; al Qaeda affiliates in […]
8/31/2021
“My predecessor, the former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove U.S. troops by May the 1st [2021], just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the Afghan government, but it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including […]
8/31/2021
“Last night [8/30/2021] in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history. … In April, I made the decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more […]